What is it with Korean women and golf ?

Sandwlch

7 Korean men in the top 300 in the world rankings.
86 Koreans in the women's world rankings.

Whats going on? Is golf a girl's game in Korea, rather than the male dominated one we know in Ireland? Or is it that they take it up young rather than after the youngest child starts school and they are looking for something new to fill the time as typical in Ireland?
How have they achieved such a significant position yet only sporadic in the male game? Small physical size more marked in men than women?

Curious.

heavyballs

i think a big reason is that in the womens game you can survive if you're very short (no pun int)off the tee which most of the asians are.
they have a great youth programme for all golfers in south korea and have schools of excellence also
soccer is very popular over there,it's the most popular team sport so that would take a lot of potential male golfers out of the equation in terms of becoming pro golfers

Conor J

Read an article on that :

It begins and ends with parenting: Korean parents raise their kids a little differently than American parents do. Okay, a lot differently. What Americans consider "pushing" their kids, Koreans consider right and proper. The more freestyle approach used by American parents—let kids have time to be kids— Koreans consider borderline irresponsible.
Leaving children to make their own decisions would be disastrous. Every moment of time is accounted for: children are in school, in an after-school tutoring program, or in a sports activity until it's time to go to bed and start all over again the next day. Yes, it's hard, but it's a competitive world out there and the role of the parent is to teach the child to be successful in it.


Once Se Ri Pak helped put Korea on the map by winning the 1998 U.S. Women's Open, golf became a national pastime there. The floodgates opened. Korean women had a new path to success, so the obsession became not just golf, but training daughters to become professional golfers.
And when Koreans set a goal, they put everything they have into reaching it. Nothing is done halfway.


If goes on... you can read it all here..



http://www.worldgolf.com/column/why-korean-golfers-are-dominating-lpga-tour-5643.htm

postalservice

Conor J wrote:

Once Se Ri Pak helped put Korea on the map by winning the 1998 U.S. Women's Open, golf became a national pastime there. The floodgates opened. Korean women had a new path to success, so the obsession became not just golf, but training daughters to become professional golfers. ]

I remember a commentator saying how she had a very weird upbringing. An extremely sheltered life. She left the game for a while to experience new things....such as using a washing machine

Mi Hyun Kim was another Korean who has been around for a long time. She's around 5 foot tall and carries/carried a 7 AND 9 wood and her irons are graphite shaft with beginner like looking clubfaces. Funky swing...

GreeBo

postalservice wrote: »

Mi Hyun Kim was another Korean who has been around for a long time. She's around 5 foot tall and carries/carried a 7 AND 9 wood and her irons are graphite shaft with beginner like looking clubfaces. Funky swing...

and would still kick all of our asses

dvemail

I could be wrong but i think that the korean men have to join the army for two years which could hinder their golfing career. The women do not have to do this so they are uninteruppted in this.
So maybe we could have had the same situation in mens golf had it not been for their army.