Published: November 05, 2009 10:53 pm      

‘Their whole life revolves around golf’

South Korea is dominating the LPGA Tour. Is the PGA next in line?

Quick. Who’s the leading money winner on the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour this week?

If you said Ji-Yai Shin, you either cheated or need to get a life other than an abnormal fascination for golf statistics.

The fact is that South Korean women have pretty much taken over the LPGA Tour. Of the top 30 money winners this week, 12 were born in South Korea.

The question is “Why?,” or perhaps “How?.”

Korea’s Hyo-Joo Kim has seven birdies in her first two rounds at The Spirit International Golf Tournament, being played this week at Whispering Pines. She’s tied for third in the individual women’s competition behind the USA’s Lexi Thompson at nine. Three others have eight.

Kim said she began hitting balls at her father’s friend’s driving range when she was six.

“Very hard training,” was her response to why Koreans dominate the women’s tour. She practices nine hours a day, she said through her coach/interpreter, Min-Seok Koo.

“She wants to be professional,” Koo said. “She wants to play LPGA.”

Paula Creamer, the LPGA player who is the USA team’s non-playing captain, competes against the Koreans at every tournament. Creamer ranked 10th in LPGA money this week, with three Koreans, including Shin, ahead of her.

“They’re good players,” Creamer said. “They practice a lot. Their whole life revolves around golf.”

Creamer also believes that there are fewer “distractions” for Korean athletes. While we have football, baseball and basketball as major sports and many others as semi-majors, Koreans are pretty well focused on baseball and soccer and their relatively newfound interest in golf.

That interest started for the women in 1998 when Se-Ri Pak won the U.S. Women’s Open. Some have gone so far as to say that after that event golf became a national pastime there. Pak still plays on the LPGA Tour at the age of 32, is now in the World Golf Hall of Fame and this week ranked 29th in earnings.

Some have studied the question even harder than a few random interviews. The Samsung Economic Research Institute concluded that the keys to Korean success are full-time parental support, Confucian self-restraint and the financial backing of corporations.

“All work and no play may make Jack a dull boy,” said SERI researcher Min-Hoon Lee. “But that is not the case for Korean female golfers. They are workhorses who pay attention only to golf.

“For instance, Ji-Yai Shin got over the misery of losing her mother in a car accident through playing golf harder and harder. That is the secret of her success.”

The Korean golfer at The Spirit tournament who is most fluent in English is Bum-Geun Chae. He’s in fifth place in birdies among the men with seven. He didn’t mince words in assessing the Koreans’ strengths.

“Good concentration. Patience. Practice a lot,” he said.

He also hopes to play here as a professional on the men’s tour but believes he needs “more experience.” He only started when he was 13, is now 18, and for the last two years “practiced hard.”

“I didn’t play for a long time compared to the others,” he said.

Then again, neither did Y. E. Yang, who took up the game when he was 19. This August at the age of 37, Yang did the unthinkable and seemingly impossible, defeating Tiger Woods for the PGA Championship with Woods leading going into the final round.

Some speculate that what Pak did for women’s golf in Korea, Yang’s win will do for Korean men.

People woke up before dawn to watch the PGA’s final round, including president Myung-Bak Lee, who later called Yang to offer his congratulations. Driving ranges were filled before work that Monday morning.

One golf tour conquered, one to go.