Park Sang-hyun, a 42-year-old golfer who holds the record for the highest career earnings on the KPGA Tour, has secured a victory in the 2025 season finale. This win marks another milestone in his impressive career.
The final round of the KPGA Tour Championship took place at Jeju Teddy Valley Golf & Resort, a course with a par 72 and total length of 7,259 yards. The event offered a prize pool of 1.1 billion Korean won. Park started the final round tied for fourth, two strokes behind the leaders. He managed to improve his score by one stroke through five birdies and four bogeys, finishing with a total of 11-under-par 277. This was enough to narrowly defeat runner-up Lee Tae-hee by a single stroke.
A crucial moment came on the par-3 17th hole when Park made a bogey, allowing Lee to tie for the lead. Entering the final hole, Park sank a 4.6-meter birdie putt on the par-4 18th to clinch the victory. Lee, on the other hand, settled for a par. This win marked Park’s second of the season and his 14th on the KPGA Tour. He also earned 220 million Korean won in prize money and has previously won twice on the Japan Tour.
Park has now secured three of his 14 KPGA Tour victories after turning 40. Achieving two wins in a single season while in his 40s is a rare feat, as it hasn’t happened in 20 years since Choi Kwang-soo and Kim Jong-deok in 2005.
“I felt confident I could win because I’ve had more experience playing in strong winds,” Park said. “On the final 18th hole, I aimed to just tap the putt in to force a playoff, but it went in. My wife told me last Wednesday, ‘I had a dream about poop, and the more I tried to contain it, the more it wouldn’t stay. It seems like a good dream—why don’t you buy it?’ So I bought the dream for 1,000 won. Since then, I’ve had good results from the first day of the tournament and thought I might win if I played well.”
With this victory, Park increased his career earnings on the KPGA Tour to 5.89372 billion Korean won. He expressed his intention to continue competing on the KPGA Tour until he moves to the senior tour. “Rather than planning how long to play, I want to keep competing for wins against younger players and continue touring,” he stated.
Ok Tae-hoon, a 27-year-old golfer, finished tied for 29th in this event with a score of 1-under-par. Despite not winning, Ok achieved remarkable success this season by securing four titles: the Genesis Award, the money title (1.077274161 billion Korean won), the lowest stroke average award (Deokchun Award, 69.5797), and the most top-10 finishes (10 times). As a result, Ok will receive a 200 million Korean won Genesis Award bonus, entry into the Genesis Scottish Open co-hosted by the PGA and DP World Tours, direct qualification to the PGA Tour Q-School final, and a one-year DP World Tour entry.
“First, I plan to participate in the PGA Tour Q-School final. Since it’s my first time in the U.S., I’ll arrive about ten days early to adjust,” Ok said. “I definitely plan to challenge the DP World Tour. Without proper training, I might not perform well, so I aim to start competing from the March tournaments next year.”
