Hi, my name is Dan and I play golf in Korea. I’m a beginner golfer so I pretty much suck at golf but I like to get outside and play and get some exercise. It’s a fun hobby in Korea.
My golf journey started when I was in college oh…25 years ago. Towards the end of college (my senior year maybe?) my roommates and I got interested in golf so we decided to buy some golf clubs and go to the range together to learn how to play this game. I bought my first set of clubs and didn’t really know what I was doing or what I was buying. I ended up buying a new set of Ping Zing 2 (orange dot) irons with steel shafts, a Callaway Big Bertha driver with Titanium shaft, and a few Callaway Big Bertha fairway woods. I struggled because I found the swing so weird and unnatural. I grew up playing baseball but this golf swing just seemed so awkward and unnatural.
After a few months of going to the range and trying to learn how to swing the club from my friends, I got bored and moved on. I played par 3 one time and on another trip down to LA I played 9 holes at a municipal public course but of course I was terrible. I didn’t play again for a few more years.
I got married around 20 years ago and my wife and I decided that it would be fun to learn how to play golf together. So we signed up for lessons at our local driving range. I don’t remember the price but it was pretty cheap and was sponsored by Nike Golf at the time. Our instructor was the local pro at the driving range and he was a cool guy. He taught us the basics. The local range also had a par 3 course attached to it so we also got to play a few rounds on the course as well. Also, for being students at the range, we got a bunch of discounts cards to use the range and play rounds so we played a few rounds of par 3 for fun.
But then life got busy, we had kids, etc. and I didn’t touch a golf clubs for the next 20 years.
In 2019 I moved to Korea and at work everyone was asking if I play golf. I explained that “No I don’t play golf” (after all, I thought golf was an old man sport) but then they would ask if I ever played golf and I would say “pretty much…no” and then they would say something like “you should learn…it’s important to play golf in Korea”….so hence, the name of this blog…playgolfinkorea.com.
Even though I insisted that I don’t play golf, one of the guys at work insisted that I play golf with him and a client because I happened to be friends with the client. So I agreed…that’s a funny story that I’ll write about in another blog post.
And then in 2/2020 I started taking golf lessons. A screen golf place just opened up and they were having a grand opening celebration and special discounts so I walked in and explained that I don’t play golf but would like to learn so I signed up for 6 months of access and 3 months of lessons.
I went 3 times a week for lessons for about 6 weeks and then went for about twice a week for another 3 weeks and then went about once a week for the last 3 weeks. I was getting better initially but then kind of plateaued and stopped practicing and didn’t get any better. I also hated it so I hated to practice, hated going for lessons, etc.
After going to that screen golf place from February until May, I just got sick of it and never stepped foot in there again. In fact I didn’t pick up a golf club from May until….July which is when my boss asked me to go out for a round of golf with him.
Of course I was terrible but at least I was better than the year before and although I was terrible at golf, I liked being outside and enjoying the scenery. I started to practice a little bit more and got out onto the course a little more…and pretty soon I was going out to play golf twice a month or so. It’s not a lot of golf but for Korea where green fees are pretty expensive, going out onto the field 2-3 times a month is pretty good.
By the end of the year I was more comfortable playing golf and even started enjoying it…and when winter came, I started practicing a lot more. I was practicing almost every day so I was getting a little better…and that brings us to today. I play 2-3 times/month but sometimes more like 5-6 times a month sometimes. It’s been fun so I thought this might be a nice place to write about some of my outings as I play golf in Korea.