The Simone Asia Pacific Cup (total prize purse of $750,000USD), the first international tournament created by the Asia Golf Leaders Forum (AGLF), began with an unexpected start on the first day.

So-yeon Ryu (32) and Bo-mee Lee (34), ‘veteran sisters’ in their 30s, were at the top of the leaderboards in the team competition after the first round of the Simone Cup, a national competition with 44 players from 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Under the blazing sun on August 18th, Ryu and Lee, paired together to form Korea’s 2nd Team, took the lead with a 12-under par (132 strokes) in the first round of the tournament, held in Pondok Indah Golf Course in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Two teams represented Korea during the Simone Cup. Korea’s 1st Team had Hyo-joo Kim (27) and Youmin Hwang (19) who were much less experienced than Korea’s 2nd Team with the ‘veteran sisters’. Despite their young age, however, Hyo-joo Kim was then ranked eighth in the world rankings and Youmin Hwang was a rising star who had just won two consecutive tournaments in the Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association’s (KLPGA) third-tier Jump Tour.

However, the results of the first day were completely unexpected. Korea’s 2nd Team with the ‘veteran sisters’ were quickly reborn as the ‘scary sisters’ after their dominant performance in the 1st round.

They looked to be heavy favorites from the start with a 9-stroke difference between them and Japan’s 2nd Team (Kokona Sakurai / Maria Shinohara) and Team Philippines (Princess Mary Superal / Pauline Del Rosario) who finished 3-under par with 141 strokes. So-yeon Ryu who finished with no bogeys and 7 birdies, finished 7-under par (65 strokes) and led also the individual competition leaderboards. Bo-mee Lee wasn’t far below with her 6 birdies and 1 bogey play finishing 5-under par (67 strokes), landing her 4th in the individual competition. Tied for 2nd was Lydia Ko of Team New Zealand and Philippines’ Princess Mary Superal, with 6-under par (66 strokes).



Youmin Hwang finished 1-under par (71 strokes) and Hyo-joo Kim finished even-par to land Korea’s 1st Team tied for 5th along with Thailand’s 2nd Team. In the individual’s, Youmin Hwang was tied for 7th and Hyo-joo Kim was tied for 10th.

Entering the 2nd round, a strong contender appeared before the dominating ‘scary sisters’ from Korea. It was none other than Korea’s 1st Team.

Despite the 11-stroke difference, Korea’s younger sister team sharply reduced it to a mere 2-stroke difference with consecutive birdie finishes. While Hyo-joo Kim and Youmin Hwang reduced six shots, So-yeon Ryu and Bo-mee Lee lost three shots. This placed Korea’s 1st and 2nd Team side-by-side in the team competition with the 1st Team leading with 9-under par and the 2nd Team trailing behind with 7-under par. The Philippines Team came in third with 6-under par and Team New Zealand finished 4th with 4-under after Lydia Ko’s hard fought 2nd round.

Further unexpected events came about in the 2nd round. Philippines’ Princess Mary Superal took the lead in the individual competition. After hitting 6-under par in the 1st round, she hit an even better 7-under par in the 2nd round placing her at the top of the leaderboards. So-yeon Ryu, who hit 7-under par in the 1st round struggled with the harsh winds and lost 3-strokes with a 4-under par, putting her at a tied 4th place.

Bo-mee Lee who finished even par in the 1st round went 5-under par (139 strokes) to land her tied for 3rd while Hyo-joo Kim placed 4th alongside So-yeon Ryu with 4-under par (140 strokes). Youmin Hwang also reduced 2-strokes to put her tied for 6th with a 3-under par finish (141 strokes).

With the final round, the team competition played out as was expected with Team Korea finishing first. However, in the individual competition, Philippines Princess Mary Superal remained on top to become Simone Cup’s first ever champion, beating out four major championship winners surprising all fans and spectators. So-yeon Ryu came in 2nd, a good result of her strong play.

The final round was that of a cat and mouse chase. With those chasing to be at the top of the leaderboards coming ever so close only to have those who were already there increasing the gap once more, again and again. Those who sat at the top smiled brightly while keeping the lead they gained from the 2nd round.

In Korea’s 2nd Team, So-yeon Ryu finished 5-under par (67 strokes) to combine her total tournament score to 9-under par (207 strokes). Bo-mee Lee hit 3-over par (75 strokes) having her finish 2-under par (214 strokes). Their combined scores landed them with a 1st place finish in the team competition with an 11-under par team finish. Team Philippines was 6-strokes behind and Korea’s 1st Team placed 6th with a combined 1-under par.

The individual competition’s champion was Princess Mary Superal, who recorded a 5-under par (67 strokes) in the final round, showing no signs of being swayed by the fierce pursuit of the world’s top ranking players. Superal, who had a total combined score of 12-under par (214 strokes) beat out Soyeon Ryu by 3 strokes to have her win her first ever tournament of this scale in her career.

After her win, Superal mustered out while holding back tears, “Honestly, I can’t believe I just won this tournament. I’m so happy to have won my first ever international tournament.”

Korean-New Zealander Lydia Ko placed 3rd with 8-under par for the individual competition and 3rd in the team competition with 5-under par. Hyo-joo Kim tied for 8th in the individual competition with 1-under par (215 strokes) while Youmin Hwang tied for 12th with an even par finish (216 strokes).