Consider the current Rolex World Rankings*:
4 of the Top 10.
39 of the Top 100.
144 of the Top 500.
Astonishing numbers, right?
Since Se Ri Pak’s triumphant victory at the 1998 US Women’s Open, women’s golf in South Korea has taken off. The current world rankings clearly paint that picture.
For comparison, no other country has more than one player represented in the Top 10, and the USA ranks second, with 24 players in the Top 100.
In this article, jump to
Two reasons why South Korea dominates women’s golf
Who is Jiyai Shin
The importance of the Jump Tour and Dream Tour
About Ben Harpring
There are few realms in the world of sport that showcase such dominance, and the first tournament of the 2019 LPGA season was a prime example. The inaugural Tournament of Champions, January 17-20 in Orlando, Florida, featured LPGA winners from the previous two seasons. Of the thirty-six different champions, eleven had the Korean flag next to their name. The winner in Orlando? A Korean native, Eun Hee Ji.
So, what are the secrets to Korea’s consistently amazing success in women’s golf?
There must be something unique that separates a country the size of Indiana geographically, with a population roughly 16% that of the United States, from the rest of the golf world.
After traveling to Korea in 2018 for the LPGA International Crown and KEB Hana Bank Championship, and talking to people who have been living it, I believe the best explanation can be traced to a couple of sources.
Two Reasons Why South Korea Dominates Women’s Golf
Firstly, Korea has the best professional golf development program on the planet, and secondly, there were three shining stars (Se Ri Pak, Jiyai Shin, and So Yeon Ryu, who showed young girls across South Korea what was possible.
Veteran caddie, Dean Herden, has looped for some of the games’ best players. Most notably, he worked with Jiyai Shin during her ascension to World Number One (she took over the top spot in 2010). Herden was also on the bag for So Yeon Ryu during her 2011 US Women’s Open victory, as well as In Gee Chun during her groundbreaking victory at the 2015 US Women’s Open. He makes his home in Korea and witnessed first hand the meteoric rise of women’s golf in the country.
In 1998 a group of ten-year-old girls saw a fellow countrywoman reign victorious at the world’s most iconic, and (arguably) important, women’s golf major championship. According to Herden, by 2007 and 2008 there were at least six or seven Korean players, including Jiyai, playing on Tour born in 1988. These young women were often referred to as “Se Ri’s Kids.”
With Jiyai leading this wave of dominate golfers, Korea started to take the LPGA en masse. Beginning five to seven years ago, “Jiyai’s Kids” began to make their mark on tour. “Jiyai was a great personality, still is I should say. She was very personable to the players, (made) lots of friends. She would stop and talk to other players if they asked a question, and would give them 100% attention, and give them a really good answer.”
“I felt Jiyai was an icebreaker. There was a bit of spitefulness going on between the Americans and Koreans,” recalled Herden of Shin’s disarming appeal when she arrived on tour in 2008.
He continued, “Cristie Kerr (would) walk up to me and say, ‘Jeez, I like Jiyai!’ So, this is where you found, oh wow, this has come together nicely. The LPGA is getting better.”
After Jiyai, another up-and-coming star broke through. Herden says, “So Yeon Ryu was an icebreaker because of her English.” The rest of the world began to see that Korean women could not just play but had loads of personality as well.
Se Ri proved to be the bolt of lightning that sparked a country toward future dominance in the women’s game. Jiyai, inspired by Pak’s legendary performance, took things to a new level. Like a gathering storm, during her rookie season on the KLPGA Tour in 2006, Shin won three times. In 2007 she won 10 times in 19 starts and had an additional six victories in the 2008 season. With a bonafide superstar at the helm, the Tour was entering uncharted waters. Jiyai’s success propelled the Tour into a restructuring process. In 2006 the KLPGA Tour had just 17 tournaments on the schedule. By 2008, there were 27.
During this expansion, plans to create a stepping-stone-like process for professionals, and aspiring professionals began to emerge. This is where women’s golf in Korea truly began to separate itself.
Much like the minor league baseball farm system in the US, the KLPGA wanted to create a system which allowed female golfers to compete against those with comparable skill level. We have seen the young phenom in a variety of sports take the professional plunge too soon. The results have, many times, been tough to watch. By creating a path to the KLPGA based on results, the burnouts happen less frequently. Another byproduct of this system is a consistent flow of highly competitive professional golfers, which was the ultimate goal.
The Importance of the Korean Jump Tour and Dream Tour
The first stop on the road to the KLPGA Tour is the Jump Tour. The Jump Tour is comprised of professional golfers, but to fill tournament fields, amateurs are asked to enter. While amateurs cannot accept prize money, they earn points for their results. If the player earns enough points, the KLPGA will offer a Dream Tour membership. The Dream Tour is the secondary tour to the KLPGA and is comparable to the LPGA’s Symetra Tour. While players have to give up their amateur status, Herden says, “think about it, you’ve found out that you’re making the grade.” From there, players that make enough prize money are offered membership on the KLPGA Tour.
During my visit to South Korea last fall, I spoke with members of the KLPGA Tour, and Dream Tour, to get their perspective on things. I asked Seon Woo Bae, a star on the KLPGA Tour, how the path from the Dream Tour to the KLPGA, and possibly to the LPGA, helps the development of Korean players. She said, “Even if we just take lessons a lot, performance doesn’t get better. Performance is developed by the actual competition through real tournaments. Dream Tour let us improve our performance and prepare for playing on the KLPGA Tour because its system is quite similar.”
Bae explained, “For me, the experience that I got from the Dream Tour is the best one. I won once at Dream Tour, and that winning experience made me more comfortable and confident so that I could play well from the beginning of my KLPGA tour (career).”
The results speak for themselves. The last four LPGA Rookie of the year winners have come from the KLPGA. Sei Young Kim (2015), In Gee Chun (2016), Sung Hyun Park (2017), and Jin Young Ko (2018). What do they all have in common? Each player was a prolific winner in Korea. The LPGA Tour? Sure, it is the most competitive professional women’s golf tour in the world. However, by the time the majority of KLPGA “graduates” decide to take up LPGA membership, “rookie” is just a word. There is nothing about their game, or experience, that even begins to resemble rookie.
Seong Yeoun Lee was the money leader on the Dream Tour last season and played in the 2018 LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship. I asked her if she thought a similar stepping-stone process would help with player development in other countries. Lee said, “Of course it must be helpful for other countries’ players and their golf industry. Dream Tour lets players who play a similar level compete with each other. That gives you the experience. If there’s no system or structure like Dream Tour and Jump Tour, I think there’s no chance to improve ourselves.” She also explains, “I think if I played well in KLPGA Tour, I could also do well in global tours like the LPGA and JLPGA. Therefore, I strongly believe that the Dream Tour is one of the most important gates to improve myself. It’s definitely a meaningful process heading to the real professional world.”
There has been a surge in Korean women’s golf the last two decades. From icon Se Ri Pak to icebreaker Jiyai Shin and supreme talent Sung Hyun Park, there is nothing quite like women’s golf in Korea. With several extraordinary, and inspirational, women to look up to, and a development system in place to usher in superstars for the foreseeable future, South Korea is set to continue its dynastic run of dominance for years to come.
*Rolex Rankings as at 01.28.19
Feature Photo: Korean superstar So Yeon Ryu at the 2018 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship | Photo: Ben Harpring
