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Why are South Korea's women so good at golf?

Reigning Olympic champion Inbee Park is one of the South Korea golfers who have dominated women's golf over the past decade. But what's the secret?

It was altogether fitting that the first Olympic champion in women's golf for over 100 years hailed from the Republic of Korea .

The country has dominated the women's game for the past decade with seven-time major winner Inbee Park taking gold at Rio 2016.

What is perhaps most striking is the sheer depth of talent in Korea with no fewer than 17 women winning a total of 34 majors starting with Pak Se-ri's victory in the 1998 LPGA Championship.

With more than a handful of the world's top 20 players, and a seemingly endless supply of title contenders, there is no sign that Korean women will relinquish their grip on golf's big prizes any time soon.

So what is the secret to their success?

The trailblazers in Korean women's golf

Aged just 20 and the winner of six tournaments on the Korean LPGA Tour , Pak Se-ri moved to the United States to join the LPGA Tour in 1998.

She made an immediate impact, taking victory in the LPGA Championship before becoming the youngest ever US Women's Open champion.

Pak was tied with American amateur Jenny Chuasiriporn at Blackwolf Run in Wisconsin after 72 holes, and the pair could not be separated after 18 holes on the Monday.

Watched by millions on television in Korea, the Daejeon native birdied the second hole in second sudden death to claim her second consecutive major and spark a golfing revolution in her homeland.

Inbee Park was one of the "Se-ri Kids" - as the next generation of Korean women golfers came to be known - watching Pak beat the best in the world, and practising for hours to try to emulate her hero.

Another was Jiyai Shin who had a record-breaking nine victories from 18 starts on the KLPGA Tour in 2007 while still a teenager.

In 2008, 19-year-old Park took Pak's record as the youngest US Women's Open winner before Shin claimed the British Women's Open on her way to becoming Asia's first world no.1 golfer.

With her bubbly personality, Shin also endeared herself to her fellow professionals and became the second great Korean golfing role model.

Park and Ryo So-yeon are among those who have carried the torch since with Park Sung-hyun and Ko Jin-young also reaching number one in the world and winning multiple majors.

In 2019, there were 21 Korean players on the LPGA Tour with the likes of New Zealand's Lydia Ko , Australian Minjee Lee , and American major winners Michelle Wie and Danielle Kang all born to Korean parents.

All of them are indebted to Pak, the youngest inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame at 29 in 2007, and her incredible legacy.

Dedication and sponsorship

Golf remains an expensive pursuit in Korea but, since Pak's rise to stardom, it has become extremely popular.

With considerable international appeal and a lucrative global tour, women's golf has become the go-to sport for companies in Korea in terms of sponsorship.

Budding golfers and their families are similarly keen to obtain lucrative deals on the path to the LPGA Tour and major title success, requiring serious dedication and sacrifice from both children and parents.

Months ahead of winning her first major at last October's Women's PGA Championship , Kim Sei-young told AFP that "all-out parental support" was key to success.

Speaking to Asia Media International , Korean-American college golfer Cassie Kim said, "When you decide to do a sport in South Korea, everything is towards that sport. School doesn’t matter as much, nothing else does, everything goes into that sport.

"South Korean golfers have the same amount of talent, but they develop and practise their golf game more intensely than anyone else." - Gonzaga University golfer Cassie Kim

The KLPGA Tour system

Success breeds success with the KLPGA Tour providing a steady stream of future major winners. And even making it is an achievement.

The first stage is the Jump Tour which comprises tournaments made up of professional and amateur golfers.

The KLPGA then invites the best golfers from the Jump Tour to the Dream Tour , a fully professional circuit where the top money-earners are then offered membership of the KLPGA Tour.

By the time the top performers on the KLPGA Tour make the move to the LPGA Tour, they are already hardened pros and well used to performing under pressure unlike those graduating from the American Symetra Tour.

That is borne out by Korea providing the five most recent LPGA Rookies of the Year - Kim Sei-young (2015), Chun In-gee (2016), Park Sung-hyun (2017), Ko Jin-young (2018), and Jeongeun Lee6 - so named because there were already five professional golfers named Lee Jeong-eun - the last winner in 2019.

Chun, Park Sung-hyun and Lee6 were all KLPGA Tour money list leaders the year before taking the LPGA Rookie of the Year title, while Kim Sei-Young and Ko Jin-young had both been money list runners-up before heading to the States.

Even 2014 Rookie of the Year, subsequent world number one and Olympic silver medallist Lydia Ko, was born in Seoul with her family emigrating to New Zealand when she was a small child.

Speaking to Golf.com ahead of the 2018 Women's British Open, American Olympic hopeful Jessica Korda said, "I know that they have to play two years on the Korean LPGA before they even come to the States. So they’ve already been a pro before they come to our tour.

"So as you call them 'rookies', they’ve won like 10 times professionally. And that’s a huge advantage coming here whereas if you see all of the American girls they might have played a year on the Symetra Tour or they’re fresh rookies."

Not since 2010 has there been a year without a Korean major winner with Inbee Park taking the first three majors of 2013.

And the conveyor belt keeps on producing with three first-time Korean major winners in 2020 - Mirim Lee in the ANA Inspiration, Kim Sei-young's long overdue success in the Women's PGA Championship, and Kim A-lim taking the US Women's Open in her first tournament in the United States.

Needless to say, competition for the four possible spots at Tokyo 2020 is fierce with Ko Jin-young, Inbee Park and Kim Sei-Young all but assured of their places as the top three players in the world.

Whoever takes the fourth berth is likely to be a genuine medal contender at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in early August.

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Three of the World's Top-10 Players Competing in the KLPGA Championship This Week

2024 paris olympics: gold medalist nelly korda looking forward olympic games with just under 100 days to go, three of world's top-10 competing in klpga championship this week.

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Professional golf is being played this week, and not just in an exhibition or fundraising format. The KLPGA is coming off an extensive break with a major championship, the  KLPGA Championship at Lakewood Country Club in Yangju. The event will be played this Thursday through Sunday. 

Four of the LPGA Tour’s top Korean-born players – Sung Hyun Park, Sei Young Kim, Hyo Joo Kim and Jeongeun Lee6 - are in the field and looking forward to sharpening their games in their homeland. 

Sei Young Kim, who won the CME Group Tour Championship in 2019 and is No. 6 in the Rolex Rankings, said, “ It's been a long time since I’ve been greeted by Korean fans at a KLPGA Tour event. The circumstances (with the lockdown due to COVID-19) hasn’t been good so I’m thankful to all the sponsors for holding this tournament in such a difficult time. We need to pay the Korean people back for all that they’ve gone through by showing them our best.” 

Park, ranked third in the world and coming off a two-win season in 2019, was also thrilled to be back in competition, saying: “I am very happy and proud to have such a major golf event as my first start (of the year) in Korea as a Korean player. I've had a lot of time by myself. 

“As LPGA tour player, I'm pretty nervous playing in Korea for the first time this year,” Park continued. “I really want to show a good performance since it's my first event. I know many people are cheering for me. And I hope all the players and fans will be uplifted, not just by me, but by this event. I certainly want to play well for all golf fans.”  

The first case of COVID-19 was announced in South Korea on January 20, 2020. By the first week in April, the country had approximately 10,500 cases and more than 200 deaths. But stringent quarantine and contact rules, along with aggressive testing, minimized the impact of the disease, and by the first of May, people in Seoul returned to work and resumed reasonably normal activities.  

Still, the KLPGA Championship will be contested without fans out of an abundance of precaution. And while it is far too early to make predictions about the outcome, most observers will be excited just to see live golf again.  

“I played my first tournament (at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions) in January,” Sei Young Kim said. “Then COVID-19 occurred. And as tournaments were canceled or postponed, I had to stay at home. I did a lot of what I could do while staying in th e  U.S.—spent a  lot of time with family and I played a lot of games but no golf.

“Now I'm in the process of resetting goals for this season because the Olympics was postponed (until 2021),” she continued. “And I've been notified that the LPGA tour will resume in July, so I'd like to prepare as much I can before then.” 

LPGA officials are monitoring the KLPGA Championship, along with all other sporting events scheduled in the near future. The procedures for how LPGA Tour play will resume are still being discussed but the Tour is committed to resuming competition in as safe an environment as possible.  

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Secrets to South Korea’s Dominance of Women’s Golf

Consider the current Rolex World Rankings* :

4 of the Top 10. 39 of the Top 100. 144 of the Top 500.

Astonishing numbers, right?

Since Se Ri Pak’s triumphant victory at the 1998 US Women’s Open , women’s golf in South Korea has taken off. The current world rankings clearly paint that picture.

For comparison, no other country has more than one player represented in the Top 10, and the USA ranks second, with 24 players in the Top 100.

In this article, jump to  Two reasons why South Korea dominates women’s golf Who is Jiyai Shin The importance of the Jump Tour and Dream Tour About Ben Harpring

There are few realms in the world of sport that showcase such dominance, and the first tournament of the 2019 LPGA season was a prime example. The inaugural Tournament of Champions, January 17-20 in Orlando, Florida, featured LPGA winners from the previous two seasons. Of the thirty-six different champions, eleven had the Korean flag next to their name. The winner in Orlando? A Korean native, Eun Hee Ji.

So, what are the secrets to Korea’s consistently amazing success in women’s golf?

There must be something unique that separates a country the size of Indiana geographically, with a population roughly 16% that of the United States, from the rest of the golf world.

After traveling to Korea in 2018 for the LPGA International Crown and KEB Hana Bank Championship, and talking to people who have been living it, I believe the best explanation can be traced to a couple of sources.

Two Reasons Why South Korea Dominates Women’s Golf

Firstly, Korea has the best professional golf development program on the planet, and secondly, there were three shining stars (Se Ri Pak, Jiyai Shin, and So Yeon Ryu, who showed young girls across South Korea what was possible.

Veteran caddie, Dean Herden, has looped for some of the games’ best players. Most notably, he worked with Jiyai Shin during her ascension to World Number One (she took over the top spot in 2010). Herden was also on the bag for So Yeon Ryu during her 2011 US Women’s Open victory, as well as In Gee Chun during her groundbreaking victory at the 2015 US Women’s Open. He makes his home in Korea and witnessed first hand the meteoric rise of women’s golf in the country.

In 1998 a group of ten-year-old girls saw a fellow countrywoman reign victorious at the world’s most iconic, and (arguably) important, women’s golf major championship. According to Herden, by 2007 and 2008 there were at least six or seven Korean players, including Jiyai, playing on Tour born in 1988. These young women were often referred to as “Se Ri’s Kids.”

With Jiyai leading this wave of dominate golfers, Korea started to take the LPGA en masse. Beginning five to seven years ago, “Jiyai’s Kids” began to make their mark on tour. “ Jiyai was a great personality, still is I should say. She was very personable to the players, (made) lots of friends. She would stop and talk to other players if they asked a question, and would give them 100% attention, and give them a really good answer. ”

“ I felt Jiyai was an icebreaker. There was a bit of spitefulness going on between the Americans and Koreans ,” recalled Herden of Shin’s disarming appeal when she arrived on tour in 2008.

He continued, “ Cristie Kerr (would) walk up to me and say, ‘Jeez, I like Jiyai!’ So, this is where you found, oh wow, this has come together nicely. The LPGA is getting better. ”

After Jiyai, another up-and-coming star broke through. Herden says, “ So Yeon Ryu was an icebreaker because of her English. ” The rest of the world began to see that Korean women could not just play but had loads of personality as well.

Se Ri proved to be the bolt of lightning that sparked a country toward future dominance in the women’s game. Jiyai, inspired by Pak’s legendary performance, took things to a new level. Like a gathering storm, during her rookie season on the KLPGA Tour in 2006, Shin won three times. In 2007 she won 10 times in 19 starts and had an additional six victories in the 2008 season. With a bonafide superstar at the helm, the Tour was entering uncharted waters. Jiyai’s success propelled the Tour into a restructuring process. In 2006 the KLPGA Tour had just 17 tournaments on the schedule. By 2008, there were 27.

During this expansion, plans to create a stepping-stone-like process for professionals, and aspiring professionals began to emerge. This is where women’s golf in Korea truly began to separate itself.

Much like the minor league baseball farm system in the US, the KLPGA wanted to create a system which allowed female golfers to compete against those with comparable skill level. We have seen the young phenom in a variety of sports take the professional plunge too soon. The results have, many times, been tough to watch. By creating a path to the KLPGA based on results, the burnouts happen less frequently. Another byproduct of this system is a consistent flow of highly competitive professional golfers, which was the ultimate goal.

The Importance of the Korean Jump Tour and Dream Tour

The first stop on the road to the KLPGA Tour is the Jump Tour. The Jump Tour is comprised of professional golfers, but to fill tournament fields, amateurs are asked to enter. While amateurs cannot accept prize money, they earn points for their results. If the player earns enough points, the KLPGA will offer a Dream Tour membership. The Dream Tour is the secondary tour to the KLPGA and is comparable to the LPGA’s Symetra Tour. While players have to give up their amateur status, Herden says, “think about it, you’ve found out that you’re making the grade.” From there, players that make enough prize money are offered membership on the KLPGA Tour.

During my visit to South Korea last fall, I spoke with members of the KLPGA Tour, and Dream Tour, to get their perspective on things. I asked Seon Woo Bae, a star on the KLPGA Tour, how the path from the Dream Tour to the KLPGA, and possibly to the LPGA, helps the development of Korean players. She said, “ Even if we just take lessons a lot, performance doesn’t get better. Performance is developed by the actual competition through real tournaments. Dream Tour let us improve our performance and prepare for playing on the KLPGA Tour because its system is quite similar. ”

Bae explained, “ For me, the experience that I got from the Dream Tour is the best one. I won once at Dream Tour, and that winning experience made me more comfortable and confident so that I could play well from the beginning of my KLPGA tour (career). ”

The results speak for themselves. The last four LPGA Rookie of the year winners have come from the KLPGA. Sei Young Kim (2015), In Gee Chun (2016), Sung Hyun Park (2017), and Jin Young Ko (2018). What do they all have in common? Each player was a prolific winner in Korea. The LPGA Tour? Sure, it is the most competitive professional women’s golf tour in the world. However, by the time the majority of KLPGA “graduates” decide to take up LPGA membership, “rookie” is just a word. There is nothing about their game, or experience, that even begins to resemble rookie.

Seong Yeoun Lee was the money leader on the Dream Tour last season and played in the 2018 LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship. I asked her if she thought a similar stepping-stone process would help with player development in other countries. Lee said, “ Of course it must be helpful for other countries’ players and their golf industry. Dream Tour lets players who play a similar level compete with each other. That gives you the experience. If there’s no system or structure like Dream Tour and Jump Tour, I think there’s no chance to improve ourselves. ” She also explains, “ I think if I played well in KLPGA Tour, I could also do well in global tours like the LPGA and JLPGA. Therefore, I strongly believe that the Dream Tour is one of the most important gates to improve myself. It’s definitely a meaningful process heading to the real professional world. ”

There has been a surge in Korean women’s golf the last two decades. From icon Se Ri Pak to icebreaker Jiyai Shin and supreme talent Sung Hyun Park, there is nothing quite like women’s golf in Korea. With several extraordinary, and inspirational, women to look up to, and a development system in place to usher in superstars for the foreseeable future, South Korea is set to continue its dynastic run of dominance for years to come.

* Rolex Rankings as at 01.28.19

Feature Photo: Korean superstar So Yeon Ryu at the 2018 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship | Photo: Ben Harpring

Ben Harpring

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Tournament of champions to close out KLPGA season at SK

Park Min-ji hits a shot during the SK Shieldus-SK Telecom Championship at La Vie est Belle Golf & Resort in Chuncheon, Gangwon on Nov. 13, 2022. [NEWS1]

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The World's 10 Biggest Women's Golf Tours

The LPGA and LET are the most publicised women’s tours, but did you know that there are actually 10 significant women’s tours worldwide? We take a look at each

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With women’s golf booming there’s never been a better time to play the game professionally. There’s more sponsorship money and more opportunities for women to play golf competitively for a living. In fact there are eight women’s tours globally. So whether you’re an aspiring professional hoping to graduate from the amateur ranks, or simply an avid supporter of the women’s game, there’s certainly a lot going on in the global competitive scene.

Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA)

Let’s start with the biggest and most publicised women’s golf tour in the world - the LPGA Tour. The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) began the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly golf tournaments in 1950 when 13 pioneers including Babe Zaharias, Patty Berg and Louise Suggs had a dream to provide for elite women golfers with a platform to play professional golf. The founders were elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame as a group in 2023.

The LPGA began as a tour with events just across the USA but has since expanded to have a more global presence with a handful of co-sanctioned events now held outside of the United States in Asia, Europe, Australia and Canada. Every year it goes from strength-to-strength.

In 2020 the LPGA Tour soared to new prize-fund heights breaking through the $70 million prize purse mark, making it the world’s richest tour for women. Because of that it is widely regarded as the largest and most prestigious women’s tour to play on.

In order to earn playing rights (a tour card) to compete on the LPGA Tour, women professionals have to graduate through an annual qualifying school. This can take up to four stages to negotiate, each like a regular golf tournament with only a small number of players going on to the next stage.

The final qualifying school is over six rounds. Those successful join the leaders on the previous year’s LPGA money list/order of merit, and certain other exempt players who have maintained their playing rights, as members of the tour.

Epson Golf Tour

The Epson Tour is the LPGA’s developmental tour, it was founded in 1981. It has changed its name several time over the last two decades due to various sponsors, so you may have heard of it before as the LPGA Futures Tour, the Duramed Futures Tour or even the Symetra Tour.

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The tour is made up of a series of events played all over the USA (22 in 2023) culminating with a season-ending Epson Tour Championship. This tournament has been played at River Run Country Club in Davidson, North Carolina since 2020. The top 10 players on the tour’s money list earn their LPGA Tour card for the next season, and those just outside that mark (the next 24 players) get to improve their status for LPGA Tour Qualifying School.

American Auston Kim is one to watch. She has just won the 2023 Epson Tour Championship and will be hoping to make a fast-start on the LPGA next year. You don’t have to be a professional to play on the tour, it is also open to top-ranked amateurs, many of whom use it as a springboard to turn professional if they successfully earn their card.

Auston Kim, winner of the 2023 Epson Tour

Women's All Pro Tour (WAPT)

The Women’s All-Pro Tour is the official qualifying tour for the LPGA’s Epson Tour. Women may participate in the WAPT as a member or as a guest, allowing amateurs as well as professionals to compete. The beauty of this tour is that there are different entry options available. 

The women who choose to become full members pay an annual joining fee (less than $700) giving them preferential rates on the entry fees to the individual events, free range balls at tournaments, lunches and practice rounds and other perks. For those interested in competing, but not yet sure whether it’s right for them, they can pay one-off entry fees to the individual events to compete. 

In 2023 the tour also introduced a new six-event WAFT Collegiate Series, running from the end of May through to the start of August, as summer preparation before returning to compete in college.

Ladies European Tour (LET)

The Ladies European Tour (LET) was founded in 1978 and has its headquarters at the Buckinghamshire Golf Club on the outskirts of London. There are over 130 players from more than 40 countries internationally competing on the tour, which runs a full-schedule of events (29 in 2023) across five continents.

It is fair to say that the LET has had a very turbulent history, nearly collapsing through lack of sponsorship and funding in the 1980s, leading to tour members forming the Ladies European Tour Limited in 2000. 

In January 2020 the LET entered into a joint venture arrangement with the LPGA Tour with the aim of increasing the playing opportunities for female golfers in Europe. With that has come more exposure and sponsorship like the Aramco Team Series . 

The LET also organises and runs the Solheim Cup when it is in Europe. Like the LPGA, in order to gain a tour card and playing rights to compete on the LET you have to go through several stages of qualifying school, culminating in Q-School Finals.

Ladies European Tour Access Series (LETAS)

The Ladies European Tour Access Series (LETAS) is the LET’s developmental tour. It’s been running since 2010 and in that time has produced some notable graduates including English winners Lily May Humphreys and Meghan MacLaren who have both gone onto win on the LET.

The top six players on the LETAS Order of Merit earn LET membership for the Ladies European Tour. Those that just miss out but finish in spots 7-20 get to skip the first stage of the qualifying event and progress straight to Q-School finals.

You don’t have to be a professional golfer to play on LETAS, it’s open to amateur golfers also, as long as you are over the age of 18 and have a handicap of two or better. There were 16 events played in 12 countries across Europe in 2023 with a total tour prize fund purse of just over £720,000.

Sofie Kibsgaard Nielsen from Denmark won the 2023 LETAS

LPGA Of Japan Tour

The LPGA of Japan Tour is a women’s professional golf tour organised by the Japan Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association. It has been running since 1968 and has the second biggest prize purse in women’s golf, just behind the LPGA with $60 million. 

There were 38 events played in 2023 all across Japan. Women’s World Golf Hall of Famer Hisako “Chako” Higuchi holds the record for the most prolific wins on the JLPGA of all time with 69 victories spanning over two decades from 1968-1990.

LPGA Of Korea Tour

The KLPGA Tour was catapulted into the global golf spotlight back in 2020 coming out of Covid-19 pandemic, as the KLPGA Championship was the first professional golf event, in the men’s or women’s game to be played since we went into lockdown.

The Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour (KLPGA) is a women’s tour played mainly in South Korea, with one event each played in Vietnam, Taiwan and China. The tour began in 2008 and every year grows in size and popularity with upwards of 30 events on the schedule, the highlight being the KLPGA Championship.

With more than a handful of the world’s top 20 players, a seemingly endless supply of title contenders, including over 30 major winners all hailing from Korea, it’s fair to say that the Korea Tour certainly produces some fine female golfers. 

Women’s World top 30 player Min-Ji Park was the tour’s most prolific winner in 2023, with six victories amassing her over $1.4million. Women’s World Number 15 Jiyai Shin had a record-breaking nine victories from 18 starts on the KLPGA Tour in 2007 while still a teenager. Also, reigning Olympic champion Inbee Park , a 7-time Major champion, is one of the South Korean golfers who made a successful start to her career on the KLPGA before graduating to the big-money earning LPGA Tour.

7-time Major winner Inbee Park began her career on the KLPGA

WPGA Tour Of Australasia

Formerly known as the ALPG Tour, as the name suggests, the WPGA Tour of Australasia is a professional golf tour for women which is based in Australia. It was founded in 1972 by the Ladies Professional Golf Association of Australia, although in the early years there were only a handful of events and the tour struggled, it has since gone onto be a big success with over 150 members.

There were 18 tournaments played this season (2022/23) over the Australian summer (between November and March) including the ANZ Ladies Masters, MFS Australian Open and New Zealand Women’s Open, all three co-sanctioned with the LET.

The tour’s most famous graduate is former women’s world number one Karrie Webb , a Golf World Hall of Famer, who was a prolific winner on the WPGA and then subsequently the LPGA - a real global face in women’s golf.

China LPGA Tour

The China LGPA Tour is a professional golf tour for women organised by the China Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association, which has been running since 2008. Although there are only a handful of events played on the China LPGA Tour (13 on the 2023 schedule) thanks to the opportunity to co-sanction many of these with the bigger tours, Chinese golf gets put into the annual spotlight. 

In total there are four events co-sanctioned with the LET and one each with the LPGA Tour, the ALPG Tour and the LAGT. Although the number of events is low the prize funds are rich. In fact, in the 2023 Buick LPGA Shanghai event, players were competing for a massive $2.1 million purse. The winner, double Major champion in 2023 American Lilia Vu, took home the top prize of £315,000 along with the champion's trophy.

Sunshine Ladies Tour

The Sunshine Ladies Tour was founded in 2014 with the goal of changing the face of golf in Africa by making the sport more accessible and inclusive to all women. It’s open to professionals and low handicap amateurs and over the last 10 years has consistently provided a pipeline of talent for the world stage. 

Through its co-sanctioned events with the Ladies European Tour (LET) and the Sunshine Ladies Tour, a six-week summer swing at the start of the year allows women from over 40 countries worldwide to get their season underway in South Africa. Thanks to the tour’s longstanding partnership with Investec, the top three professionals in the order of merit gain automatic entry into the following year’s Investec South African Women’s Open and the winner receives a bonus prize worth R200,000.

Carly Frost is one of the golf industry’s best-known female writers, having worked for golf magazines for over 20 years. As a consistent three-handicapper who plays competitive club golf at Parkstone and the Isle of Purbeck courses in Dorset every week, Carly is well-versed in what lady golfers love. Her passion for golf and skill at writing combine to give her an unbeatable insight into the ladies game.  

Carly’s role at Golf Monthly is to help deliver thorough and accurate ladies equipment reviews, buying advice and comparisons to help you find exactly what you are looking for. So whether it’s the latest driver, set of irons, golf ball, pair of shoes or even an outfit, Carly will help you decide what to buy. Over the years Carly has been fortunate to play some of the greatest courses in the world. Her view ‘from the ladies tee’ is invaluable. She ranks Sea Island, Georgia, USA, where she met her husband, world-renowned golf coach Dan Frost, among her favourite golf resorts. Their aptly-named eight-year-old son Hogan is already hitting the ball as far as Mum and will undoubtedly be a name to watch out for in the future. Carly is a keen competitor and her list of golfing achievements are vast. She is a former winner of the South West of England Ladies Intermediate Championship, a three-time winner of the European Media Masters and she once beat an entire start-sheet of men to the title of Times Corporate World Golf Champion. She has played for both the Dorset and Surrey County Ladies first teams and is known for her excellent track record at matchplay.

Carly holds the ladies course record (68) at her home club Parkstone and her lowest competition round (seven-under-par 65) was carded in the pro-am of the Irish Ladies Open at Killeen Castle, playing alongside Solheim Cup superstar Anna Nordqvist. Although her current handicap index has crept up to 3.7 since Covid she has her sights firmly set on achieving that elusive scratch handicap and hopefully playing for her country when she’s 50.

Carly’s current What's In The Bag? 

Driver: Callaway Epic Max, 10.5° 

Fairway wood: TaylorMade SIM2, 15° 

Hybrids: Titleist TS2, 19°, 21°, 24° 

Irons: Mizuno JPX900, 5-PW 

Wedges: Cleveland RTX, 52°, 56° and 58° 

Putter: Scotty Cameron Futura X5

Ball: 2021 Callaway Ladies SuperSoft 

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Trans-Siberian Railway Prices

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Ticket prices for the Trans-Siberian Railway also depend on the current ruble exchange rate.

Is the Trans-Siberian Railway expensive?

Before starting on your Trans-Siberian Railway adventure you naturally want to know what the entire trip will cost. Although this sounds like a simple question, it is pretty difficult to answer. The Trans-Siberian Railway price of travel depends on the following factors:

• Which travel class do I want to use? The price for a first class ticket is about three times the price of a 3rd class ticket
• Am I willing to buy the tickets myself and assume responsibility for the organisation of the trip?
• How many stopovers do I want to make? The more breaks, the higher the total price.
• What sort of accommodation do I want? Will it be a luxury hotel or will a hostel dormitory be sufficient?
• What tours and excursions would I like to go on?
• What is the current exchange rate for rubles?

Basically, everything from a luxury to a budget holiday is available. If you buy yourself a 3rd Class nonstop ticket at the counter, a few hundred Euros will cover the price. All you will experience is a week on the Trans-Siberian train and will see nothing of the cities on the way. There is, however, any amount of room for upward expansion. Everyone makes different choices about which aspects they are willing to spend money on. I personally prefer to save money on accommodation and railcar class, visit as many cities and do as many trips as possible. To enable better classification of your travel expenses I have contrasted two typical traveler types. In the third column you can calculate the total cost of your own journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Please keep in mind that these are only rough estimations and not exact prices.

The all-in costs seem fairly high at first. However, they cover everything and it is quite a long journey taking four weeks. Many people forget to consider that when looking at the list. We should also deduct the running costs for food and leisure at home. I think most visitors to this page will classify themselves somewhere between the two categories, that is around the € 2,000 – € 2,500 range. When comparing these prices with other travel packages, you get the impression that it is hardly worthwhile travelling individually on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Please keep in mind that most packages last no more than 14 days and you are herded like cattle through the most beautiful locations.

If you spend less time on the Trans-Siberian Railway you will, of course, pay less. I chose this particular travel length because I prefer not to do things by halves. If you fulfill your dream of travelling on the Trans-Siberian Railway, enjoy it and don’t rush things. But it’s up to you, of course. Try playing around with the form a bit to find the appropriate price for your trip.

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