Female Korean golfers poised to complete for medals at Rio Olympics

The Korea Golf Association is to pay generous incentives to the winners at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. The association has offered to pay 300 million won (261,000 U.S. dollars) for the gold medal, 150 million won (131,000 dollars) for silver, and 100 million won (87,000 dollars) for bronze, respectively. With the list of 60 Korean men and women each who will participate in the Olympics finalized on Monday, attention is focusing on who will receive the special incentives.

For the Korean professional golf team that is considered to be strongest in the world, four players, the most for a national team, will take part in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. They are Park In-bee, Kim Se-young, Yang Hee-young, and Jeon In-ji, who analysts say are armed with strong skills to compete for the medals among the Koreans. “The venue for the Olympic golf event is a Links course, which is situated in a coastal area,” said KGA Vice Chairman Kang Hyung-mo, who has visited Rio de Janeiro twice to hold practical discussions. “August when the event will take place is mid-winter in Brazil and the winds are strongest of the year.” Therefore, winds will be a key factor that will determine players’ scores.

Kim Se-young has experience in winning the title in LPGA tour events that took place in areas with strong winds including Hawaii and Bahamas. Yang Hee-young, who learned golf in Australia, is also good at adapting herself to winds as well. Park In-bee and Jeon In-ji play shots that are less ballistic and thus less affected by winds.

“The women’s team is a dream team that is composed of players who are offensive and those who are stable in style in great harmony. Although only individual competition will be staged at the Olympics, individual players’ characters and strengths will combine to generate synergistic effect (for Team Korea),” SBS golf commentator Kim Jae-yeol said. “As for Park In-bee, it is important not only to recover from her injury but also to regain sense in putting. Even if she is not in her best physical and mental condition, she can guide younger colleagues by banking on her ample experience and leadership.”

Rivals of Korean female golfers are Korean-born golfers of foreign nationalities. Lydia Ko will play for New Zealand, while Lee Min-ji and Oh Su-hyun will play for Australia. Haru Nomura, whose mother is a Korean, will take part in the event to represent Japan.

김종석기자 kjs0123@donga.com