16 women in the world, 5 in Korea, the most ··· Kim Hyo-joo · Choi Hye-jin candidates for the ’17th Queen’ 

In the women’s golf world rankings first announced in February 2006, there are 16 players who have had the experience of reaching the top at least once. Among them, a total of five players disappeared from the rankings because they retired or did not appear in the tournament for more than a year. Annika Sorenstam (Sweden), Lorena Ochoa (Mexico), Yani Teng (Taiwan), Shan Shan Feng (China), and Ai Miyazato (Japan) currently have no world rankings.

Zeng Yani competed in nine events in 2021, missed cuts eight times and was disqualified once, earning no prize money and not appearing on tour at all this year. Fengshanshan also only has results until 2021, and did not participate in the tournament this year. Ai Miyazato only had results until the 2017 season.

By country, the country that produced the world’s No. 1 players the most was Korea, and five of them rose to the position of golf queens. The United States has three players, Thailand has two, and Taiwan, New Zealand, China, Japan, Mexico, and Sweden each have one each.

Currently, there are 11 players who are active on the LPGA stage or on other tours. Among the former world No. 1 players, the current lowest-ranked player is 45-year-old Christy Kerr (USA), who is currently ranked 380th. He played 12 tournaments this year, most of which were cut off, but he also showed off his old age by finishing in a tie for 12th at the Meyer LPGA Classic.

The player with the lowest ranking after Kerr is Park Seong-hyun, who is not getting out of the slump. He was once pushed out of the 200th place, but now he has risen slightly to the 197th place.

Along with Kerr and Park Sung-hyun, there is Stacey Lewis (USA) as a player outside the top 100. He has posted three top 10 records this year, but is currently ranked 129th.

There are 3 people between 50th and 100th. Shin Ji-ae is ranked 65th, Eriya Jutanugarn (Thailand) is 73rd, and Ryu So-yeon is 75th. 토토

Park In-bi, who recently announced her pregnancy through Instagram, also rose to fourth place this year, but has been pushed back to 32nd place as she has not participated in the tournament since August. It is the first time in 10 years and 7 months since April 2012 that Inbi Park has been pushed out of the 30th place in the world rankings. Since she is due to give birth in April next year, she is unlikely to be able to participate in competitions for a while, so her ranking is expected to continue to decline.

Currently, among the top 5 players in the world rankings, Lee Min-ji is the only player who has never reached the top spot. Current world ranking No. 1 Lydia Ko (New Zealand), No. 2 Nellie Koda (USA), No. 3 Ataya Titikkun (Thailand), and No. 5 Ko Jin-young all have experience of becoming golf queens. For the time being, it is expected that the battle for the world ranking will continue among them.

However, after about mid-2023, a new 17th golf queen may be born. Minji Lee (4th), Brook Henderson (Canada) (6th), Lexi Thompson (USA) (7th), Inji Jeon (8th), Hyoju Kim (9th) and Nasa Hataoka (Japan) (10th) are all in the world’s top 10. You could call her a queen candidate.

Personally, I think Park Min-ji, Choi Hye-jin, and Yoo Hae-ran of the Republic of Korea are worthy candidates for the 17th golf queen. Park Min-ji, who is currently ranked 14th in the world with only 12 wins in domestic competitions over the past two years, plans to compete in all major tournaments next year and seek to advance to the LPGA. Choi Hye-jin, who is entering her second year on the LPGA, also rose from 56th at the beginning of this year to 20th now. Yu Ran Yu, who passed the top ranking in the LPGA Qualifying Series, is currently ranked 50th, but when the full-fledged LPGA season begins, the ranking rises by leaps and bounds.