On the 3rd Feb I packed my bags and left for the Korean Tour School which was being held in Malaysia. My travel companion was a good friend, Richard Talsma, who would also be competing at the tour school.

We flew direct into Singapore and made our way across the border up to the Pulai Springs resort in Johor, Malaysia (http://www.pulaisprings.com/). Pulai Springs is a very impressive resort, once ranked in the top 50 golf resorts in the world. This was our home for the week and because the resort catered for nearly everything we required only one trip into town was necessary to pick up some extra supplies.

Pulai Springs expansive grounds included its own library, cinema, restaurants and a sports and recreation centre where we enjoyed playing table tennis set up in the centre of a squash court. But we were drawn to another room we found, the arcade room, and spent a lot of time playing Street Fighter vs X-Men.

Just over 100 players had entered the International Korean Tour School and the Korean PGA made 24 tour cards available. The Tour School was for international players only while the Korean players have their own tour school in March.

February 6 was the opening round and over the four days I shot 74, 70, 72, 72 (even) to finish 17th and secure my spot on the SBS Korean Tour. Overall I was happy with how I played. The four days were quite up and down, this being highlighted by the two eagles and 19 birdies I threw in.

Where you are positioned in the top 24 doesn’t make too much of a difference . The players who finished in the top 4 received two extra tournament starts in the independant events bringing their total to twelve starts. Positions 5-24 all get ten tournament starts.

I must admit I had little knowledge of what to expect on the Korean Tour. It wasn’t until I attended the induction meeting after the event that I began to understand the size and growth of the tour. They have increased most tournament purses for 2007 and SBS will continue to televise all the tournaments in Korea.