Hye jinks

Hye Jin Choi held a three-shot lead over Ruoning Yin with 12 holes to play in the final round. Yin was buoyed by the home crowd and fired a back nine 32 (-4) and won the Buick LPGA by one shot over RTL’s Hye Jin Choi.

Choi was the first-round leader and every night following until the tenth hole in the final round where Yin tied the 27-year-old trying to close out her first LPGA win.

Yin started the week 9-1 while Hye Jin presented some value at 28-1. We almost slipped by the hometown favorite and 2024 Buick winner.

It was early morning disappointment for RTL readers as Choi now gives us six LPGA second places and 13 runner-up finishes overall in 2026. A brutal beat, it’s time to move on to South Korea and the BMW Ladies Championship.

A field of 84 women head back to one of my favorite new venues on either tour in 2025. Pine Beach Golf Links sits along the southwest coast of South Korea.

Fourteen of the top 25 in the Rolex World Rankings are competing alongside 15 players from the KLPGA and one sponsor’s invite. That leaves 68 women from the LPGA to compete in a four-round, 72-hole no-cut event for $2.3 million and a winner’s check for $352,500.

One of the finer fall events on the Asia swing this week draws a few of the tour’s elite to the other side of the Pacific. Including this weekend, only four events remain on the schedule before the cutoff for CME Points. The top 60 play the Tour Championship, so if you are in this limited field, it is time to take advantage!

A day at the beach

Pine Beach Golf Links is a stunning golf setting in the southwest region of South Korea. A mere 368 miles across the Yellow Sea from Shanghai, this 27-hole facility is home to the Pine, Beach, and Ocean nines. The LPGA will use the Pine-Beach routing for the BMW.

The names for each nine give the setting away, as PBGL could be easily confused with Pebble Beach Golf Links. Seriously, wait until you see this spectacular setting on television. An amazing addition to the competitive calendar last year, BMW has once again given us a tremendous venue.

The par 72 layout covers 6,785 yards for the competition. Nine holes are framed with water, and the players will see 89 bunkers across the 18-hole composite course.

The terrain is crazy in this part of the country. Pine Beach is bordered by beaches on the west side and steep hills on the east. Have clubs and will travel… send us on a plane immediately; holes 14 through 17 rides along the shoreline and are absolutely stunning.

Many of the women did not get distracted by the beautiful beach setting. Sei Young Kim took home the trophy with a 24 under par total. Kim won by four strokes over Nasa Hataoka, but everyone in the final top 10 was 15 under or better.

Course Conditions, Weather, Wind

The forecast along the southwest shoreline of South Korea calls for rain this weekend. The ladies will be a little on the cooler side, feeling temperatures in the mid-60s at Pine Beach, and there will be a decent amount of wind as they are completely exposed playing at elevation along the coast.

It’s a surreal setting, but much like Port Royal, many of these holes sit high above the water, exposed to the elements. A steady 15-17 mph breeze will be backed up with 18-22 mph gusts.

Starting Friday night, over 1.5″ of rain is predicted to fall through Saturday and well into Sunday.

A stiff ocean breeze, mid-60s, and rain. The greens will be receptive, but 24 under again seems like a long shot.

The BMW Ladies was a strong outright event for RTL in 2025. All four pre-tournament outrights finished in the top 10!

A Lim Kim finished in third place, and our very own Hye Jin Choi found herself in seventh place after 72 holes. Can we go there again…?

The picturesque setting is wall-to-wall Zoysia grass for the fairways, tees, approaches, and rough, with Bentgrass greens.

The tournament favorite is the defending champion, Sei Young Kim (+950). An interesting choice as two-time major champion from this past summer, Haeran Ryu, is also in the field. Ryu is also South Korean and an incredible fit for this accuracy arena. Aki Iwai, Hyo Joo Kim, and Hataoka round out the top 5 favorites.

The Pine-Beach combination gives us your standard allotment of four par 3s and 5s, and 10 par 4s.

This event has moved a couple of times in its brief seven-year history. Coincidentally, the BMW in this version began in 2019; the same year as the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.

Kim recorded 26 birdies and two eagles in 72 holes last year. Finishing 40% of your holes with sub-par scores is pretty impressive. Sei Young’s opening 10 under par 62 set the pace, and she never looked back.

Kim was kind of disappointing last week, finishing eighteenth in Shanghai. In any case, with six par 4s under 400 yards and four par 5s, our 2026 winner will not only need to score but also survive Mother Nature as well.

How to win?

If you didn’t look last year or are just getting introduced to Pine Beach GL for the first time, do yourself a favor and check this golf course out online. It is a stunning golf setting. The juxtaposition of mountains and shoreline gives us a spectacular routing.

I fear the weather will take center stage in South Korea. Much like what the men will face in the Atlantic, cool temps, strong wind, and wet weather are a nasty combination.

To compound the effect, the LPGA stars do not have the same ball speed as most of the men. Once they start launching balls into the wind, it could get ugly. Naturally, the women will not reach the same apex as the men, which will help keep the ball lower and less influenced.

The best game plan starts with getting after the Pine nine. There’s only one par 4 on the front over 400 yards. Get those sub-par scores in and hold on as you head out to the water on the back. Holes 14 through 18 are going to be a daily highlight reel.

As we consider the outright puzzle, I think the first look goes directly toward those women who were here last year. Between the elevation changes and offshore elements, knowing how Pine Beach plays under normal conditions will dramatically help your 2026 campaign.

Sei Young Kim did most of her damage last year with the putter. Looking ahead at the conditions, I believe the flatstick will be your biggest asset again.

Six of the Sunday final top 10 gained more than four strokes on the field with their putter. We know Kim made everything she could, but she was not the only one.

Any course this close to the coastline cannot have creative green surfaces. You have to keep the greens relatively flat and slow, knowing strong winds can delay play. We saw a ton of putts go in last year, and I expect a bunch more will go in again.

Soft surfaces will also be receptive on approach, allowing players who successfully navigate the wind and elevation changes to hit shots close and create birdie chances.

Cashing in those four to six-footers will be key, and if the wind does blow, many of them might be to save par rather than record another sub-par score.

Eight of the top 10 a year ago lost strokes to the field around the green. This may be a bit misleading. Our defending champion hit 85% of her GIRs, which left little opportunity to use her scrambling acumen. Many inside the top 10 hit a ton of greens and fell into the same situation.

With the forecast we have, I think disregarding SG: ARG would be a mistake. It is still fourth of the four main strokes gained categories on my list, but due to the weather and turf conditions, this week will be more of a balanced skill set than just a straight scoring fest.

Forty-nine greenside bunkers also present a challenge, and I have taken sand play into account. Kim placed it in seven bunkers throughout the week and saved par five times. Short game is not my primary focus, but with the weather, it will surely play a role.

Past the putter, iron play fueled the top of the leaderboard. Much like Port Royal, Pine Beach puts a number of scoring irons in your hands to attack the greens.

Tournament officials will pay attention to the conditions and do their best to keep the playability of the golf course similar to last season. That means tee boxes may be moved up if a hole will play directly into a stiff breeze or vice versa on the downwind tests.

In doing so, I expect a similar allotment of wedges and nine irons on the par 4s, and mid-irons to hybrids on the par 3s. There’s only one par 4 over 400 yards on the front nine.

As far as ball flight, the LPGA does not have Shotlink we can use to study the field like the men. Picking the best low ball flight players is dependent upon our weekly coverage.

Thankfully, we know who launches it low and will have an edge in this wind. That’s going to be a nice advantage against the books because they won’t be setting odds with that baseline knowledge and that’s a great opportunity to grab some value on the board.

Kim, Hataoka, and Celine Boutier, last year’s top 3 hit over 79% of their fairways. Nasa secured 91%!

Similar to the reduction in slope on the greens to prepare for coastal challenges, the fairways are wider to receive more tee shots. Watching one year ago, a majority of the players had no issue finding the short grass.

To compound the successful pattern, these are Zoysia fairways which tend to grab the ball rather than propel it. With all of the wet weather they have received and more on the way, driving accuracy numbers should be consistent with 2025.

The wind may have a slight effect, but overall, I expect a similar breakdown and have not placed much emphasis on OTT. In fact, the increase in ARG weighting comes from a reduction in driving separation.

With the bump in short game, I’m eyeing the birdie-to-bogey ratio list. Bogey avoidance and BoB% all complement each other and give us a great picture of who can score when conditions are toughest.

Par 4 scoring seems like a great target, and with 10 varied tests, it will help refine our list, but I’m giving an edge to par 5 scoring.

All four of the par 5s are traditional three-shot holes. Unless officials dramatically move tee boxes, scoring on these lengthy holes will require woods and wedges. If difficult conditions persist, this will be the best place to score.

A quick analysis of those who convert sub-par scores on the 5s consistently is a little secret sauce others may not see when they only look at strokes gained and don’t consider the entire scoring situation.

It is little playability insights like that which lead to so many Sunday contenders.

Let’s look past our most recent runner-up and focus on the event in front of us. Pine Beach is going to provide us with a ton of entertainment and a bunch of winning tickets.

LPGA – Free Picks

A Lim Kim (+2000 Fanduel)

I don’t mind a little power in the wind. A Lim Kim is trending with a fifteenth at the Walmart, seventh in Hawaii, and sixth last week in Shanghai.

Kim finished in third place here last year as an RTL outright pick. In five starts at the BMW, A Lim has two thirds and four top 20s. Taking South Koreans in this event is a proven strategy. They continually contend in their home country.

Kim’s ball striking and par 5 scoring set her apart. An above-average ARG player, A Lim has the full complement of characteristics needed to win.

Jin Hee Im (+3400 DraftKings)

Stacking the deck with trending South Koreans means Jin Hee Im is on our card. Im is coming off four straight results inside the top 20 (18-13-8-9).

Im is the opposite of ALK. Jin Hee will score with her wedges and the putter.

With the unknowns surrounding the weather, I believe a diversified attack of trending players makes the most sense.

Jin Hee, HJK, and Gaby Lopez are the best putters in this field. The 2025 leaderboard proved that Pine Beach is a putter’s playground. Convert on the greens, and you’ll contend.