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Where EAST meets the Northwest
LEADING LADIES. Half of the 2007 top-ten money leaders of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) are of South Korean heritage. Five of the last nine LPGA Rookies of the Year were South Korean, and 45 of the golfers on this year’s tour are from South Korea. Pictured is Seon Hwa Lee, of South Korea, as she watches her tee shot this spring at the Sybase Classic in Clifton, N.J. As of October 29, Lee was number six on the LPGA money leaderboard. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
From The Asian Reporter, V17, #45 (November 6, 2007), page 9.
Asians in American sports * Asian Americans in world sports
An avalanche of South Korean talent on the LPGA
By Mike Street
Special to The Asian Reporter
When Se-Ri Pak won the 1998 Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) U.S. Open, it was her rookie year on the tour and not many people in the U.S. knew who she was. But in her homeland of South Korea, Pak’s victory was the first trickling stone of an avalanche of women’s golf talent, one which threatens to bury the field from any other country. Interestingly, it’s a phenomenon associated with the women’s tour, leaving South Korean men far behind.
K.J. Choi, the most successful Asian golfer in Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) history, is South Korea’s only representative on the top-ten PGA money winners list this season — in fact, he’s the only South Korean until you get down to #82, Charlie Wi.
The LPGA 2007 money leaderboard, on the other hand, is littered with South Korean women: half of the top ten are from South Korea. Mi Hyun Kim, Seon Hwa Lee, Jeon Jang, Angela Park (born in Brazil, but of South Korean heritage), and Jee Young Lee fill out the fourth through eighth and tenth spots, respectively. What caused this massive infiltration, this glut of golfers from a country most of us associate with high-tech electronics and scary border confrontations with its northern neighbor?
Jennifer Mario of worldgolf.com, who spent some time in South Korea herself, ascribes it to the Korean family ethic. As she says, Korean parents aren’t afraid to push their kids into lucrative careers because their culture puts the needs of the family above almost anything else. Americans want our kids to have carefree childhoods, but South Koreans are more interested in success for their progeny — and therefore the family.
This surely goes a long way toward explaining how parents might induce their kids to practice so their swings become the perfectly modelled arcs that LPGA tour commentators associate with South Korean women. But it can hardly explain how, in the nine years since Pak’s breakthrough victory, they’ve come to dominate this sport. A better measure might be to look at the persistence, as much as the performance, of these five Asian women.
True to cliché, these women have worked hard at their sport, competing in as many tournaments as possible. Of the 26 LPGA events this season, four of the top-ten South Korean money winners never missed more than two tournaments (Kim missed two and Jee Young Lee is the slacker of the group, missing four). For comparison’s sake, look at LPGA superstars like Annika Sorenstam and Juli Inkster, also in the top-ten money list — they missed 15 and eight tournaments, respectively. Of the 20 women golfers who missed two or fewer events, 11 hail from South Korea. Simply put, if you’re playing, it’s easier to make money.
These South Korean women aren’t proficient at winning just yet. Of the five South Koreans who are big money winners, only two are in the top ten of golfers with top ten tournament finishes. Park and Seon Hwa Lee are the worst, tied for 17th — which is still pretty good — but clearly persistence (and consistency) is the key to their dominance on the LPGA tour. Mi Hyun Kim agrees with this, saying of her countrywomen, "They practice hard, always practice hard. Korean people [on the tour] are always on the driving range with their parents."
They’re young as well as good. Five of the last nine LPGA Rookies of the Year were South Korean, and 45 of the golfers on this year’s tour are from South Korea, nine times as many as played when Se Ri Pak won her first tournament. Of those stellar money-leading five, only Seon Hwa Lee debuted on the tour in the last millennium. Park is a rookie this year — and already in the top ten! Jeon Jang warns, "There are many, many excellent players back home, both younger ones and ones who don’t want to come to America because it’s so far from home."
Until they overcome that fear, LPGA players from other countries had better be happy for the time they have. This South Korean avalanche is only getting bigger.