Lydia Ko of New Zealand watches her shot from the third tee during the third round of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club on June 25, 2022 in Bethesda, Maryland. (AFP/Elsa/Getty Images)
M
ajor winners Lydia Ko and Kim Hyo-joo will be the star attractions when women's professional tour golf returns to Indonesia for the first time in a decade next month.
World number five Ko of New Zealand and South Korea's eighth-ranked Kim will head a 40-player field for the inaugural Simone Asia Pacific Cup, the first event in the country since the 2012 Indonesia Ladies Open.
They will compete over 54 holes of stroke play from August 18-20 for a total of $500,000 in individual prize money at the Pondok Indah Golf Course, Jakarta, the Ladies Asian Tour announced.
Their scores will also count towards a team event, where an additional $250,000 purse is up for grabs for 20 two-player teams formed from 15 golf associations across the Asia-Pacific region.
Other leading players taking part include six-time winner on the LPGA Tour Ryo So-yeon of South Korea, 21-time Japan LPGA Tour winner Lee Bo-mee and up-and-coming Yealimi Noh of the United States, who placed third at the Evian Championship in France last year.
Hong Kong's sole representative on the LPGA Tour, double Olympian Tiffany Chan, has also signed up.
The Asia Pacific Cup is part of the ambitious new money-spinning Ladies Asian Tour Series of tournaments that began last month and will include events in South Korea in September and Singapore in December.
The circuit aims to expand to seven tournaments in Asia in 2023 and 10 for the 2024 season.
