"After changing my driver shaft, my distance grew and I hit more fairways. Being able to play my second shots more comfortably let me create a lot of birdie chances." So said Moon Ji-young, 43, who savored the first victory of her career at a Korea Ladies Professional Golf (KLPGA) Champions Tour event held on the 25th at The Crosby GC (par 72) in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. It was her first win across every tour — the regular tour, the Dream (second-tier) tour and the Champions Tour.
Moon carded a 9-under 63 in the second round of the seventh Champions Tour event of the season, the Honors Golf tournament (total purse 120 million won, winner's share 18 million won), rattling off nine birdies with no bogeys. Added to her even-par opening round, that brought her to 9-under for the tournament, edging sole runner-up Bae Kyung-eun by one stroke for the win.
The victory lifted Moon from third to first on the prize-money ranking, at about 46.4 million won. Bae stands second with 38.51 million won.
"I still can hardly believe I actually won — it feels surreal and dazed — but seeing so many people congratulate me, it's slowly sinking in," Moon said. "The road to a first win was really hard, but now that I've done it once, I've gained the confidence that I can do it again. I'm truly happy and glad."
Moon debuted as a rookie on the regular tour in the 2007 season, tying for ninth at the inaugural KLPGA Interbulgo Masters, but disappointing results cost her regular-tour playing rights, and she competed on the Dream tour from the 2008 through 2011 seasons. She then taught golf lessons before setting the game aside in 2018 to focus on raising her children. Moon picked up her clubs again in the 2024 season and has been playing on the Champions Tour since.
"I wanted good results from early in the season this year, so I trained in Thailand for about two months," Moon said. "I worked harder than ever — improving the accuracy of my iron shots, which I'd felt was lacking, and putting a lot of time into my putting — and I'm truly glad to finally get a win today."
She said that switching her driver shaft ahead of this season was a masterstroke. "After changing to the (Dumina) Autoflex shaft, my distance grew and I hit more fairways, so I could play my second shots much more comfortably. That's why I was able to create so many birdie chances on the final day," Moon said. "I'm grateful to Autoflex chairman Park Gun-yul and CEO Jung Du-na, who always help me and support me with shafts, to the staff at Caviar who sponsor my grips, and to Titleist CEO Choi In-yong. I also thank my family, who are always a solid source of strength, and above all I want to say thank you most of all to my husband and children, who are always by my side cheering me on and supporting me."
