Why Asian women dominate the LPGA Tour

In the 1980s and ‘90s Juli Inkster, Karrie Webb, Laura Davies and Annika Sorenstam were some of the most recognizable names playing the LPGA Tour tournaments. Then, in 1998 women’s professional golf changed abruptly when an unheralded golf phenom from south Korea named Se Ri Pak won the U.S. Women’s Open.

At the time there were only six players from Asia playing on the LPGA Tour. Today there are 125 (estimated) Asian women playing the LPGA, and far more playing mini-tour events and on Division I college golf teams.

The two most dominant Korean players on the LPGA Tour since 2000 are Se Ri Pak, with 25 wins, including five majors and cash earnings of  $12,583,713, and Inbee Park, with 21 wins, including seven majors, and $18,262,344 in cash winnings.

So, what’s going on here? The two main questions that we may ask are: Why are there so many Asians on the LPGA? And why are they so dominant nowadays?

After my extensive research the explanations are more complicated than it would appear. One Korean player claimed the reason Asian golfers are so successful is the investment the parents make.
“They are coming from a very patriarchal society, and golf is seen as a way for girls to shine,” she said.

Inbee Park, who is not currently playing on tour because she is home parenting her toddler child, has bluntly responded to Korean (golf) dominance in this way: “It’s in our blood; I think maybe we have dominant blood.”

If that were the case, they would have driven the Japanese from their shores in 1939.

Most golf experts turn to the accepted theory that many Asians succeed as professional golfers due to their long-held value of hard work. The thinking goes like this: the harder they work, the more successful they are and therefore less likely to be vulnerable.

That very idea was first noticed 28 years ago when Se Ri Pak burst on the LPGA links before Asian dominance was recognized. Pak’s 1998 U.S. Women’s Open win was played at Blackwolf Run, a stellar golf complex in Wisconsin developed by the late Herb Kohler, then CEO of the bath fixtures company that bares his name.

Kohler shared his thoughts about Pak and the wave of Asian-born players teaching American golfers a lesson about the value of hard work in www.news@pioneerpress.com.

“These Asians have done so well because they know the meaning of work,” Kohler said. “They work and they work. And that’s starting have an impact on the Americans.”

Couple that work ethic with the fact that many Korean parents make significant monetary investments in their daughters’ golf game. It’s with high ROI in mind.

One LPGA player noted that girls like her go to “really intense” golf “bootcamps,” which are very demanding schools because they are looking for perfection.

“It’s part of our culture to be precise and perfect,” she added.

Let’s not forget that what made Tiger Woods so dominant was that he was so precise and perfect. A pro golfer doesn’t win 82 tournaments with 15 majors otherwise. Tiger’s (late) mother, Kultita, was Asian, so that DNA was definitely there.

On the LPGA Tour precision matters more in women’s golf than raw power. If it were it otherwise, Michelle Wie and Lexi Thompson would have dominated for years. They didn’t. Precision requires touch and feel.

Lee Trevino once said, “There is no such thing as natural touch. Touch is something you create by hitting millions of golf balls.”

Korean women golfers on tour typically follow 8-10 hours a day training, with structural short-game sessions, daily simulator or TrackMan analysis, strength and conditioning workouts, sport psychology sessions and strict performance journaling. Asian golfers, including players from Japan and Thailand, are currently ranked eight of the top 15 in world ranking, and 26 of the top 40.