Korean Golf

I watched the USGA’s U.S. Women’s Open this weekend at Black Wolf Run golf course in Wisconsin, and was again impressed with the beauty and athleticism of most of the players. Obviously, I was more interested in their golf sots than in their looks. Obviously. The other thing that was noteworthy: the number of South Koreans who play so well. There are forty ladies from South Korea who play regularly on the American tour, many of them ranking in the top twenty. I find it remarkable that this tiny nation I visited in 1953 could become an industrial giant and the home of some of the best golfers in the world, women as well as men. In 1953 I remember looking out over a Korean valley green with rice paddies, dreaming about the chocolate shake I’d have when I got back home, imagining the golf holes I could create in that Korean valley. Nearly sixty years ago, the South Korea I experienced was war-torn and impoverished—most of the hills brown and desolated from the nearly constant shelling. And just look at it now. There very well might be a golf course right there where I envisioned it almost sixty years ago. Two Korean ladies, Amy Yang and Na Yeon Choi, battled down the back nine at Black Wolf Run, both well ahead of the rest of the field, although Na Yeon Choi easily won the battle with great shot after great shot to win by four over Yang, by eight over the third-place finisher Sandra Gal. Na Yeon Choi is twenty-four but looks fifteen, cute as a soaking-wet hundred-pound bug. I look forward to seeing more of her in the future.

Tomorrow we leave for our annual trip to South Dakota. We hope the upper tier heat wave will have passed by the time we get there. I'll try to keep this post going with whatever strikes my fancy while we're there.