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3 MIN READ
December 30, 2025
How One LPGA Major Winner Embraces The "Tiger Effect"
The backstory to Sei Young Kim's personal homage to the G.O.A.T.
It's one of the most iconic silhouettes in modern sports. That fierce red polo, sandwiched between a black hat and black pants. There's zero debate that Tiger Woods changed the golfing landscape forever, doing so in a number of ways, but perhaps his greatest and most unexpected legacy has been cemented through style.
There's just something about that Sunday red that will live with all of us for the rest of time.
Whether if its the very first red polo he dawned at the 1997 Masters or that legendary mockneck in '03, there's a Tiger moment that every golfer can pin-point to being their genesis into the fandom.
For Sei Young Kim, a 13-time winner on the LPGA, she remembers being a 16-year-old girl in South Korea who had just won her first big tournament wanting to feel like Woods. This is the Tiger Effect—and it has been and will continue to be felt globally, across genders and generations.
Kim joined the LPGA in 2015, though she had been competing professionally on the KLPGA, the Korean women's tour, making a name for herself and her signature red pants. During the first five years of her career (from 2015 to 2020) she was one of the most formidable players on the LPGA, winning at least once each season and setting records like the LPGA's lowest 72-hole score at 31-under par at the 2018 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic.
En route to her maiden major title in 2020, much like the man she pays homage to, Kim was the image of dominance. On that Sunday, she carded the lowest final round in the 66-year history of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship with a 7-under par, 63, finishing five strokes ahead of LPGA Tour Hall of Fame member Inbee Park.
But why red pants?
"I think I was about 16 years old when I picked up my first win," recalled Kim. "At the time, I really wanted to win and also wanted to create my own ritual. Tiger Woods has his trademark of wearing a red shirt on the last day. I decided to do that too, so to change it up a little bit, I went with the pants. That’s how it started."
We got to see Kim hoist a trophy once more in 2025, her first win since the 2020 season, at the BMW Ladies Championship in her home country, making her the 27th different winner on the LPGA in 2025.
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