“I think we were about the same distance, but I had a lot of bad shots. “Bang Shin-sil, the long-hitting queen who burst onto the Korean Ladies Professional Golf (KLPGA) Tour, bowed out of her first match against the “original long-hitting queen” Kim Ah-rim. Bang played alongside Kim in the first round of the KLPGA Tour’s third major of the season, the Hanwha Classic ($1.7 billion in prize money), on Thursday at Jade Palace Golf Club (Par 72) in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province. Before she moved to the U.S. Women’s Professional Golf (LPGA) Tour in 2021, Kim showed off a level of long-hitting that no one else on the KLPGA Tour could match. At last year’s KLPGA Championship, Kim, who won the first and second rounds against Yoon In-na, the longest player on the KLPGA Tour at the time, went head-to-head with Bang Shin-shil and shot an even-par 72 to win by three strokes. However, the tournament’s host, Jade Palace Golf Club, did not produce the hot strokes they had hoped for due to the heavy rainfall and course set-up that made it difficult to stay in the fairways. The pair didn’t pick up their drivers for four or five holes, and when they did, they focused more on keeping them in the fairway with careful, controlled shots. “The longer you hit the course, the narrower the fairways,” said Kim. I think the fairways are wider for shorter players, so I was a little worried when I teed off,” Kim explained .Still, on the 14th hole (par-4), Kim hit a 283.5-yarder, while Bang Shin-shil hit a 276-yarder to the delight of the fans. Kim, who traded four birdies for four bogeys on the day, made bogey on the 16th hole (par-4) when her driver disappeared into the woods to the right and became a lost ball. “I played differently from my game plan because of the rain,” Kim said of her inability to capitalize on her bold long shots, “and I’m very disappointed with my performance today. “Playing against Bang for the first time, Kim praised her swing arc, saying, “She has long limbs and a very large swing arc,” and added, “She has a lot of distance and a high trajectory, so I believe she will be a good player if she can handle the ball a little better.” “It was a tough day because I made some mistakes off the tee,” said Bang Shin-sil, who had two birdies and five bogeys on the day .Speaking about her first match against the ‘original long-hitting queen’ Kim, Bang said, “She had a really high ballistic and a lot of distance,” but added, “I think we had similar distances, but I missed a lot of shots.” “I took last week’s tournament off to make up for my tee shot mistakes, and it went well in practice, but I’m still a little nervous about the actual match,” said Bang, who has been on a bit of a slump since her first win at the E1 Charity Open in May, missing 스포츠토토링크 the cut four times.