ed Hurrah for lady golfers

Thomas Edison’s “1-percent inspiration and 99-percent perspiration” formula for making a genius may be half right when it comes to the incredible success of female Korean golfers on the global stage.

The American inventor nailed the two elements but his ratio should be tweaked to an equally-split fifty-fifty to explain why five of the world’s top 10 women golfers are Korean.

Their dominance is evident when considering the recent winners of the U.S. Women’s Open, one of five major championships.

On Sunday, Chun In-gee, 20, won this year’s U.S. Women’s Open in a nail-biting duel with compatriot Amy Yang, reducing home fan favorite Stacy Lewis to the role of bystander.

Park In-bee, the current world’s No. 1 player, won the Open in 2013; Choi Na-yeon was the winner the year before and in 2011 Ryu So-yeon captured it. In 2014, Korean-American Michelle Wie also won the title.

Back to the question ― what are sources of inspiration for Chun, Park, Yang, Choi, Ryu and, by extension, Wie as well as many more to come?

There are three.

The first is Pak Se-ri.

In the 18th hole in the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open playoff, Pak, then 20, had her driver shot on the verge of a stream.

Her improbable shot where she stood knee-deep in water led to her eventual victory two holes later, causing the financial crisis-hit nation to rise in a collective roar. It was also a moment when golf could be as exciting as football as a spectator sport.

Pak owed her success at least partially to her father as did Shin Jie-ae, two-time British Open champion. Shin’s father went to the extent of using insurance claims for his wife’s death for her daughter’s overseas training.

These “tiger dads” were willing to sacrifice everything to ensure their daughters’ success.

Third but not least, economics can’t be overestimated.

Chun took home a whopping $810,000 or about 900 million won as prize for the U.S. Open whose total purse reached $4.5 million.

She also won three tournaments on the Korea LPGA for 560 million won on top of 210 million won she got for her victory in Japan. Her total winnings have amounted to about 1.6 billion won.

On 2015 LPGA’s prize winnings’ list, compiled on June 15, Park In-bee topped with over $1.42 million from 13 events, followed by Kim Sei-young, who had nearly $1.1 million.

For those who want to emulate our ladies’ success, it is time to stop vacillating and start swinging hard using the Edison formula.