The 2017 Korea Golf Index, recently released by the Korea Golf Association, said the golf population was 6.36 million. Considering the fact that the number of spectators entering the most popular professional baseball league in Korea was 8.4 million last year, the golf population in Korea is enormous.

A Japanese golf media outlet reported the announcement under the title “6.7 million Japanese golfers and 6.36 million Korean golfers?”Japan’s productivity headquarters announced that Japan’s golf population was 6.7 million last year.Japan, a country with a population of 126.8 million, is also a golf giant with more than 2,200 golf courses.It is strange if Korea and Japan, which have a population of less than half that of Japan and about 500 golf courses, have similar golf populations. When looking at LPGA and PGA competitions, Koreans’ performance is particularly outstanding.In the women’s competition, Koreans and Koreans are definitely ranked in the top rankings. It’s really a tremendous standout.

The director of the Korea Leisure Industry Research Institute explains, “It was caused by different definitions of the golf population.”According to a 2017 social survey conducted by the National Statistical Office last year, Korea’s golf population was about 3.86 million, the Korea Leisure Industry Research Institute estimated.The National Statistical Office said it surveyed about 39,000 household members aged 13 or older residing in 25,704 sample households, and 6.7 percent of them went out to golf courses at least once within a year.

Their average number of rounds was 9.4 per year.Based on the total number of golf course visitors (36.31 million) and the average number of rounds (9.4 times), the Korea Leisure Industry Institute calculated that the golf population in Korea was 3.87 million.In other words, only one person played the round on the golf course with the golf population.Both Japan and the United States calculate the golf population on this basis. Based on this standard, the U.S. golf population is 23.75 million as of last year.The 6.36 million golf population announced by the Korea Golf Association included “people who have played golf more than once in golf courses, indoor and outdoor golf practice ranges, and screen golf courses over the past year.”In other words, the meaning of the “golf population” was different from that of Japan, which does not count as the golf population for those who only went to the practice range.Even so, the fact that Korea’s golf fever is never inferior to golf giants the United States and Japan remains unchanged. Statistics show that golf is a popular sport enjoyed by the middle class, he said. “The government policy and the golf industry should recognize that golf has become popular enough and carry out policy and marketing activities.” Currently, however, the Korean golf industry, especially golf courses, costs about $200, and membership is about $100,000 to $1 million. Booking of popular golf courses is full bookings because it is only packed every weekday and weekend, and it is more expensive than anywhere else in the United States, Japan, and Europe. Due to this popularity, Korea is now seen as a flood of golf club brands and golf clothing.Various TV channels broadcast domestic and foreign competitions and even organize channels with celebrities. Even the lesson academy, teaching professionals, tour professionals, etc. focus the public’s attention

KilSung Choi

ASIA JOURNAL

Television trends of South Korea have traditionally been marked with tides of seasonal fads that ebbed and flowed across the entire nation, which often produced sizable crazes that extended well beyond the scope of media enterprises. We’ve seen them migrate from parenting shows to cooking series, from singing auditions to vocal competitions, from hip hop to Trot music, and the list is far from exhaustive. And this time, golf might be our newest addition.

It all started from a slew of celebrities who started filming and publishing golf contents through their personal YouTube channels. Kim Gu-ra, a Korean comedian and TV personality, was one of the leaders in this regard, whose channel now commands over 300 thousand subscribers. By all means, it was a profitable business from the start, as his popularity warranted a handsome amount of followers from the beginning — his very first video now rates just slightly short of a million views — and it synergized well with a stable, constant source of contents for senior viewership: golf.

The list of celebrities now includes some of the most popular Korean comedians, singers, and actors, including Kim Guk-jin, Jang Dong-min, Hong In-kyu, Seven, and Lim Hyung-jun, all of whom now boast a substantial amount of subscribers of their own. Korean YouTube scene is flooding with fields of green, with an increasing number of celebrities expecting to additionally join in.

The trend now proliferated over to the popular media. National broadcasters, from SBS to KBS, and cable and pay television networks, from TV Chosun, MBN, to JTBC, now entertain their own franchises of golf series.They are hosted by big name TV personalities and often manage to invite impressive lists of celebrity guests, who happily join in for a round or two in front of the cameras.

Unlike past television fads in Korea however, golf has yet to become a definitive, universal trend among Koreans, with none of the shows having reached over 7% viewership even at their peaks. Some may attribute this to the inherent limits of golf’s popularity — its failure to appeal to broader ranges of generations, especially the young. We have, however, seen the success of Trot music shows, which paved their ways onto over 30% viewership even without respectable support from younger generations.

It might instead be due to a lack of single, decisive series that leads the trend on its back. Golf has not had what Superstar K did to singing auditions, what Chef & My Fridge did to cooking series, what Show Me the Money did to Hip Hop, or what Miss Trot did to Trot music. The current trends toward golf largely revolve around a number of shows that have grasped enough viewers to ensure and sustain their makings, but not quite enough to obtain any further — and surely not enough to produce a distinct, overarching craze that sweeps over the entire nation.

The golf industry, nevertheless, is on a rise, at an unprecedented pace and over a vast range. Despite two consecutive years under Covid-19 outbreaks, the Korean golf industry has enjoyed exceptional growth and expansion in all aspects, especially with its popularity proliferating to the younger generations. Shinhan Investment Corp. reports that the number of golf participants in Korea stood at roughly 5.15 million in 2020, with 450 thousand newcomers estimatedly having joined the fields last year. It has additionally been analyzed that 26.5% of these added populations fall within the age ranges of 20s and 30s, attesting to golf’s growing sway on the millennial culture.

While it is unclear whether the media trends have directly been  translated into their success, or these trends are merely reflective of the booming business, it is an undoubtable fact that golf is now enjoyed by more Koreans than ever. But is the trend here to stay? Will it mark another period for Korean popular media? We’ll have to wait and see.

Hyungchul Kim

K-UNIV Reporter

Photo by Gabe Roux

On June 26, 2017, So-yeon Ryu won the championship at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship with an 18-under-par, 195 in total. It is her second win since the first major championship at the ANA Inflation Championship in April. After winning the LPGA event in Arkansas over the weekend, Ryu has risen to No.1 in the Women’s Golf World Rankings. She became the third player this year to rise to No.1 in the Women’s World Golf World Rankings after Jiyai Shin and Inbee Park.

So-yeon Ryu has always been a strong player on the tour, but she had no luck in the championship. However, she went a step closer to the championship last year with a swing correction. According to her interview, she said that she practiced the swing correction, and it is hard to change. She feels both fun and stress every day, but still enjoys golf very much. With such enthusiasm and efforts, Ryu finally won the LPGA Tour’s 2nd prize in 2017, the first place in the prize-list, and the first place in the world ranking. She had not received much attention in the past, but due to her winning the LPGA Tour in April, she received a lot of media attention. Unfortunately, some media have focused on her family history, and rumors about the champagne or water ceremony which were requested to be banned by the LPGA. I think the role of the media is to accurately assess and inform a lighting of So-yeon, Rye as a player itself rather than gossip.

Dean Lee
K-Herald Korea
(Los Angeles Times Advertising Supplement)