According to UPI.com’s recently reported list of “10 of the Highest Paid Female Athletes,” pro golfer Michelle Wie earned a sum of $12 million, with Olympic champion Kim Yu-Na trailing close behind, raking in an impressive $9.7 million. Wie and Kim are ranked among other talented female sports stars like Maria Sharapova and Venus and Serena Williams.

Wie—who is playing in her second round of the LPGA State Farm Classic tournament today (fingers crossed!)—has reportedly been shopping around for a new contract, and it’s rumored that she might be signing with IMG Worldwide after her departure from William Morris Agency. However, it’s still too early for any definitive news.

“Queen” Kim Yu-Na has also been keeping busy with her new figure skating variety show, Kiss & Cry, which aired in Korea last month. The show features a line-up of Korean actors and singers who battle it out for the chance to skate in Kim Yu-Na’s Ice Show in August.

[Photo of Michelle Wie: Chris Trotman/Getty; Kim Yu-Na: Heinz Kluetmeier/SI]

This shouldn’t be a surprise but a Korean won the USGA Women’s Amateur Championship.  Holla! Just like last year when Jennifer Song won the coveted trophy.  Danielle is only a high school teenager but it looks like this win may just be the beginning of a stellar golfing career.

Danielle Kang’s 4-foot putt on the next-to-last hole in the U.S. Women’s Amateur on Sunday gave her a 2 and 1 match-play victory over Jessica Korda.

Kang led deep into the second round during the final at Charlotte Country Club. But she conceded the lead when she ran into bunker trouble on the 30th hole. Korda took the lead for the first time when her third shot reached within a foot and Kang’s fourth shot stuck in the rough.

Kang squared the match three holes later with a 5-foot par putt. She retook the lead on the 34th hole, when she converted for par and Korda missed a putt from at least 10 feet. Korda missed a birdie on the next hole and Kang had a putt from five feet to seal it.

“Today was very stressful,” Kang said. “When I made that I just wanted to cry because all of the stress was in me. I’m trying not to show it. I’m smiling, but it’s stressful, so it was really big.”

The 17-year-olds were both vying for their first U.S. Amateur title. Sunday was the third straight match in which Kang, the women’s amateur medalist a year ago, fended off a rally during the final three holes.

“Danielle was just making birdie after birdie after birdie or birdie on top of my birdies or birdies before my birdies,” Korda said. “It was a birdie barrage.”

Kang will attend Pepperdine after graduating from high school early.

Source: AP

You may not know this but there is a developmental tour for the LPGA and it’s called the Duramed Futures Tour.  This is the proving grounds for future LPGA stars and they have a prestigious alumnus.  Of course there are a good number of Korean players pounding away on the Duramed Futures Tour, but they’re also winning.  Yesterday, Tiffany Joh won the ING New England Classic.

Leave it to Tiffany Joh to totally underestimate her prodigious talent or to downplay her ability to chase down a strong tournament leader and come out on top after a four-hole playoff.

The affable and always entertaining second-year pro did just that today when she roared from five shots back to win the $100,000 ING New England Golf Classic, finally ending the head-to-head battle in extra holes against Gerina Mendoza with a birdie on her last trip to the 18^th hole at Wintonbury Hills Golf Course.

Joh (pronounced Joe) carded rounds of 67-65-68 to finish at 10-under 200 for the $14,000 winner’s check. Mendoza, who set tournament scoring records this week for 18 holes and 36 holes, posted rounds of 62-65-73 for a 10-under total of 200, losing the playoff for second place.

“Honestly, just getting into the playoff was an accomplishment,” said Joh, 23, of San Diego, who earned her first tournament win on the Duramed FUTURES Tour today. “This is just completely unexpected because I was five back, and because Gerina is such a great player.”

Mendoza started the day with a five-shot cushion and birdied her first hole to go up by six, but that advantage dwindled when the big hitter clobbered her drives all day and then wrestled with her approach shots. By day’s end, Mendoza had hit only eight greens in regulation and recorded five bogeys. That was far too much scrambling for a leader with hungry young pros like Joh breathing down her collar.

For the full article, go to Duramed Futures Tour.

Korean-American golfer Lion Kim won the 2010 U.S. Amateur Public Links at Bryan Park in Greensboro, North Carolina on Sunday (KST), defeating David McDaniel by six holes in the 36-hole final.

The win earns the 21-year-old Kim a ticket to the 2011 Masters and exemption from the regional preliminaries for the U.S. Open for the next three years. He also will be invited to the U.S. Amateur Championship this year and the next.

Danny Lee and An Byeong-hun won the U.S. Amateur Championship in 2008 and 2009, respectively, but Kim is the first male player of Korean descent to win the Public Links.

The Public Links is one of the major nationwide tournaments administered by the U.S. Golf Association, along with the U.S. Open, U.S. Senior Open, and the U.S. Amateur Championship.

Kim was born in Seoul in 1989 and moved to the U.S. with his parents as a baby. He is currently a student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Source: Chosun

Koreans represented at the Masters with a strong showing from Anthony Kim, KJ Choi and YE Yang.  Anthony Kim came in 3rd place after a huge final day with 6 birdies and an eagle, posting a -12 before the final groups arrived.  KJ Choi was partnered up with Tiger Woods for 4 straight days at the Masters and ended up with the same exact score with Tiger,  for all four days.  What are the chances?!  KJ actually lead the tournament briefly in the middle of the round, but on hole #13 he fell apart with the first bogey of the day.  YE Yang hung in there as he was partnered with Anthony Kim during the final round.  KJ came in tied for 4th with Tiger Woods and YE Yang tied for 8th.  That’s three Koreans in the top ten at the 2010 Masters!  One of these days, one of these guys is going to break through and the champion’s dinner is going to have Korean bbq and kimchi.  That’s going to be one big dry cleaning bill for all those green jackets.

Yeah we know that Tiger Woods is playing at the Masters but did you know there are over 90 other players who are showing up to win the green jacket?  And btw, this year has the most number of Koreans participating at the Masters.  Represent!  We’ve got Anthony Kim who is fresh off his PGA tour win at the Shell Houston Open.  There’s 2009 PGA Champion Y.E. Yang, the first man to ever stare down Tiger on the final day and surpass him to win a major.  K.J. Choi will be paired up with Tiger Woods in the first round of the Masters, the group that will be most closely watched.  But it doesn’t stop there because Yang Yong-Eun of the Asia Tour, US Amateur Winner An Byeong-Hun, and Asian Amateur champion Han Chang-won, are the next generation of Korean golfers that will be competing.  That’s a whole lot of Koreans, young and old, who will be competing for the greatest green blazer.  Hwaiting!

Anthony Kim won the Shell Houston Open in a sudden death playoff over Vaughn Taylor to win his third PGA tour title, and the first in 2 years.  It was revealed today that he had been playing with a torn ligament in his thumb and that it will require surgery and keep him out of competition for a significant amount of time.  He battled through the pain and won with the pressure of a playoff.  He heads into the Masters, the first major of the golf season, with a lot of confidence and momentum, that is if his thumb can hold up.

AK had a putt to win it on the final hole of the tournament, but he wasn’t able to sink it, which pushed him into a playoff against Vaughn Taylor.  However, he stood strong and focused to earn the Shell Houston Open win.

“Two years ago, that bag may have been in the water,” Kim said. “I might not have had clubs to go to the playoff. But I just feel calm out there, I feel no sense of urgency. It’s something that’s happened naturally and not something that’s been forced.

“I’m comfortable with who I am out there. I found my identity.”

“I just look back at last year, after the season was over, I was just complaining about everything,” Kim said. “I felt like I deserved to win a golf tournament without trying. That’s not how it is.”

“I’ve put in a lot of hard work, so I feel like when I’m out there, I know I’m going to do well. Having that confidence really has propelled my game, I feel like, to a different level.”

Source: Golf.com

LPGA golfer Christina Kim showed up on The Golf Channel’s the Golf Fix with Michael Breed last week to share a few of her swing tips.  She’s gearing up for the new golf season and it starts this week in Thailand as the LPGA kicks off its 2010 season.  Before Christina hit a golf ball in Thailand, she IM’d an interview with Golf.com to talk about the off season and the future.

What have you been up to in the offseason?
Everything from working hard on my short game, trying new clubs, partying with friends, traveling to places, and playing around with social media.

You partied a lot. Clubs? House parties?
I didn’t go mad crazy partying all the time. Hahaha!!! Clubs, house parties, a lot of just chillin’ at friends’ places — that’s more accurate.

Let’s talk about the LPGA Tour. What do you see happening this year out there for yourself and the tour?
I see both myself and the LPGA Tour taking over by storm. I’m so stoked for the new season. The LPGA is rising again after a brief lull, and the world is ready for something new to stumble upon.

For the full interview, go to golf.com.

Anthony Kim played on the west team on Friday night’s NBA All-Star Celebrity game, which included other celebs and athletes like Chris Tucker, Terrell Owens, Mark Cuban and Common.  He played great defensive (including a steal), lead a couple of fast breaks, and dis’d out a couple of nifty passes.  I believe this is the first Korean-American to ever participate in an NBA All-Star celebrity game.   SWEET!  Now if we could finally get someone to play in the NBA full-time.  Anthony Kim must have been a kid in a candy store because not only did he play basketball at All-Star weekend, but he was coached by Magic Johnson, the player he grew up watching and idolizing as a Laker’s fan.

Y.E. Yang made a big splash this year by doing the impossible and that was take down Tiger Woods (when Tiger wasn’t with a lady of the night).  When we mean the impossible, we’re referring to his unbelievable defeat of Tiger Woods at a major golf championship: The PGA Championship at Hazeltine.  To put this into perspective, Tiger Woods had never lost a major championship when leading in the final round of a major golf tournament. However, it was Y.E. Yang of all Korean golfers (Anthony Kim, K.J. Choi) that stared down the greatest golfer of our generation and maybe of all time, and executed one of the greatest shots on the final hole (72nd) of a major golf championship.  He perfectly landed a hybrid shot that set up the birdie to bring down the hammer on Tiger Woods on the 18th hole.  No one east of Hawai’i would have predicted that Y.E. Yang would be the first Korean golfer to win a major golf tournament and no one in their right mind would have bet on Y.E. Yang beating Tiger head to head in the final group of a golf major.  Y.E. Yang is #7 on our top ten list of most influential Korean-Americans because he not only broke through to victory on one of golf’s biggest stage, but he showed the whole world that Tiger was beatable and that you could go toe to toe with the greatest golfer in the world.  And now the rest of the golf world knows that you can beat Tiger (on the golf course ;).  He made believers out of everyone!