The Marmot’s Hole

9 Comments

1. gbevers
   Posted June 9, 2006 at 12:08 pm | Permalink

   In 1998, I worked as an English tutor to a 14- or 15-year-old Korean teenager in the Philippines. Her parents had sold their home in Korea and moved to the Philippines to train their daughter to be another Pak Se-ri. She did not attend school or receive any kind of tutoring except for my English tutoring. She just practiced golf from sunrise to sunset, seven days a week, rain or shine. The only reason she received English tutoring was that her parents thought she would need it when she started playing professionally in the United States.

   The girl told me that she missed her friends in Korea and that she had no friends in the Philippines because her parents would not let her make friends. She spend the little bit of free time she had in the evenings listening to Korean pop music and fantasizing about the celebrities in some of Korea’s boy bands.

   I remember feeling sorry for the girl and thinking that her parents were risking her mental health and development on the chance of their becoming the parents of a high-earning professional golfer.

   I do not know what happened to the girl, but there were several other Korean children in the Philippines doing the same thing she was doing. Therefore, it is not surprising to me that Korean female golfers are doing so well in the United States. I only wonder why the men are not doing as well as the women?

2. wjk
   Posted June 9, 2006 at 12:46 pm | Permalink

   maybe the Korean men do not go to Golf Concentration camps.

   That’s a really sad story, Mr. Bevers. I believe you that it’s a true story. Nonetheless, it’s a sad story.

3. wjk
   Posted June 9, 2006 at 12:49 pm | Permalink

   isolation is a strong factor that drives a person crazy.

4. Origami
   Posted June 9, 2006 at 3:28 pm | Permalink

   Some Korean Parents are insane. Not that White people are any different.

5. Shenzhen Whitey
   Posted June 9, 2006 at 3:33 pm | Permalink

   How expensive is a round of gold in Korea as opposed to the US? A sport played by an elitist few or are middle class people playing it regularly at municipal courses? Just curious.

6. Origami
   Posted June 9, 2006 at 3:39 pm | Permalink

   Much easier to manipulate young girls than boys, I guess.

   http://www.popmatters.com/tv/r.....dads.shtml

7. seouldout
   Posted June 9, 2006 at 9:26 pm | Permalink

   A round of golf at a private country club will set you back approx. 150,000 on weekdays and 220,000 on weekends–there are places that are much more. This rate is for those who are guests of a member. Also you have the caddie tip of at least 50,000. And then there’s the post-round dining and drinks. The round played is often rushed–it’s not a leasurely stroll. For long holiday weekends some Koreans fly to Thailand or the Philippines. There are courses that have set up “barracks” on the courses, and this allows Koreans to dispense with the travel time from and to the hotel. On these holidays at least 36 holes are played per day; 54 is more common and more is not unheard of. A round of golf Pattaya-area courses runs approx. 1500 baht ($40).

8. railwaycharm
   Posted June 9, 2006 at 10:08 pm | Permalink

   I have run into Koreans in Thailand. One group of kids told me they had been there for six weeks playing golf. You don’t need to sell the family home to get the kids a bit of time on the greens. I have also run into older Koreans at a “Korean golf club” in PI. The adashis were extremely poor sports and our young guild almost threw hands with one.

9. wjk
   Posted June 10, 2006 at 12:24 am | Permalink

   when I came to the US, and saw that everyone was golfing, I thought oh, these people must be super rich. Not so. Partly due to the laws of supply and demand.