Female golfers from South Korea have been a major success on the international stage for many years. A look at Ladies Professional Golf Association career earnings shows that South Korea is in fact the only country which can give the U.S. a run for its money on its home turf. Being based in the U.S., the LPGA Tour is the international home of women’s professional golfing, giving U.S. players a home advantage.
While female U.S. golfers racked up combined career earnings of more than $550 million, Korean players achieved $224 million, ahead of third-placed Sweden with only $73.6 million. Japan and Thailand are two more Asian nations in the top 8 of the most successful countries for Ladies’ golf.
Womensgolf.com credits the setting off of a women’s golfing craze in South Korea to Se Ri Pak, the Korean who won the U.S. Women’s Open in her rookie year in 1998. It therefore took South Korean female golfers less than 25 years to achieve 50 percent of the earning of their U.S. counterparts, who started the LPGA Tour in 1950. In the past 10 years, female Korean golfers won the LPGA Player of the Year award four times and Rookie of the Year award seven times. Golfing legend Se Ri Pak appears in rank 9 of the all-time most successful players on the tour with career earnings of $12.6 million. Inbee Park, who started on the tour in 2007, ranks fourth with $16.7 million earned.
Source: Statista March 2021
