{"id":761695,"date":"2026-06-26T14:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T14:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/761695\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T14:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T14:16:20","slug":"lpga-major-leader-once-banned-for-3-years-for-cheating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/761695\/","title":{"rendered":"LPGA major leader once banned for 3 years for cheating"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tIna Yoon has put herself in contention at the KPMG Women\u2019s PGA Championship after a magnificent 63. But that doesn\u2019t even begin to tell the story\u2026<\/p>\n

Hazeltine was no match for Ina Yoon on Thursday as she carded an opening-round 63 at the KPMG Women\u2019s PGA Championship<\/a>. That tied the record for the lowest round ever recorded in this particular major \u2013 but it might be the best given her backstory.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the South Korean has not long returned from serving a three-year ban from professional golf after being caught up in a cheating scandal as a teenager.<\/p>\n

Now 22, Yoon was just 19 when the incident happened during the Korea Women\u2019s Open in June 2022. After a wayward shot found the rough on the opening day, Yoon played her next shot up to the green. It wasn\u2019t until she arrived at the putting surface, marked and picked up that she realized it wasn\u2019t her ball. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking to Golfweek\u2019s Beth Ann Nichols earlier this year, Yoon explained<\/a> that she \u201cwasn\u2019t sure what to do\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis had never happened to me, so I was a bit frazzled,\u201d she continued. \u201cMy caddie said to hit it. I shouldn\u2019t have listened, but I did. I should have reported it right away, but I was really nervous and scared about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It clearly played on her mind, because Yoon went on to miss the cut and she thought that would be the end of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it would be OK,\u201d she said. \u201cThe people around me told me that it shouldn\u2019t be too much of an issue, so I listened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after, while she was playing in the Queen\u2019s Crown, accusations of playing the wrong ball at the Korea Women\u2019s Open started to swirl. She went on to win that week for her first KLPGA title, before taking some time out to allow officials to decide her fate.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Yoon\u2019s caddie was being interviewed by the Korean press.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said that I chose to hit the ball, and people believed that,\u201d Yoon told Golfweek<\/a>. \u201cPeople believed what the caddie said, and I was pretty upset because that became the truth at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued: \u201cHe told me to hit it but, at the end of the day, I am the player and the player takes responsibility. I think I was just young and naive and I listened to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yoon was handed a three-year ban by the KLPGA and Korea Golf Association \u2013 which is not uncommon in the Korean game. The KPGA once handed the same length sentence to Bio Kim after he was caught on camera flicking a middle finger at some fans who had distracted him on his downswing.<\/p>\n

But Yoon was still surprised by the punishment \u2013 \u201cI didn\u2019t do it with malicious intent\u201d \u2013 before adding that she was at fault and was prepared to take full responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, as a golfer, three years is a long time,\u201d she added. \u201cMy future seemed a bit bleak at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her ban, Yoon moved to Florida to compete on the men\u2019s Minor League Golf Tour until the ban was lifted after two years.<\/p>\n

In 2024, she topped the money list in her first season back on the KLPGA, before finishing eighth at Q-School to earn her LPGA card for the \u201925 season.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Yoon, who reached a career-high 39th in the Rolex Women\u2019s World Golf Rankings, earned her first major top-10 with a tie for 4th at the Chevron Championship.<\/p>\n

And she\u2019s odds-on to repeat that at Hazeltine. Of the previous six players to card a 63 in the KPMG Women\u2019s PGA Championship, four went on to win, while the others finished tied-9th and 11th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ina Yoon has put herself in contention at the KPMG Women\u2019s PGA Championship after a magnificent 63. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-761695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}