Seo Yoseop vs Lee Jae Kyung meet in first round of Descent Matchplay Qualifier
The Korea Professional Golf Association (KPGA) Korean Tour’s only match play, the Desant Korea Match Play (800 million won gross prize fund – 160 million won winner’s share), is about to get a whole lot more interesting.
Taking place over four days from 1 June at the Kingsdale GC Lake-Hill Course (Par 72-7323) in Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do, this year’s tournament will feature a new format with the group winners advancing to the round of 16.
The previous format, which had 64 players in the round of 32, with 16 players playing one to three group matches, followed by a final ranking match based on best-of-three and hole-by-hole scores, was criticised for not capturing the essence of match play.
Firstly, the 64 players will be grouped into 16 groups of four players per group. The group stage will then be based on a points system. Two points are awarded for a win and one point for a draw, with the player with the most points topping the group and advancing to the round of 16. In the event of a tie at the top of the standings, a sudden death overtime will be played.
From there, the round of 16 to the final is a one-on-one match-play tournament. Instead, players who are eliminated in the quarter-finals will play a ranked match for places 5-8.토토사이트
The organisers first allocated the 64 players into five seeding groups. Group A is the 2022 KPGA Korean Tour winners (15 players), Group B is the 2023 KPGA Korean Tour winners (3 players), Group C is the 2022 Genesis Points leaders (13 players), Group D is the recommended players (1 player), and Group E is the round of 64 qualifiers (32 players).
The top seeds will be allocated in the order of Group A, B, C, D and E. Seeds 1 to 15 are in Group A, 16 to 18 are in Group B, 19 to 31 are in Group C, 32 are in Group D, and 33 to 64 are in Group E. The top seeds will be allocated in order.
Last year’s Genesis Point leader Kim Young-soo (34-Dongmun Construction) was seeded first in Group A, but withdrew, so last year’s Genesis Point runner-up Seo Yoseop (27-DB Insurance) was seeded first.
In the first round of qualifying, Seo will take on rising star Lee Jae-kyung (24-CJ) from the D-seeded group, who was invited by the organisers. Seo is the winner of the 2019 event, while Lee missed the cut in three events after the season opener, but has since posted back-to-back top-10 finishes in four events.
Last year’s winner, Park Eun-shin (33-Hana Financial Group), will also be looking to make it two in a row for the first time. Lee Hyung-joon (31-Wellcome Savings Bank), the only two-time winner of the event (2015, 2019), will be looking for his first three victories.
Jo Woo-young (22-Woori Financial Group), who won the Golf Zone Open as an amateur, and Chung Chan-min (24-CJ), the GS Caltex Mae Kyung Open champion, are not participating. Genesis points leader Kim Dong-min (25-NH Nonghyup Bank), who won the KB Financial Livechampionship on the 28th, will be in the hunt for a second straight week.