With each Olympic golf year, the debate is sure to rage more than it has in past editions.
Where does this competition stand within the professional golf landscape? We know what that answer is on the women’s side. Qualifying is intense and winning a medal could be career-defining. For the men, most would agree the Olympics does not come close to reaching major championship or Ryder Cup status; maybe it isn’t even considered on par with high-tier PGA Tour events.
But for two particular male players, winning an Olympic medal could literally mean getting to stay on the golf course to preserve their successful careers.
Si Woo Kim and Sungjae Im, the South Korean representatives, could avoid the military service their country requires if they were to win a medal this week. All men in South Korea must serve between 18-21 months depending on which branch they go into – it’s a requirement upon turning 19 years old, but can be delayed for legitimate reasons like working or studying abroad. For the vast majority, that delay can’t be prolonged forever. By no later than your mid-30’s, and typically much earlier than that, the service must begin.
For athletes, there are generally two accomplishments that grant you an exemption: Earning a gold medal in the Asian Games, which for golf is an amateur-only competition held every four years, or you can earn any medal at the Olympic Games. That’s it. There have been special cases over the years, such as the 2002 World Cup in soccer where the South Korean team, a co-host of the event, was offered an exemption opportunity before the tournament. If they made the round of 16, it was determined, all 23 men would be exempt. The team reached the semifinals during a Cinderella run, clinching the exemptions. A similar situation occurred at the 2006 World Baseball Classic where it was decided that a semifinal appearance would be good enough for the South Korean squad to receive an exemption. That team was also successful, finishing third in the tournament.
Still, the window is a narrow one. For golfers like Kim and Im, their accomplishments to this point do not offer any relief from the military service. Kim, 26, has won three times on the PGA Tour, including the Players Championship, while Im, 23, is a one-time PGA Tour winner and former Rookie of the Year. That’s far from obscurity, but not enough to get out of their duties. Neither would winning the Masters, being on a winning Presidents Cup team or anything of the sort.
It comes down to the two paths available for golfers. Neither of them won a gold medal as an amateur during the Asian Games, something several other South Koreans have accomplished. Recent PGA Tour winners Sung Kang (2006) and K.H. Lee (2010) were a part of teams that won gold (unlike Olympic golf which is purely an individual contest, there is a team component to golf at the Asian Games), while K.T. Kim (2006) and Whee Kim (2010) have earned individual gold medals. All of those players, while less successful than Si Woo Kim or Sungjae Im at the pro level, do not have to serve because of their performance in the Asian Games.
Kim turned pro as a 17-year-old in 2012, in between the 2010 Asian Games he wasn’t selected for and the 2014 contest that didn’t jibe with his plans. Im didn’t make the team in 2014 and turned pro a year later.
The Olympics is the only path remaining for the two brightest stars in South Korean golf. If neither grabs one of the top three positions this time around, the next Olympics won’t be until Kim is 29 and Im is 26. It’s uncertain whether this is their last opportunity or if there will be others along the way.
Jon Rahm, prior to testing positive for COVID-19 and not playing in the Olympics, was stunned when told about the mandatory military service Kim and Im faced.
“Well, I would say if we’re fighting for fourth and third place, I’m open for bribing if he needs me to make a three-putt on the last hole,” Rahm said. “We can always talk about it. I like Korean food. We can always talk about it.”
It may be hard to believe for some, but it’s a reality for Kim and Im. Both players skipped the Open Championship to prepare for the Olympics. For them, this is a bigger stage than golf’s oldest major. Talking about avoiding military service is not embraced in the Korean culture — the “fairness” element of all men, no matter their popularity or financial status, having to serve is a factor taken quite seriously — so Kim and Im were naturally understated when discussing the topic the day before the Olympic Golf tournament began.
“I know it’s true that if we earn a medal the Korean government will exempt us from serving military, but I don’t really, like, focus or think about the service in the military,” Kim said. “My only goal is to win the championship and get a medal and be honored.”
Added Im: “I only focus and think about winning the games, not the military problem.”
It’s a unique scenario in South Korean golf. The country’s most famous men’s players, K.J. Choi and Y.E. Yang, served in the military well before establishing themselves as pro golfers. Choi didn’t play in a PGA Tour event until he was 28, many years after his service, and would go on to win eight times while earning more than $32 million. Yang, the country’s only male major winner, enlisted when he was 21, a full 16 years before his victory in the 2009 PGA Championship.
Other PGA Tour players like Kevin Na and Charlie Wi were born in South Korea and spent a good portion of their childhoods there, but moving to the U.S. as youngsters meant they no longer had to serve.
It’s not farfetched to say that this week could save both Kim and Im’s careers. There is no guarantee that the military service won’t wreck what they have built to this point.
The one recent example of a South Korean player having to commit to military service could be considered a scary one for Kim and Im. Sangmoon Bae won two PGA Tour events from May 2013 to October 2014 and played a starring role in the 2015 Presidents Cup on home soil – he went undefeated in three team sessions before losing the last singles match to Bill Haas as the Internationals narrowly lost.
He didn’t play another tournament for 23 months. Bae held a U.S. green card but had spent too much time in South Korea to qualify him for an overseas resident permit. He became a private first-class in the 36th infantry, serving as a rifleman.
His salary was $2,000 a year starting in November of 2015 when he enlisted. He had made $2.6 million the previous PGA Tour season.
“If he gets the privilege just because he is an excellent athlete who could make a fortune during his prime, it could demoralize everyone who does not have the privilege,” a statement from the court read in its decision that Bae’s green card status did not absolve him of his duties.
Bae enlisted when he was 28 and came back to golf in August of 2017. The PGA Tour created a mandatory obligation exemption for Bae, which operated the same as a major medical, giving him a certain amount of starts to collect enough points to earn full status.
The comeback never materialized. Bae looked like a consistent top 50 player in the world when he left. When he came back, he was a shell of himself. Now he is No. 933-ranked player.
Seung-yul Noh, a PGA Tour winner in 2014, recently served from 2017 to 2019, but it was more of a paper pusher role where he worked from home and practiced golf on the weekends. Still, his comeback has been disappointing as well, having missed nine cuts in 14 tour starts.
Kim and Im are incredibly talented, especially the 27th-ranked Im. He could easily be a top 20 player in the world for years to come, but the question of military service will continue to loom over his development unless he captures a medal this week. Im played on the Japan Tour in 2016 and 2017 prior to his explosion on the PGA Tour, so he could have a distinct advantage this week at Kasumigaseki Country Club.
It’s not farfetched to say that this week could save both Kim and Im’s careers. There is no guarantee that the military service won’t wreck what they have built to this point.
It will always be the case that some players just don’t connect with Olympic golf or feel an obligation to compete for country and glory. It may never mean much to them, and it may never rise to major championship status.
But for two players this week, it’s a big deal. It may be the biggest golf tournament of their lives.