The WaPo ran a piece on the impact South Korean golfers have had on the LPGA. None of it will be a surprise to those of you living here (i.e., in Korea), but take a look at it anyway.
(Hat tip to reader)
LPGA’s Korean invasion
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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?
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.
isolation is a strong factor that drives a person crazy.
Some Korean Parents are insane. Not that White people are any different.
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.
Much easier to manipulate young girls than boys, I guess.
http://www.popmatters.com/tv/reviews/s/sports-kids-moms-and-dads.shtml
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).
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.
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.
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