PGA Champions Tour comes to Korea

By Yoon Chul

Korea is one of the leaders in golf in Asia and the new official Olympic sport is very popular here.

However, local fans of the sport rarely have had the chance to see the world’s top male players live except for the native Choi Kyoung-ju and Yang Yong-eun, Until now.

The POSCO E&C Songdo Championship presented by Gale International opens Friday to Sunday at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea golf course located in the Incheon Songdo International Business District.

The tournament is the first PGA Champions Tour event to be held in Asia, with all the golfers over 50 years old.

Some 60 senior golfers will participate including Tom Watson, who won 39 PGA Tour titles including 13 major trophies, as well as Mark O’Meara and Bernhard Langer.

For the stroke play tournament Korean senior golfers Park Nam-shin, Choi Sang-ho, Choi Gwang-soo and Moon Chun-bok will play for the $455,000 winner’s share of the $3 million prize money — the biggest monetary prize on the PGA Champions Tour.

“Certainly it’s a pleasure to be here in South Korea. This is my first trip and first tournament in the country,” O’Meara said.

“As an American golfer, I’ve played quite a lot around the world, especially in Japan, but it’s a pleasure to finally put my foot here in South Korea. And I realize that golf is growing immensely in this country, with many women and male Korean players active all around the world. It’s always impressive, and it’s exciting to come to a country that is excited about playing golf,” added O’Meara.

The course for the Champions Tour has been designed by golf legend Nicklaus.

He has designed a few courses in Korea but the club in Songdo is his signature one.

“I played the golf course yesterday (Tuesday). The layout is very nice, and Jack’s done a nice job. Although it’s very young still, I know that it’s going to grow in the future,” O’Meara said.

“Well actually I haven’t played on the course yet, but I’ve heard a lot from my fellow players that the course is very difficult. There are a lot of ‘elephants’ on the greens, which means numerous undulations,” Hall of Famer Watson said.

Watson, British Open runner-up in 2009, revealed his admiration for Korea’s lady golfers.

“I’ve always followed Pak Se-ri, and the rising, young player Shin Ji-yai. In the LPGA, the Korean golfers are definitely the strongest, and I believe that’s a credit to their strong golf ethics,” Watson said.

The tournament also had a pro-am round and a junior golf clinic, which drew more than 40 students, Wednesday.

The experienced PGA golfers also gave advice on the technical and mental aspects of the game.

“Well, to be honest, you maintain a positive attitude by playing good golf. I discovered the secret to my golf swing in 1994. After that, the golf swing became very easy. If I had putted the way I did in the 70’s, I might have won a lot more golf tournaments. I did not putt as well as I did when I was a youngster. You can’t have a lot of confidence when you know that you’re not swinging well. My forte was an ability to transform a bad round into a good scoring game through my chipping and putting techniques,” Watson said.

“When I look at golf, after playing all these years, I always feel like you need two things in order to be a good golfer. The first thing is to know how to hit the ball pin high, and second, to know how to putt well,” O’Meara, who is known as one of great putters, said

“With putting, I think you need to have good speed on the greens. I think good players can control the distance of their shots. It is about knowing you hit the correct distance, not too far and not too short. When putting, you need to have enough speed in order to make the good distance, and always aim the ball beyond the distance of the cup. Maintaining a good green speed is especially very important for junior players. This just takes touch and practice.”