Out of the Rough: BMW Ladies Championship (2025)

The LPGA continues on with its lone stop in South Korea for this week’s BMW Ladies Championship.

This event was established in 2019 and is a limited-field event, seeing just 84-players take to the tees each season.

Co-sanctioned between the LPGA Tour and the LPGA of Korea Tour, this event is nomadic, rotating amongst the best courses South Korea has to offer each season.

It replaced the LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship as the LPGA lone Korean stop on its Asian Swing.

This year’s event will be held at Pine Beach Golf Links, which is playing host for the first time.

The Field

This week’s event will see a limited 84-golfer field and will not feature a cut.

World No. 4 Minjee Lee headlines this week’s field as the highest ranked golfer within the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

She’ll be joined by the likes of Miyu Yamashita (No. 6,) Hyo Joo Kim (No. 8) and Rio Takeda (No. 12) as golfers ranked within the top 15 of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings playing this week.

Although at a different course, Hannah Green comes in as the defending champion, having held off Celine Boutier by a stroke at Seowon Hills Country Club a season ago. Both of which will be teeing it up this week.

The Course

Pine Beach Golf Links plays as a par-72 at roughly 6,785 yards.

It was constructed along a rocky cliff on the remote southwest coast of the Korean peninsula and opened in 2009.

It was designed by Gary Roger Baird and David Dale.

The course, described as Asia’s version of Pebble Beach due to the similarities, offers spectacular coastal scenery while challenging the best golfers in the world.

Take note of the par-three 15th which looks awfully similar to Cypress Point’s 16th.

The course is laid out with ten of the holes being perched on the jagged coastline where smaller peninsulas extend 200 meters into the sea.

A number of greens and tee boxes sit along the beach and atop cliffs as golfers will hit onto dramatic sloping fairways with intimidating bunkers.

All 18 of the fairways were routed to take full advantage of the site’s geographical offerings, as the architects laid out the course to give every opportunity for it to be exposed to the water’s edge.

For example, the 430-yard 16th sees a water carry as a retaining wall was built along the edge of the cliff as the Yellow Sea lies along the right side of the fairway. 

The Weather

As of the time of writing this, there is an 80-percent of morning rain on Thursday. Friday calls for just a 25-percent chance of precipitation as the chance increases to 65-degrees for Saturday and returns to a 15-percent chance on Sunday. Winds will begin at seven miles-per-hour on Thursday before increasing to 14 miles-per-hour for Friday, 12 miles-per-hour on Saturday and 13 miles-per-hour on Sunday. This of course does not take into account coastal winds which will be in play this week. Temperatures will begin at 77-degrees for both Thursday and Friday before dropping to 73-degrees on Saturday and ultimately 68-degrees come Sunday.

Key Stats

• Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)

• Strokes Gained: Driving (SG: DRIVE)

• Total Driving (60-percent average driving distance / 40-percent driving accuracy percentage)

• Strokes Gained: Around the Green (SG: ATG)

• Scrambling

• Sand Saves Percentage

• Greens in Regulation Percentage (GIR%)

• Strokes Gained: Putting (SG: PUTT)

Betting Card

Hye-Jin Choi (+2200)

Outside of Minjee Lee (who I simply can’t back +800,) Choi is my favorite to win this week and at +2200, was my first click. She is currently eighth on Tour in total driving, tenth in GIR%, 12th in SG: PUTT, 20th in SG: DRIVE, 32nd in scrambling, 46th in SG: APP, 50th in sand saves and 89th in SG: ATG. Choi placed 11th last week at the Buick LPGA Shanghai, 63rd at the Lotte Championship, 14th at the Kroger Queen City Championship, seventh at the FM Championship and 36th at the CPKC Women’s Open. She missed the cut at the AIG Women’s Open but placed tenth a week prior at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open. Choi too is eyeing to claim victory on home soil, that’s always an added incentive. 

A Lim Kim (+2500)

Kim, much like Choi, is looking to claim victory on home soil, models extremely well and is in some great form coming into this week. Kim comes into this week on the back of back-to-back tenth place finishes at both the Buick LPGA Shanghai and Lotte Championship. She also placed 29th at the Kroger Queen City Championship and 24th at the FM Championship. Looking back she also placed fourth at the AIG Women’s Open and 21st at the ISPS Handa Scottish Women’s Open. Kim is currently seventh on Tour in SG: DRIVE, ninth in total driving, 12th in SG: ATG, 16th in GIR%, 42nd in SG: APP, 59th in sand saves percentage, 89th in scrambling and 106th in SG: PUTT. 

Minami Katsu (+4000)

As previously mentioned, this course has been described as Asia’s version of Pebble Beach and of course has the key word in its name, “links.” Katsu placed 28th at the ISPS Handa Scottish Women’s Open and second at the AIG Women’s Open this season. She also placed second last week at the Buick LPGA Shanghai and third at the Lotte Championship in her start prior. Katsu is currently 20th on Tour in SG: ATG, 28th in SG: PUTT, 31st in sand saves percentage, 63rd in scrambling, 70th in SG: APP, 81st in SG: DRIVE, 95th in total driving and 113th in GIR%. 

Robyn Choi (+15000)

My long shot this week is Robyn Choi. She is currently 15th on Tour in SG: PUTT, 16th in sand saves percentage, 20th in scrambling, 33rd in SG: ATG, 46th in GIR%, 63rd in total driving, 64th in SG: DRIVE and 113th in SG: APP. She placed 32nd last week at the Buick LPGA Shanghai, 32nd at the Lotte Championship, 12th at the Kroger Queen City Championship, missed the cut at the FM Championship, placed 15th at the CPKC Women’s Open and 13th at the Standard Portland Classic.