By Kang Seung-woo
When Lee Gwang-yup, a golf fan in Seoul, watched the replay of the LPGA Tour’s Canadian Women’s Open, Sunday, he was delighted to see the Korean flag alongside the name of the outright leader Ko Bo-gyung.
His delight, however, soon turned to embarrassment because he found out the 15-year-old leader was a Kiwi better known as Lydia Ko her English name.
An ethnic Korean, she was born in Seoul in 1997, but her family emigrated to New Zealand in 2003 and obtained New Zealand nationality.
“How can a golfer whose nationality is New Zealand become Korean?” the 34-year-old said. “It does not make sense at all.”
He added, “Most of the Korean media, by extension many Koreans, claim American golfers of Korean descent are Korean, which is not much different from Thailand claiming Tiger Woods as its own.”
The 14-time major winner Woods was born to an American father and Thai mother.
As in Lee’s case here, the Korean media have often found themselves under fire for claiming foreign golfers of Korean descent as their own.
When Hawaiian-born Michelle Wie burst onto the world golf scene in the early 2000s, the Korean media took to her immediately, emphasizing the teenage golfer’s Korean descent and calling her “Korean-American Wie Sung-mi” rather than Michelle Wie.
There was almost the same reaction for Christina Kim, a native of San Jose, Calif. Because she too was of Korean descent, the Korean media have been calling her Kim Cho-rong.
However, both golfers played for Team USA in the Solheim Cup in 2009. And they made it clear they are Americans by waving the Stars and Stripes in celebration after defeating their European opponents.
In October last year, when Choi Na-yeon claimed the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia, the 24-year-old earned another label along with tournament champion, or the 100th Korean golfer to triumph on the LPGA Tour.
But a closer look at the winning list shows that Choi was the 100th ethnic Korean golfer to grab an LPGA Tour title.
A total of 34 golfers including 25-time winner Pak Se-ri and eight-time winner Shin Ji-yai have achieved the feat. Among the 34 were also Pearl Sinn, Wie and Kim, all of whom are Americans who combined for five wins.
The 100th title by a female Korean golfer was achieved by LPGA Tour rookie Ryu So-yeon at the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic earlier this month.
The fixation to sweepingly refer to anyone of Korean descent as Korean is criticized as coming from the post-Korean War (1950-1953) period when people were glad at seeing successful overseas Koreans boost the then-poor image of the country to the world, but this attitude is definitely out of date for Asia’s fourth largest economy.