Shin Ji-ae (35) spent the same season as Altoran, earning a total of more than 3.5 billion won in prize money on the Japan Ladies Professional Golf Association (JLPGA) Tour and the U.S. Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour this year.
Shin finished all of the 2023 season by ranking fourth in the Tour Championship Rico Cup, which ended at Miyazaki Country Club in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan on the 26th. She failed to lift the trophy in the final match, but at the age of 35, she ranked third in the season’s prize money ranking and second in the grand prize, demonstrating her presence as an “eternal golf queen.” 안전놀이터
Shin, who participated in a total of 22 competitions in this season’s JLPGA tour, won 163,568,277 yen (about 1.43 billion won), earning an average of 7,434,921 yen (about 65.17 million won) per competition. This is much higher than the average prize money of 6,673,569 yen recorded by Japan’s Miyu Yamashita, who won the prize money by winning five games. Miyu won 213,554,215 yen in 32 competitions this season.
Shin’s accumulation of prize money accelerated from the beginning of the season. She won the Daikin Orchid Ladies, the opening game in March, and won 21.6 million yen (21,500 U.S. dollars). Since then, she has seen some ups and downs in six competitions, including missed cuts, joint third place, joint second place, and missed cuts, but she has won more than 40 million yen (32,500 dollars) in prize money in less than two months.
She has stabilized since mid-season. Since she became the runner-up at the World Ladies Salonpas Cup in May, she has passed the cut for 12 consecutive events, surpassing 100 million yen in prize money. Shin, who failed to make the cut at the Hisako Higuchi Mitsubishi Ladies in October, earned more than 20 million yen in prize money by tying for fourth at the Totoro Japan Classic, tying for 36th at the Dioji Ladies, and tying for fourth at the Ricoh Cup in the final game of the season. What is noteworthy is that she ranked in the top 20 or higher in all competitions except for only two, and ranked in the top 10 in 14 of them.
Shin, who also participated in this year’s LPGA Tour tournament several times, has earned more prize money than in the JLPGA Tour.
Shin Ji-ae, who participated in four LPGA Tour tournaments except for the Toto Japan Classic, which was co-organized with the JLPGA Tour, won 969,231 dollars (about 1.266 billion won) as the runner-up in the U.S. Women’s Open and 600,106 dollars (about 784 million won) as the third-place winner of the AIG Women’s Open. She also won 1,654,645 dollars (about 2.161 billion won) from the LPGA Tour alone, including the 5th-place winner of the BMW Ladies Championship (66,691 dollars) and the 54th-place winner of the Amundi Evian Championship (18,607 dollars). Including the 92,443 dollars in the 4th-place winner of the Toto Japan Classic, which was co-organized with the JLPGA Tour, she won more than 1.74 million dollars from the LPGA Tour alone this year.
It was not reflected in the prize money ranking because it did not participate in the tour as a member, but it ranks 11th overall.
Shin Ji-ae, who has been active on both the JLPGA and LPGA tours, ranked 16th in the world rankings of women’s golf on the 21st, and is close to winning the right to participate in the Paris Olympics next year. As the ranking of the final match is not reflected, the ranking is expected to be higher than this in the rankings scheduled to be announced on the 28th.
The tickets for the Paris Olympics will be determined based on the world ranking on June 24 next year. A top 15 ranking team can recruit up to four players per country. As of Thursday, Korea is followed by Ko Jin-young (6th), Kim Hyo-joo (7th), Yang Hee-young (15th) and Shin Ji-ae (16th).