The Boys From Busan

Professional Amateurs

Veteran Philippine professional Danny Zarate spotted them first. Chips were being chipped, putts were rolling in. Nothing too unusual at the Southwoods Golf and Country Club south of Manila, except the chippers and putters were Korean. Korean kids; early teens at best.
“They’re all over the place,” Zarate said. “It’s the same at my home club Riveria, there’s young Koreans who do nothing but play golf all day. It’s been going on for a few years now.”
An Asian Tour television crew popped over for a chat and a “gosh-we-might-use-it-in-a-story-one-day” interview. The kids confirmed everything Zarate had said.
“We’re here to learn golf, we have a tutor for school work and we’re learning English,” said one of the youngsters. Their fathers, he said, took turns to spend a few days or weeks a month with their sons.
That, four years ago, got the young man a gig on an Asian Tour Weekly feature, along with others like him from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and further afield.
As the crew tracked the youngsters over the next few years once thick Korean accents transmogrified into twangs from the western suburbs of Sydney, rural New Zealand and Orange County, California. Today the results of the Korean golfing Diaspora are beginning starting to show.