Korean Tour


The Korean Tour is a men's professional golf tour run by the Korea Professional Golfers' Association of South Korea. In 2011, it had total prize money of about US$14 million.
Professional golf in Korea dates back to the mid 20th century. The Korean Professional Golf Championship and the Korean Open were launched in 1958 and the KPGA was founded in 1963. Various other tournaments were created over the following decades.
The KPGA's tours serve as feeders for richer tours around the world. Substantial numbers of Korean golfers have played on the Asian Tour and the Japan Golf Tour, and a few have made it onto the PGA Tour or the European Tour. Notable examples include Yang Yong-eun, who was the first Korean to win a men's major golf championship, and K. J. Choi, the first Korean-born PGA Tour winner, who has eight PGA Tour wins including the 2011 Players Championship.

Main tour

In 2011, there were 17 events on the main tour. All these tournament have prize funds of at least 300 million won. Four have prize funds of 1 billion won while the Ballantine's Championship has a prize fund of 2.2 million euros. Total prize money for the tour is approximately 12 billion won.
Until 2011, regular Korean Tour events did not carry Official World Golf Ranking points. The first regular tournament to carry World Rankings Points was the 2011 Twayair Open. Korean Tour events carry a minimum of nine OWGR points for the winner, increased from six in 2016.

Order of Merit winners

The Order of Merit uses a points system, currently called Genesis Points.
The KPGA launched a developmental tour in 1999. In 2007 there are two developmental tours. Both of them consist of two-day, 36-hole tournaments, and the dates of the tours do not clash. The Bear River Tour consists of ten tournaments with prize funds of 60 million won each, and the SBS Golf Calloway Tour has eight tournaments with prize funds of 40 million won each.
The KPGA also runs a senior tour and a series of events for teaching pros. The Korean Senior Open Golf Championship was launched in 1996.
Women's professional golf has a high profile in South Korea, due to the immense international success of Korean women golfers such as Se Ri Pak since the mid-1990s. There is a separate LPGA of Korea Tour for women.