Hee Kyung Seo

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

Career 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.

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.

Personal life 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, on the Independence Day of Korea. Since then, they had two more sons. Seo officially retired from professional golf in November 2015 to spend more time with her family.

Awards and honors In 2009, she won the money list for the LPGA of Korea Tour. In 2011, she earned LPGA Tour's Rookie of the Year honors.

Professional wins (12) 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 Ryu So-yeon 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 Ryu So-yeon 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 High1 Cup SBS Charity Ladies Open −8 (68-68-72=208) 2 strokes Inbee Park 2 7 Sep 2008 KB Star Tour 3rd Tournament at Cheongwon −7 (68-69-72=207) 1 stroke Ha-neul Kim Hye-youn Kim 3 13 Sep 2008 Binhai Open −9 (70-66-71=207) 5 strokes Taoli Yang Danielle Montgomery 4 12 Oct 2008 Gabia-Interburgo Masters −11 (70-69-69=208) 3 strokes Ha-neul Kim He-yong Choi Hyun-ji Kim 5 16 Nov 2008 Saint Four Ladies Masters in Jeju^ −14 (69-67-66=202) 2 strokes Ahn Sun-ju 6 23 Nov 2008 ADT CAPS Championship −2 (78-72-64=214) 3 strokes Ae-Ree Pyun Hye-jung Kim 7 17 Apr 2009 MBC Tour Lotte Mart Ladies Open −6 (71-72-67=210) 1 stroke Ahn Sun-ju Ilhee Lee 8 3 May 2009 Taeyoung Cup Korea Women's Open −9 (70-71-66=207) 1 stroke Bo-kyung Kim 9 18 Oct 2009 Hite Cup Championship −9 (72-71-68-68=279) 5 strokes Choi Na-yeon 10 25 Oct 2009 KB Star Tour Grand Final at Incheon −16 (69-66-68-69=272) 1 stroke Jang Ha-na (amateur) 11 22 Nov 2009 ADT CAPS Championship −6 (73-71-66=210) 3 strokes Jeong-eun Lee

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

CUT = missed the half-way cut T = tied

Summary Tournament Wins 2nd 3rd Top-5 Top-10 Top-25 Events Cuts made ANA Inspiration 0 0 0 1 1 3 5 4 Women's PGA Championship 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 2 U.S. Women's Open 0 1 0 1 1 3 5 5 Women's British Open 0 0 0 1 1 3 4 4 The Evian Championship 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 Totals 0 1 0 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 3rd Top 10s Best finish Earnings ($) Money list rank Scoring average Scoring rank 2006 1 1 0 0 0 0 16 17,680 n/a 72.00 n/a 2008 1 1 0 0 0 0 17 19,920 n/a 72.00 n/a 2009 5 4 0 0 0 0 15 73,659 n/a 73.31 n/a 2010 6 6 1 0 0 2 1 369,089 n/a 72.96 n/a 2011 21 18 0 1 0 3 2 619,429 21 71.78 21 2012 25 21 0 2 0 8 T2 600,403 22 71.57 25 2013 22 18 0 1 0 3 2 446,373 33 71.74 38 2014 7 4 0 0 0 0 T29 30,315 128 73.43 n/a 2015 7 5 0 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