More Giant Leaps for Korean Teenager

Singapore: It’s not taken long for Yang Yun-seo to start reaping the rewards of her emphatic, wire-to-wire triumph in last week’s Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP).

Sprinting clear of her rivals, the 18-year-old raced to a record-equalling eight-shot success at Royal Wellington, becoming the first Korean to win the region’s pre-eminent women’s amateur championship.

With her victory, Yang has secured exemptions into three of the LPGA Tour’s five Major championships this season – the AIG Women’s Open in England, The Amundi Evian Championship in France and The Chevron Championship in America. 

She’s also risen to a career-high 32nd in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) as well as earning her first point on the LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway (LEAP). That puts her 19 points away from the 20-point threshold required to be eligible for LPGA Tour Membership, per LEAP criteria.

Yang’s win in New Zealand was her fourth successive victory in WAGR-counting events and enabled her to progress 12 positions in the standings. She’s now the third highest ranked Korean behind only Oh Soo-min and Park Seo-jin.

Oh has gone up two spots to ninth after finishing runner-up in the WAAP for the second year in a row. Park, who placed sixth at Royal Wellington, has advanced three places to 31st.

Thanks to her equal third finish, alongside Australian Jazy Roberts, Rianne Malixi of the Philippines has returned to the WAGR top-20, up four notches to 18th. Roberts also enjoyed a four-position rise to 44th.

With her fifth-place finish, Yurina Hiroyoshi cemented her position as the leading Japanese in the rankings, up two to 17th.

There were also upward moves for 2025 WAAP champion Jeneath Wong of Malaysia (up three to 93rd), Koreans Park Seo Jin (up seven to 104th) and Hong Su-min (up 10 to 112th), Singapore’s Chen Xingtong (up 11 to 152nd), Australian Grace Rho (up 10 to 188th) and Chinese Taipei’s Lin Jie-en (up 28 to 210th).