KoreaToday Himart’s Vision for Ladies Golf Extends Beyond the Course
By Yoon Chul
Staff Reporter
Nestled in East Asia between superpowers China and Japan is a small peninsular country known as South Korea.
While it may be smaller than its neighbors, it's still highly competitive in sports ― especially ladies golf.
Korea could arguably lay claim to being the world's best nation in women's golf and one of reasons for this, is a number of golf teams that are producing world class golfers.
The Himart Golf Team is perhaps the best of them all.
The team started in April 2002 with seven golfers by the electronics retailer's president Sun Jong-koo.
"I thought about how I could return my profits to society and decided to start the golf team," Sun told The Korea Times.
"My idea was based on helping and finding young potential so low income golfers can play without worrying about money."
In other words, his goal was to make playing and practicing golf easier for team members by creating comfortable environment where golfers are completely supported.
As a result of his idea, several Himart players have gone on to win on the Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) tour as well in overseas tours, even though the team does not recruit the most polished prospects.
"We keep to our objective of finding young women with potential and helping them improve, instead of getting someone who has already proven their abilities.
"We don't get the chance to sponsor players who are already established as top rookies, but whenever the players put on the Himart cap, they play really well," added Sun.
Over the last three years, Himart golfers have won almost half of all tournaments on the KLPGA.
Last year, Himart golfers won seven times in 18 KLPGA events. In 2007 and 2008, when Shin Ji-yai was with the team, they collected wins at 24 of 45 KLPGA events. Shin also added to Himart's prestige with three LPGA titles and one in the JLPGA.
Currently, Himart supports 17 golfers, but the team is very specific when seeking out potential team members and has developed a good eye for talent.
"We try to find young women who can hit long drives as well as players who do not always leave their putts short. That type of player usually has more potential to improve.
"A player's personality is also one of the most important factors. We prefer to have ladies who can cooperate with others, who consider their teammates and know how to help others. Our goal is to develop kids, not to advertise our company or use them for marketing, so personality is more important than their abilities. And a golfer's social class is also another consideration."
Once the golfers from poor upbringings have joined the team, they can then focus on improving their games.
The team has also created a family atmosphere - when a Himart players wins a competition, all the players, their families and high ranking Himart officials have a dinner to celebrate.
Sun keeps in touch with his golfers by text message and often he and other officials will go to golf courses to cheer them on in person ― a practice that's quite unique to Himart.
The company's staff members also cheer for the players and often show the team members competing on the televisions on display in the outlets.
Supporting the team is not a cheap endeavor.
"We spend at least four to five billion won a year. That is not a small amount for our company. But we spend for the Korean golfers' improvement," Sun said.
"We never push the players to achieve better results. That helps our ladies to concentrate more on golf only, and try really hard. But we do reward them for good results.
"In addition, we provide about 30 millon won to each golfer for equipment."
Without a doubt, Shin Ji-yai is the most successful golfer Himart has ever produced.
"When Shin became a professional, she could not find a sponsor. But we had liked her for a long time because of her personality. Shin smiled a lot and earned the nickname 'Smile Angel,' even though she came from a tough family environment."
"Young golfers who have strong abilities but who also smile and have a good personality: that is the type of person we are looking for," the 62-year-old president said.
The Himart boss recalled one particular story about Shin that showed just how hard she works.
"Once while I was playing in a Pro-Am with Lorena Ochoa I heard that she trained for eight hours every day. Shin astonished me when she replied that she trains for over 10 hours every day," Sun said.
After dominating the KLPGA, Shin moved to the LPGA and suddenly, a lot of sponsors wanted to sign with her. However, Himart did not make any significant attempts to keep the Korean golf phenom.
"Our aim is definitely to find new golfers and help them improve into excellent players. Even if they move on to the LPGA, we support them until they can support themselves.
Himart's current top golfer is Ryu So-yeon. The 19-year-old won four times this year and ranked second on the money list in the KLPGA.
The team also has Ahn Sun-ju, Lee Bo-mi and Kim Hye-youn. Ahn has won seven times since she made her KLPGA debut in 2005 and finished third on the money list this year with two victories. Lee and Kim have both won on the Korean tour as well.
Sun also has a good idea on why Koreans have been so successful on the LPGA lately.
"The first reason is their effort. It doesn't mean other countries' golfers don't work hard. I just want to say that Koreans really do have a huge passion. The second reason is the devotion of Korean parents."
Himart could potentially take advantage of its team by using the players in commercials, but the president said he has never considered doing so.
Instead, he prefers to stay true to his initial goal for the program.
"We just want to help young golfers from poor families and to contribute to the development of golf here. That's all."