Golf: A question of loyal-tee

Lydia Ko. Photo / Christine Cornege

New Zealand Golf are confident Cecilla Cho and Lydia Ko will stay loyal to their adopted country when they turn professional - but admit they have no way of guaranteeing they won't be reclaimed by Korea.

Over the past decade, thousands of dollars have been invested in the training and development of young Korean-born female golfers, including sending them overseas to represent New Zealand in prestigious tournaments, only to see most of them return home and play under the Korean flag.

"We would not be thrilled about it," says NZ Golf operations manager Phil Aickin. "These days we work more closely with individuals and try to assess their commitment but we can't lock them in. Certainly the situation in the past was unfortunate - with a lot of funding put into individuals and then they were gone."

Sharon Ahn was the most famous example. She was the 2005 national strokeplay champion, and represented her adopted country in the Queen Sirkit Cup (as Cho and Ko are this week). She has since reverted to her Korean name of Shin Ae and found great success on the Korean Ladies Professional tour.

Yeon Song Kim, Da Som Lee and Jenny Park are among many others who were standout amateurs in New Zealand but have returned to their Korean roots since turning professional.

The problem is not unique to this country. Jin Jeong, who has twice been ranked as the men's No1 amateur in the world, has been based in Melbourne for several years but chose not to represent Australia in the Eisenhower trophy.

It's a tricky equation. New Zealand want the best players to represent them overseas, as provinces do in national competitions. There is also an obvious payoff for PGA coaches in New Zealand, who gain hours of work, and the golf industry in general through things like golf memberships.

There are around 1000 young Koreans here learning the game, and almost 70 per cent of the qualifying field for the recent New Zealand Open were Korean.

Their presence makes economic sense. Only Scotland has more golf courses per capita than New Zealand, whereas in Korea courses are expensive and inaccessible.

Just like Australia and the west coast of the United States, which have also become popular breeding grounds, this country offers unprecedented year-round access for those who want to train and play.

On the other hand, it could be seen as detrimental for young New Zealand golfers who might miss out on representative teams in favour of players who turn out to be temporary Kiwis. It's also a questionable return on investment for New Zealand Golf when talented players adopt the love-'em-and-leave-'em approach.

Things have been tightened in the last few years. In the early 2000s, there was no residency or citizenship requirement for potential national or provincial female representatives, but now, as with Cho and Ko, you must be a citizen to be eligible to represent New Zealand.

"Hopefully we can keep them," says NZ Golf chief executive Dean Murphy, "but we can't contractually oblige amateurs to make promises about their futures." Cho and Ko have been in New Zealand from a younger age than many of their predecessors, which increases the loyalty and sense of attachment, but family and business pressures can also play a part. Certainly playing in Korea makes sense for nationals looking to start out, with intense competition and lucrative sponsorship deals. The country is mad about the sport. In a little over two decades, Korea has arguably taken over the female golfing world. There are 125 professional golfers on the USLPGA tour, and 45 of them hail from Korea, including three of the world's top 10. As one writer observed, the names on the leaderboard of a recent US Open read like a Pusan phonebook - Bae, Jang, Kim, Lee, Pak, Park, Park, Shin.

Korean men have not made the same impact, although players such as KJ Choi and YE Yang have carved out some outstanding results.

It would be remiss not to mention Kim Jong Ill who, by any measure, must be the greatest to ever hold a club.

North Korean state media reported that the 'Great Leader' went 38 under par, including five holes in one, in his first-ever game. He has since given up golf, but would routinely shoot three or four aces a round, according to Pyongyang papers.