Once dominant, Yoon Ina looks to rebound from first-year struggles on LPGA Tour
Yoon Ina arrived on the LPGA Tour riding the kind of momentum that felt like it could take over the league.
Instead, after dominating the KLPGA and drawing more attention than any Korean golfer since legend Pak Se-ri, Yoon spent her rookie season in the United States adjusting to a different reality: long weeks, heavier pressure and a game that kept slipping away when she needed it most.
The 22-year-old returns to Korea this weekend after a first year on the LPGA Tour that had almost nothing in common with the career she left behind. Last season’s run — a sweep of the money title, Player of the Year points and scoring average — turned every KLPGA tournament into a weekly saga, complete with a sharply divided fan base and nonstop scrutiny.
Even as controversy swirled over a penalty reduction after a scorecard infraction, Yoon kept winning and climbed to the top of the Korean tour, which only intensified the spotlight that followed her to the United States. Routine items like tee-time announcements often became some of the most read golf stories when she appeared in them.
The JoongAng Ilbo explains why Yoon’s first LPGA season never matched the hype, and where her game has still held firm.
Once she joined the LGPA Tour, Yoon worked relentlessly. She played 26 events, the third-highest total on tour. At both the U.S. Women’s Open and the Women’s PGA Championship — events both covered by this reporter — she stayed on the practice green longer than anyone else. The commitment never wavered, but the payoffs did.
She did not win, and she only cracked the top 10 once, at a late-season Asian Swing event in Japan against a comparatively weaker field. Even then, she shared tenth place with 10 other players.
She finished the year 60th on the money list and 63rd in the CME points standings, missing out on the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, which admits only the top 60.
Bad luck played a role, as did mental strain and focus. Yoon publicly set her sights on Rookie of the Year, but this season’s rookie class from Japan proved unusually strong: First-year Miyu Yamashita even pushed herself into the Player of the Year conversation. As Japanese rookies kept winning early in the season, Yoon seemed to lose her footing. The unexpected pressure of the Rookie of the Year race likely weighed her down.
By midseason, she appeared to lower her goals to pursuing top 10 finishes, but even those came hard. She repeatedly slipped backward near the top-ten line, creating a new layer of stress. At one point, she even dipped toward the edge of losing her full playing status.
Her biggest issue seemed to be psychological. She showed a clear pattern of declining scores as rounds progressed. Her putting numbers rose sharply in the final rounds and her scoring average did too. As the pressure mounted, the putter faltered and everything else followed.
Her short game around the green ranked among the tour’s worst. She posted — 0.32 strokes gained in the short-game category (130th) and — 0.53 in putting (136th). Few players contend when even one of those numbers dips that low. Yoon struggled in both. She is not known as a poor short-game player, which again points toward mental weight rather than technical deficiency.
Too much change at once?
Yoon changed almost everything when she jumped to the LPGA. She switched coaches, caddies, equipment and even parted ways with the sponsor that supported her through difficult stretches. Adjusting to the tour was already hard, and the extra churn added to the burden. Some in the golf world also suggested she had “too many voices” around her. She even tried working with Colin Cann, the former caddie for Pak, but the partnership ended quickly.
Still, there were positives. Her long game remained elite. She ranked seventh in strokes gained off the tee (+0.69) and 21st in approach play (+0.59). Maintaining that level while dealing with mental strain underscored her underlying talent. She also found companionship on tour. At the Dow Championship, a two-player team event, she paired with Park Sung-hyun and formed a genuine friendship despite the age gap.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY SUNG HO-JUN [kim.juyeon2@joongang .co.kr]