Korea: something is happening south of the 38th parallel. It's become a breeding ground for a hot new export: lady glofers

Golf Digest, April, 2004 by Tom Callahan

"He loves his wife," Lee says, "but, how can I tell you? It's not easy to describe. He's Korean."

"I'm certain K.J. does love his wife most of the time," Kim says, "but, during golf, K.J. loves golf. I don't always love golf. Sometimes I hate it. But he never thinks of that. He thinks only of loving it. When we were together in Australia, I sometimes used to worry, 'He loves it too much. He'll never survive.' But he is a survivor."

Lee's and Kim's serious students are easy to identify on the range. Among the females, they are the ones not wearing two gloves. One little girl in a Tiger suit--black Nike ballcap, white golf shirt (left sleeve bunched up a little around the shoulder)--is aiming her driver at a great bull'seye suspended in the netting.

What are they taught first?

"The grip," Kim says.

"No," Lee begs to differ. "The etiquette."

By the way, who has been more influential in Korea's golf boom? Se Ri or Tiger?

"Se Ri," Lee says.

"Tiger," says Kim.

Woods, you know, thinks of himself as an Asian.

"Do you think of him as an Asian?" Kim asks.

No, I suppose not.

"Us neither," says Lee.

Kim has a question of his own.

"My littlest girls are worried now that they are growing up too slowly," he says, "that they are going to run out of time to make it to the LPGA. They ask me, 'Is the quota coming soon on the number of Asians and Koreans in the LPGA? Is the door about to close?'"

Of course not. The author of that idiocy, Jan Stephenson, was only straining to be interesting once again. She tried to retract the headline, but words like "they're killing the tour" don't take 15 hours to fly to Seoul.

"Obviously, most of these students," Kim says, "aren't nearly good enough. But all at least hope for a chance to reach the top place."

Isn't it interesting that, during the recent spectacle of women golfers testing themselves against men, only the Korean, Se Ri Pak, made her cut? Se Ri finished 10th on a regular tour stop against Korean men. (The nearest miss was by the remarkable 14-year-old, Michelle Wie, a Hawaii-born American with another omnipresent Korean father.)

"Women here have to do so many different things," Kim says. "Men just go out and come back and take a rest and watch the TV and eat and sleep and go out again. Women here have to be more versatile, so they are a little more creative and much more mentally tough."

American men wouldn't admit that if it were true.

"Korean men wouldn't deny it," Kim says, "if it were false."

Investigators found 7.5 billion won [$6.4 million] in cash yesterday piled up at the home of a construction company vice president. The executive, who was identified only as Mr. Hong, is suspected of embezzling funds from his company.

JoongAng Daily

Sam Won Garden is a restaurant, "a beautiful restaurant," a full block long with seating for more than 1,000. It's a fortress of painted pagodas and carved arches, wishing wells, water wheels and bridges, dreamily lit by strings of colored lanterns reflecting in pools of carp. Just outside the entrance is an electric signboard streaming constantly updated bulletins under the heading (in Korean, naturally) "The Grace Park News." Just inside the door is a portrait of Grace, the proprietor's daughter.