Event Gyeonggi greetings and well-wishing exchanges SKT Open starts today in Jeju

Yoon Seok-min (left), the ace pitcher for professional baseball team KIA, greets Choi Kyung-ju at the SK Telecom Charity Open on the 15th. Seokmin Yoon passed the KPGA Pro Selection Tournament last month.

“This is associate member number 9074, Seokmin Yoon. i look forward to."

“I don’t even remember my associate number. “This is regular member number 190, Choi Gyeong-ju.”

Pinx Golf Club in Seogwipo-si, Jeju, where the SK Telecom Charity Open was held on the 15th. Yoon Seok-min (38), a former KIA professional baseball ace who recently became a professional golfer, bowed to Choi Kyung-ju (54), a legend in Korean men's golf.

Seok-min Yoon, who achieved 77 wins and 86 saves while playing at KIA, became a professional golfer after passing the 2024 1st Korea Professional Golf (KPGA) Pro Selection Tournament held last month after '6 matches and 7 periods.' Choi Gyeong-ju said, “It’s really amazing that someone who used to be an athlete in another sport later became a professional. “Now that you are on this path, try to become a tour pro (regular member) who can play in the first division,” he said.

On this day, Seok-min Yoon teamed up with Han-byeol Kim, a three-time winner on the KPGA Tour, and played a 9-hole event with golf YouTubers Sim Jjang and Choi Seung-jin. Choi Gyeong-ju teamed up with comedian Lee Gyeong-gyu and competed against the former ‘home run hitter’ Lee Dae-ho and Heo In-hoe. Seok-min Yoon showed a driver shot of around 270m and a clean iron shot like a professional. Lee Dae-ho (42), who worked together with Yoon Seok-min on the national baseball team, said, “After (Yoon Seok-min) became a pro, his shots themselves changed.” They donated 50 million won in prize money from the competition to the Choi Kyung-ju Foundation. This money will be used for the ‘SK Telecom Adaptive Open’ held jointly by the Korea Golf Association for the Intellectually Disabled and SK Telecom.

The KPGA Tour SK Telecom Open (total prize money of 1.3 billion won) will be held for four days starting on the 16th at Pinx Golf Club. Choi Gyeong-ju attempts to pass the cut for the 21st time, and Kim Bio attempts to win for the third time in his career. Past champions including Baek Seok-hyun, winner of last year's competition, Park Sang-hyun, Sang-hee Lee, and Ham Jeong-woo will also participate. 섯다