South Korea and women's golf

[Lamar_Mundane]

From this weekend’s LPGA tournament -

Jeong Jang (Winner)
Mi Hyun Kim (5)
Gloria Hee Jung Park (T6)
Seon Hwa Lee (T10)
Hee-Won Han (T10)
Shi Hyun Ahn (T17)
Young Jo (T22)
Sun Young Yoo (T22)
Yu Ping Lin
Se Ri Pak
Sung Ah Yim
Young Kim
Il Mi Chung
Jee Young Lee
Kyeong Bae
Christina Kim
Joo Mi Kim
Soo Young Moon

That’s 18 of the 72 players who finished the tournament from a country with 1/6th the population of the US. The remaining 54 players come from a host of countries, off the top of my head are Japan, Taiwan, USA, Canada, Australia, Mexico, and a bunch of European countries.

The strange thing is that 10 years ago there were few if any Koreans playing. Also odd is that as far as I know, there is only one Korean playing at a high level on the men’s tour.

What are they doing over there to develop so many top level female players so quickly?

[EllisDee]

@Lamar Mundane

What are they doing over there to develop so many top level female players so quickly?

Well, my gut reaction was “they blew up all the tennis courts.” But googling “tennis courts in korea” brought up this page, which mentions:

Golf
WIth golf being a symbol of status, the sport has taken the country by storm, and dozens of golf clubs have sprung up all around the peninsula. Membership and greens fees are drastically cheaper than in Japan or the States, so even during the recent depressed economy, many golfers are out in force. Several years ago, then president Kim, Young-sam tried to dissuade government leaders from playing golf, as part of his austerity drive, yet many refused to give up their favorite pastime. The popularity of LPGA golfer Pak, Se-ri has increased the interest in golf among younger Koreans as well.