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. 

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.