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[Reuters] Korea’s soldier-golfers fight to stay out of bunkers

May 14, 2015

Soldier-golfer Hur In-hoe salutes as he pose for photographs after won a golf tournament in Pocheon, South Korea, on April 26, 2015. (Courtesy of KPGA Facebook)

[REUTERS]

While the lure of fame and fortune fires the imagination of most aspiring golfers, players on South Korea’s armed forces team hope their talents will let them fulfill two years of military service on the fairways rather than the frontlines.

With North Korea and its million-strong army regularly hurling threats of nuclear annihilation across the border, the South requires all able bodied men between the ages of 18 and 35 to undertake at least 21 months in the military.

Most in the South agree conscription is necessary to deter North Korean aggression but it comes at a cost, curbing earnings potential, limiting everyday freedoms and, for sportsmen, denying them the chance to develop in the professional arena.

The Korea Armed Forces Athletics Corps was established in 1984 in a bid to boost South Korea’s medal count at Asian and Olympic Games, allowing sportsmen to continue their careers by representing the military’s “Sangmu” teams.

Spots on teams are limited, as are coaching resources, and athletes must live much like normal soldiers most of the time — sleeping in barracks, getting up at the crack of dawn for roll call, eating from metal trays in the mess hall.

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