Korean Cho Ming-yu seek restitution in the final round of the Maekyung Open tomorrow after taking a share of the third-round lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He shot a four-under-par 67 today for a three-day total of 10-under, along with his young compatriot Song Min-hyuk, who carded a 66.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Korean Lee Tae-hee, the back-to-back champion here in 2019 and the following year, returned a 70 and is three behind in solo second, while his countrymen Kim Min-jun (68), Mun Do-yeob (69), the defending champion, and Kim Min-kyu (70) are all another stroke behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ming-yu finished in second place here at Namseoul Country Club in 2022, two shots behind the winner: fellow Korean Bio Kim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was bitter sweet as on the ninth hole he played his third off a secondary green and was quickly told he should have taken a drop. He was subsequently penalised two strokes. It remains his best finish in a tournament that he has unfinished business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was rock solid today, shooting all four of his birdies on the back nine and not dropping any shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere weren\u2019t any major crises or big opportunities on the front nine, I made pars throughout,\u201d said Ming-yu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI knew I had lost the lead, but I didn\u2019t dwell on it. I just kept playing, believing chances would come naturally. I started playing golf in 1999 and have been on tour for over 20 years. From experience, you shouldn\u2019t attack the course recklessly \u2013 especially not this one. It\u2019s important to stay patient and play within yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he played in the final group with Korean Kyungtae Kim when he won in 2011. \u201cHe was incredible at the time, and playing alongside him helped me understand how to approach Namseoul Country Club,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 37-year-old is a two-winner in Japan but surprisingly he has not won in Korea. In 2022 when he frustratingly lost this week\u2019s event he was second in the Kolon Korea Open and Shinhan Donghae Open, another of the country\u2019s biggest events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Victory tomorrow would also be especially significant with a new arrival in the Ming-yu family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said: \u201cA new opportunity presents itself. If I win in Korea, it feels like all the pieces will finally come together. And my son was born on Monday, so I want to draw strength from that and give it my best as a father.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the big guns of Korean golf are hot on his heels, including the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Min-hyukis just two 22 and has been a professional for two years. He hit the headlines in 2023 when he tied second in the Maekyung Open, when he was an amateur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNamseoul Country Club is a course where I\u2019ve had some of my best results. I especial love the huge galleries,\u201d he said, who is knocking on the door of a first win in the pro game with four top fives on home soil last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI tried to be myself today, just as I did in the first and second rounds. Rather than thinking about protecting my position in the third round, I focused on moving up the leaderboard. I think that mindset helped me get into a share of the lead. There were a lot of leaderboards out on the course, so I checked them frequently. I kept track of where I stood and played accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
South African Ian Snyman (67), plus Koreans Choi Jin-ho (69), Lee Dai-han (70) and Kim Seong-hyeon (71) are next best placed, five behind the leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overnight leader Jang Yu-bin Jang from Korea suffered a poor day carding an uncharacteristic 78 to tumbledown the leaderboard into joint 45th<\/sup> on one over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Korean Cho Ming-yu seek restitution in the final round of the Maekyung Open tomorrow after taking a share<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-12539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-golf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cho-Ming-yu-scaled.jpg",2560,1754,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cho-Ming-yu-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cho-Ming-yu-300x206.jpg",300,206,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cho-Ming-yu-768x526.jpg",640,438,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cho-Ming-yu-1024x701.jpg",640,438,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cho-Ming-yu-1536x1052.jpg",1536,1052,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cho-Ming-yu-2048x1403.jpg",2048,1403,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cho-Ming-yu-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cho-Ming-yu-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Cho-Ming-yu-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12541,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12539\/revisions\/12541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}