Well, thank goodness Marc Leishman was on our bus out to the golf club. The bus driver got lost for goodness sake, but Marc redirected him. Arrived 15min before I teed of. Chased down my caddie and we were away.

I thought the greens were going to be the biggest factor… four out of bounds later and there’s my 81. It’s fair to say the go for broke driver tactic didn’t work. I can only blame myself for puting a new driver in the bag for the first time today after hitting 10 balls with it yesterday. Swinging the club like an axe murderer doesn’t help either. Got my setup sorted out this arvo and am ready for a good one.

Looking forward to tomorrow .

Ok, now I know what the definition of sloping fast greens is: Asiana CC. The greens had clearly been trimmed from last weeks round. Now I know why the Korean players don’t like this courses greens from past years. Also we will be playing on the other greens for the tournament. Not the ones I played last week.

It’s fair to say they are quite tricked up, I’ve never seen anything like it. It makes the Riversdale Cup look like a walk in the park. Course management will be cruitial to have birdie opportunities. Hit it close, on the right side of the hole and you will be rewarded. Miss it in the wrong section on and around the green and you will have no chance of getting the ball within 12ft let alone on the green.

Overall I think this is a course I can play very well on and I am really looking forward to the first round. I’m going to adopt an agressive approach with the driver on many holes leaving myself short approaches where possible. Hitting wedges into these greens will greatly increase the probability of getting in the right section, resulting in a lot more makeable birdie putts.

This tournament is going to be won on the greens.

I was very fortunate to have a round of golf at the Asiana CC East Course last week which is the venue for the upcoming Asiana Open. This was only possible courtesy of a Korean business man. Buying into membership there is about $1,000,000.

Each hole contains two greens. I believe we played to the greens not being used for the tournament but I did find the course very much to my liking.

Note: Korean Professional Golfers Association links have been added to the links section on the left side of the page. On the KPGA websites you can find the latest Korean Tour info and results. A lot will depend on how much Korean you can read and how good your website navigation skills are….

It’s about 50m long, 5 stories high built on very expensive land. It has 3 stories of hitting bays. The balls come out of the ground via auto-tee-up and you have a time limit on your range session. Just hit as many balls as you can in the time given.

Dream Golf Range

The first day of my second trip to Korea was spent at the Dream Golf Range. I’m spending time in Seoul with G&SM Golf & Sports Management which are about to move their golf school to this facility. They will also have access to Sky72 which is a new 72 hole golf complex next to the Dream Golf Range.

The Dream Golf Range is mind blowing! It holds the Guiness World Record as the largest range. The hitting bays span 360 degrees forming a 400 yard diameter field. They even had the heart to include a handfull of left handed bays in the 300 or so hitting spots.

The Korean Tour has lost one event but replaced it with another one on a different date. I’ve now got an event in China from the 9th to 12th July. It’s unfortunate the other event folded but at the same time I’m exicted about the opportunity to now play in China.

Next time you’re at the bowser be grateful you’re not filling up your car in Korea. Price of petrol in Korea equates to about $2.20/litre.

Australian traffic vs Korean traffic

Hard to tell what’s safer. The difference may lie in how the two countries interpret the traffic lights:
– In Korea their traffic lights are made up of a green, orange, red and a green arrow. Plain and simple compared to the many colours and symbols we get here.
– A Korean green light means the same as Australia, but you can’t turn left in Korea unless the green arrow is on.
– In Korea the orange light comes on before the red and also after the green. Often, depending on the time of day in Korea, the lights flash orange constantly for all approaching vehicles at the intersection. In this situation all the drivers just creep out and crawl around one another at the lights.
– Now the most disturbing thing about Korean traffic. No, it’s not the simple fact of driving on the wrong side of the road, it’s how they deal with red lights. A red light is just a recommendation. If the intersection is ‘basically’ empty go right on through! We went through about 20 red lights.

So Korean’s have a habbit of approaching intersections with great care with a little less respect for the red light. Australian’s have a habit speeding up at lights to sneak through on the orange to beat the red, But appear to hold a higher respect for the red light. Who’s roads are safer…. your call. Maybe a comparison of the crash statistics would tell the story.