Hee-kyung Seo

Hee-kyung Seo
Hangul	서희경
Revised Romanization	Seo Hui-Kyeong
McCune–Reischauer	Sŏ Hŭi-gyŏng

Hee-kyung Seo
서희경
Hee-kyung Seo; 서희경
	Seo at the 2010 Women's British Open
Personal information
Full name	Hee-Kyung Seo
Nickname	Supermodel of the Fairways
Born	8 July 1986 (age 35); Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Sporting nationality	South Korea
Residence	Orlando, Florida, U.S.
Spouse	Jung-hyun Kook
Career
Turned professional	2006
Retired	2015
Current tour(s)	LPGA Tour (joined 2011); LPGA of Korea (joined 2006)
Professional wins	12
Number of wins by tour
LPGA Tour	1
Ladies European Tour	1
LPGA of Korea Tour	11
Best results in LPGA major championships;
ANA Inspiration	T4: 2012
Women's PGA C'ship	T34: 2011
U.S. Women's Open	2nd: 2011
Women's British Open	T5: 2010
Evian Championship	T64: 2013
Achievements and awards
LPGA of Korea Tour; leading money winner
LPGA of Korea Tour; leading money winner	2009
LPGA Tour; Rookie of the Year	2011

Hee-kyung Seo (Korean: 서희경, born 8 July 1986), also known as Seo Hee-kyung, is a former South Korean female professional golfer playing on the LPGA Tour and on LPGA of Korea Tour. She won the LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year award in 2011.

After winning three LPGA of Korea Tour major championships in 2009, Seo notched her first LPGA Tour triumph at the 2010 Kia Classic where she finished six shots ahead of Inbee Park.^[1]

Seo had a close call in the 2011 U.S. Women's Open when she led by two shots with two holes to play, but she missed a 4 footer for par on the 71st hole, while So Yeon Ryu birdied the 72nd hole, resulting in a playoff, which Ryu went on to win.

Seo also came close at the 2012 Kraft Nabisco Championship, where she led by three strokes at one point, but bogeys on the last four holes would result in her finishing two strokes back of winner Sun Young Yoo.

On 30 November 2013, she married Junghoon Philip Kook (born 1979), an executive officer at DWS Asset Management based in Seoul, and gave a birth to their first son, Dohyun Philip Kook on 15 August 2014, on the Independence Day of Korea. Since then, they had two more sons, Dohoon Francis (born 2016) and Doheon Michael (born 2018). Seo officially retired from professional golf in November 2015 to spend more time with her family.^[2]

Professional wins[]

LPGA Tour (1)[]

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	28 Mar 2010	Kia Classic	−12 (70-67-69-70=276)	6 strokes	Inbee Park

LPGA Tour playoff record (0–4)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	2011	U.S. Women's Open	So Yeon Ryu	Lost three hole aggregate playoff: Ryu: 3-4-3=10 (−2), Seo: 3-6-4=13 (+1)
2	2012	Women's Australian Open	Julieta Granada Jessica Korda Stacy Lewis Brittany Lincicome So Yeon Ryu	Korda won with birdie on second extra hole
3	2012	Manulife Financial LPGA Classic	Chella Choi Brittany Lang Inbee Park	Lang won with birdie on third extra hole Park eliminated by birdie on second hole Choi eliminated by birdie on first hole
4	2013	LPGA KEB-HanaBank Championship	Amy Yang	Lost to birdie on first extra hole

KLPGA Tour (11)[]

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	30 Aug 2008		−8 (68-68-72=208)	2 strokes	Inbee Park
2	7 Sep 2008		−7 (68-69-72=207)	1 stroke	Ha-Neul Kim
3	13 Sep 2008		−9 (70-66-71=207)	5 strokes
4	12 Oct 2008		−11 (70-69-69=208)	3 strokes	Ha-Neul Kim
5	16 Nov 2008	Saint Four Ladies Masters in Jeju^	−14 (69-67-66=202)	2 strokes	Sun Ju Ahn
6	23 Nov 2008		−2 (78-72-64=214)	3 strokes
7	17 Apr 2009		−6 (71-72-67=210)	1 stroke	Sun Ju Ahn, Ilhee Lee
8	3 May 2009	Taeyoung Cup Korea Women's Open	−9 (70-71-66=207)	1 stroke
9	18 Oct 2009		−9 (72-71-68-68=279)	5 strokes	Na Yeon Choi
10	25 Oct 2009		−16 (69-66-68-69=272)	1 stroke	Jang Ha-na (amateur)
11	22 Nov 2009		−6 (73-71-66=210)	3 strokes

Tournaments in bold denotes major championships on KLPGA Tour.
^ Co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour

Results in LPGA majors[]

Results not in chronological order before 2015.

Tournament	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
ANA Inspiration		T21	T33	T4	T13	CUT
Women's PGA Championship			T34	CUT	CUT		T41
U.S. Women's Open	T48	T62	2	T18	T25
Women's British Open		T5	T22	T26	T25
The Evian Championship ^					T64

Top 10

Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut
T = tied

Summary[]

Tournament	2nd	Top-5	Top-10	Top-25	Events	Cuts made
ANA Inspiration	0	1	1	3	5	4
Women's PGA Championship	0	0	0	0	4	2
U.S. Women's Open	1	1	1	3	5	5
Women's British Open	0	1	1	3	4	4
The Evian Championship	0	0	0	0	1	1
Totals	1	3	3	9	19	16

Most consecutive cuts made – 9 (2009 U.S. Open – 2012 Kraft Nabisco)
Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (three times)

LPGA Tour career summary[]

Year	Tournaments played	Cuts made	Wins	2nd	Top 10s	Best finish	Earnings ($)	Money list rank	Scoring average	Scoring rank
2006	1	1	0	0	0	16	17,680	n/a	72.00	n/a
2008	1	1	0	0	0	17	19,920	n/a	72.00	n/a
2009	5	4	0	0	0	15	73,659	n/a	73.31	n/a
2010^[3]	6	6	1	0	2	1	369,089	n/a	72.96	n/a
2011	21	18	0	1	3	2	619,429	21	71.78	21
2012	25	21	0	2	8	T2	600,403	22	71.57	25
2013	22	18	0	1	3	2	446,373	33	71.74	38
2014	7	4	0	0	0	T29	30,315	128	73.43	n/a
2015	7	5	0	0	0	T41	34,050	123	73.64	n/a

Seo was not a member of the LPGA Tour prior to 2011. Earnings and records for those years are not official.
official as of the 2015 season^[4]

References[]

^ Seo Hee-kyung Coasts to Kia Classic Title
^ "2011 LPGA Rookie of the Year retires". The Korea Times. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
^ "Hee Kyung Seo 2010 Record". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
^ "Hee Kyung Seo Stats". LPGA. Retrieved 25 November 2015.

External links[]

Hee-kyung Seo at the LPGA Tour official site
Biography on seoulsisters.com
Hee-Kyung Seo bio and pictures

[1] Seo Hee-kyung Coasts to Kia Classic Title

[2] "2011 LPGA Rookie of the Year retires". The Korea Times. Retrieved 2 April 2017.

[2010stats-3] "Hee Kyung Seo 2010 Record". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved 17 November 2011.

[4] "Hee Kyung Seo Stats". LPGA. Retrieved 25 November 2015.

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