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.

Here are some pics of the TaylorMade Korean Tour Van.

Note: The van has no left handed equipment AT ALL. There are only two left handed players now on the tour, myself and another Korean that just putts left handed. Talk about feeling backwards.

Wow, what a trip and welcoming for us to Korea. When I say us I’m referring to another fellow player whom I stayed with, Henry Epstein. Henry qualified 2nd through the Tour School and we organized the first tournament together. We arrived in Je-ju on Sunday night so we could arrange as much practice at Zephyros GC to get aclimatised to the conditions.

As an international player, getting acclimatised isn’t that easy yet in Korea. On the Monday we were told we could not get a practice round that day so we walked the course instead to get a feel for the layout and begin to piece together a course strategy. Later we found out some international players did get a hit, at US$250 per head! Mind you, that is what you can expect to pay for a round of golf in Korea.

Tuesday was the official practice day and while playing it became apparent I was struggling to adjust to the winter rye grass coming from the bermuda grasses I’ve been playing and praciticing on in Qld. Wednesday was the pro-am day for the Korean players so I spent a few hours around the greens trying to get a good feel for how the course was going to play come Thursday.

I struggled to get my brain working and fired 80-81 to miss the cut by a whopping 8 shots. The scoring was bad but more importantly I have a lot to take out of the experience from my first event as a professional. Preparation is everything.

Henry unfortunately missed the cut as well, firing rounds of 74-80. A last hole triple bogey stoped him one shot outside the number needed to take home a check.

I spent the friday afternoon with my young caddy, watching some of his ‘heroes’ practicing on the range. One player who’s immaculate ball striking that stood out was Kim Kyung Tae. He just turned professional after winning twice on the Korean Tour last year as an amateur. It was no surprise Kim actually ended up winning the event by one shot with a one under par total.

My schedule for 2007 in Korea is now posted.