Promising Korean female golfer Kim Soo-bin joins LPGA

Rookies are increasingly playing at the U.S. LPGA tour this season. U.S. college No. 1 ranking Kim Soo-bin is one of them. The 21-year-old passed in joint 11th the LPGA Tour Qualifying School last year to grab ticket to play in all games this season. She is a promising player at the "big League."

Kim`s best performance of this season is joint 45th ranking at the Founders Cup. She says she is fast adapting to the tour life, hoping for good performance. "I will play like coming up the stairs one by one. There are many outstanding fellows but I want to win the rookie award," Kim said. "I want to become a player who can instill dream and inspiration to people."

Born in Donghae City, Gangwon Province, Kim went to Canada to study when she was in fourth grade. There she started golf and grabbed No. 1 rankings in major junior competitions when she was in junior high and high school. As a senior at high school, she got a love call from several colleges including Harvard, but she chose the University of Washington in Seattle, which is close to her home and offered a full scholarship. An outstanding golfer in college, Kim began receiving systemic management by a management firm GSM.

On Korean golfers` strong performance, Kim said, "Korean players are accurate in swings as if they`re robots. I also want to be like that. Among seniors, Jang Ha-na cares for me a lot." Kim says she tries more than 1,000 shots every day. "Players who came from the Korean professional golf tour are really performing well here. I want to play in a competition in Korea someday and experience it in person," she said. Kim will leave for Korea on Friday to play at the Lotte Championships in LPGA tour.

kjs0123@donga.com