Not with the proverbial whimper but a bang. That’s how the South Koreans are getting back to business in the wake of their experiences with the coronavirus. They are opening with a major, the Korea LPGA Championship. And how, when May 14 comes round, we’re all going to enjoy what will be our first sight of live golf in months.
Two of the world’s top 10 – Sei Young Kim and Jeongeun Lee6 – are down to play in Yangju for a prize fund of $1.8 million. Full details of the event – these including the situation with regard to spectators – will unfurl alongside the latest updates on what will hopefully continue to be a dwindling number of COVID-19 cases.
The careful planning behind the event is entirely in keeping with the way the country has handled the pandemic. From the moment they had their first case, they had a plan. Close as they are to China, where the virus had its origins, the South Koreans were able to avoid shutting down their economy through widespread quarantine measures and endless testing. To give one telling statistic, on 29 February, 700 people tested positive in the primary South Korean outbreak city of Daegu. Yet by 15 March, the number of new cases in that city was down to 41. For another pertinent fact, on Tuesday, South Korea had just nine new cases overall, with the country’s total number of deaths at 237.
Their thorough approach is no different from the one which has gone hand in hand with their golf since Se-Ri Pak prompted South Korean girls everywhere to lay down their violins and pick up a set of clubs.
Practice? They can do it for six to eight hours at a time without wilting.
Putting? They are not content to watch their putts dribble in the side of the hole when they are working on their 6-footers. They have to see the ball drop in the middle of the cup.
Training? The KLPGA take the top squads out to Jeju Island in the worst of winter and, even when the temperatures are substantially below freezing, the girls don’t retreat to the clubhouse. Why? Because, as Inbee Park once told me, no one would want to be the first to suggest such a thing. She was not looking for pity, she was laughing.
So Yeon Ryu was another with interesting thoughts on how her countrywomen differed, say, to U.S. or British golfers. Far from believing that the South Korean women’s stack of major titles has most to do with long hours on the range, Ryu focuses on the “mental training” they have in their earliest years.
It’s not known whether the South Korean players will be wearing protective masks for their early tournaments back. But, if they are, you can rest assured that they will be television-ready rather than wearing anything in the way of makeshift gear.
“As babies,” she began, “Koreans are encouraged to keep their emotions in check; crying and noisy scenes are not condoned. What they learn from that is a degree of self-control, which is a huge help when it comes to the different demands of tournament play.”
What she was saying took one back to the 2016 Evian Championship, where Ryu finished in a share of second place. When the women had to negotiate pouring rain and sodden greens at the start of the final round, the South Korean players looked altogether less concerned about the situation than most as they splashed their way along the fairways dressed in waterproofs which, like the hospital kit their doctors and nurses have been donning over the last few months, was 100 percent up to the mark.
It’s not known whether the South Korean players will be wearing protective masks for their early tournaments back. But, if they are, you can rest assured that they will be television-ready rather than wearing anything in the way of makeshift gear. It’s how they are, and they wouldn’t consider doing things differently.
Inbee Park, the most famous South Korean player of them all, has indicated that she is at her U.S. base and preparing for the start of the LPGA Tour. Without a doubt, she will be much missed.
However, South Korea has a veritable galaxy of stars, with every one of them set to contribute to this welcome light at the end of golf’s tunnel.
The KLPGA have said that they want to deliver “a message of hope.” And this is it.