The Astonishing Korean "Seoul Sisters" factor on the 2010 LPGA Tour

Just when we figured out how to pronounce Gulbis, Ochoa and Gustafson, sing-song, tongue-twisting names like Jiyai Shin, Eun-Hee Ji, Na Yeon Choi, Song-Hee Kim and Song Yi Choi are popping up on the first tier of the leaderboard.

As we move into the 2010 LPGA season, get ready. The Koreans are coming on strong.
Close to dominating the field, more than 40 Koreans have qualified to play in this year’s LPGA. Might be a good time to spring for Rosetta Stone’s Korean language course so you can keep up with it all on J Golf’s new Korean language website.

In addition to the new web site, J Golf, a burgeoning media entity in South Korea, is sponsoring a new LPGA tour event, the LPGA Classic in Carlsbad, California March 25-28.

It’s been a decade in the making, all starting when Se Ri Pak from South Korean burst onto the scene in 1998 to win the U.S. Women’s Open,. It was a definite Ah Ha moment for South Korean parents who grasped a bright new opportunity for their daughters.

If their girls displayed even a modicum of athletic promise, they pulled their girls out of public school and enrolled them in golf school, often when they were only eight to 10 years old, their small bodies just starting to mature.

It may seem harsh measures tor American moms and dads who hustle their kids form ballet lessons, to soccer to play dates and Disney but it helps to understand parents in South Korea do everything they can to encourage their children to excel in a field even when it means pushing them hard.

If this means their daughters might not graduate from high school, but succeed in becoming crack golfers, this is all part of the culture and accepted. Applauded.

On the girls’ part, knowing they are expected to work hard, they go after the game with great tenacity knowing they have total support from their parents. They learn the mechanics of the game, often standing for hours on the driving range and developing repetitive mechanical swings designed to hold up on tour.

If money is scarce, parents look for sponsorships from companies eager to contribute like Hi-Mart (Korea’s version of Best Buy).

Although Koreans aren’t the longest drivers in the game (there are some exceptions like Grace Park who could pound the ball regularly 280 yards), they have honed their putting and chipping skills to such a fine art, they are now some of the best short game players on the tour.

They may not have the physical prowess of American and European players like Natalie Gulbis, Susan Petersen and Anna Nordqvist, nor the grace of Lorena Ochoa, but through extremely hard work and persistence, they are arguably the players to beat in 2101.

Whereas Ochoa plays by instinct and feel, mechanics have been hard-wired into the Korean girls’ psyches through drills and practice, practice, practice. The Koreans are tough, disciplined workers, often practicing well after the others have called it a day.

“If you look at the caddies who work the hardest,” says David Brooker who has caddied for Ji Eun (Grace) Park, Ochoa and currently for Suzann Pettersen, “it’s the guys who caddy for the South Koreans.

“They use spirit levels on the greens and may take up to eight hours to measure the course. They have to pace off the chips and putts, measure the slopes. Their players want all the numbers. These caddies work so hard,” says Brooker.

It will be hard to pick just which Seoul Sister to watch. Last year Jiyai Shin, a plucky and very likable player standing just 5′1″ took home the Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year honors, three tour wins, and right up to the last event was a top contender for the Vare Trophy.

Song-Hee Kim earned more than $1 million this past season and Na Yeon Choi, just 23 years old, started playing when she was 10 years old and by 2008 had already earned more than a million dollars.

It’s may not be easy to tell a Kim from a Kim from a Kim from a Choi from a Choi so for some interesting insights check out www.seoulsisters.com dedicated to South Korean LPGA players.