Korean womens' golfers

[papathawki]

For lack of anything else on sports on TV right now I'm watching the USGA US Open. The winner will finish in a few minutes (she has a 5 stroke lead on the last hole) and the announcer just commented that this will be the 5th winner of this tournament in the last 6 years from Korea. Anyone else wonder why?

 

[papathawki]

For lack of anything else on sports on TV right now I'm watching the USGA US Open. The winner will finish in a few minutes (she has a 5 stroke lead on the last hole) and the announcer just commented that this will be the 5th winner of this tournament in the last 6 years from Korea. Anyone else wonder why?

Typo--sorry. US LPGA tournament.

 

[shrimpster4]

I thought there was something on tv about this not to long ago about how they are just now getting to be relevant. I think it had something to do with the war and how they had nowhere to play.

 

[SamsonHawk515]

They play golf like it is there job literally as soon as they are capable. If you are a good enough golfer you are sent to a dorm style practice facility and play golf 8-10 hours a day the girls barely go to school they are strictly taught how to be the best golfers in the world.

There was an HBO Real Sports with Gumbel a few weeks back that tells the story. Also, something like 140 of the top 500 women golfers in the world are from Korea its crazy.

If you remeber Se Ri Pak when she won the LPGA USA Open, Korea went crazy over golf and this is why their women have begun to dominate the sport.

 

[BaryGarta]

Steroids.

 

[shonblatt]

They play golf like it is there job literally as soon as they are capable. If you are a good enough golfer you are sent to a dorm style practice facility and play golf 8-10 hours a day the girls barely go to school they are strictly taught how to be the best golfers in the world.

There was an HBO Real Sports with Gumbel a few weeks back that tells the story. Also, something like 140 of the top 500 women golfers in the world are from Korea its crazy.

If you remeber Se Ri Pak when she won the LPGA USA Open, Korea went crazy over golf and this is why their women have begun to dominate the sport.

I saw that same feature on HBO - once Se Ri Pak won a major, it triggered a girl's golf revolution in South Korea that you have to see to believe. Super interesting story - on the same Real Sports episode that featured Lolo Jones, I think.

 

[homes]

For lack of anything else on sports on TV right now I'm watching the USGA US Open. The winner will finish in a few minutes (she has a 5 stroke lead on the last hole) and the announcer just commented that this will be the 5th winner of this tournament in the last 6 years from Korea. Anyone else wonder why?

Why? You must play good golf, or you are nothing. Not a lot of joy when you watch them play. Call it what you want, but it's hurting the popularity of the LPGA, to the extent it could be considered popular in the first place.

 

[wundergrape]

Why? You must play good golf, or you are nothing. Not a lot of joy when you watch them play. Call it what you want, but it's hurting the popularity of the LPGA, to the extent it could be considered popular in the first place.

Um...no. You act like it's compulsory or something. Like these girls are forced into the game. That's a load of hooey.

No, what really happened was akin to the chess boom in our country after Bobby Fischer took the world by storm in the 60s. When Se Ri Pak won the US Open 1998, with her iconic "legs in the water" shot - it was literally the first international sporting success that South Korea had - and it made her easily the most famous South Korean overnight.

South Korean girls grow up playing the game because of her. Just like how I started playing basketball because of Michael Jordan, or how Latinos started playing baseball because of Roberto Clemente. Golf has become part of the social fabric in that country because of what Pak accomplished, plain and simple.

 

[homes]

Um...no. You act like it's compulsory or something. Like these girls are forced into the game. That's a load of hooey.

No, what really happened was akin to the chess boom in our country after Bobby Fischer took the world by storm in the 60s. When Se Ri Pak won the US Open 1998, with her iconic "legs in the water" shot - it was literally the first international sporting success that South Korea had - and it made her easily the most famous South Korean overnight.

South Korean girls grow up playing the game because of her. Just like how I started playing basketball because of Michael Jordan, or how Latinos started playing baseball because of Roberto Clemente. Golf has become part of the social fabric in that country because of what Pak accomplished, plain and simple.

I do agree that it was Pak who started the movement.