Sei Young Kim, of South Korea, watches her second shot on the 13th hole during the pro-am at the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open LPGA golf tournament in Coquitlam, B.C., on Wednesday.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
In the city famous in Canada for its steady rain, it has barely rained for months. Civic reservoirs are near half empty. Water use is restricted. Lawns go thirsty. Cars in driveways go unwashed. The place is parched. All grass is torched, brown.
Not at the Vancouver Golf Club, however, home this week to the Canadian Pacific Women's Open, which tees off early Thursday morning in the suburb of Coquitlam. The private club, founded more than a century ago in 1910, has had its own water since its beginning, a reservoir fed by wells. Here, there are lush stretches of green, narrow fairways and tricky putting greens.
In this oasis, teenage sensations are the star attractions: Canadian Brooke Henderson, suddenly famous at 17 after her first LPGA Tour victory last weekend, and Lydia Ko, 18, of New Zealand, who returned to the course where she won her first LPGA event as an amateur at 15. "It's awesome to be back," Ko said Wednesday – but added she was feeling old, looking at pictures from 2012.
Stories of wunderkinds always attract attention, but the unwavering power of South Korean golf promises to dominate.
A year ago, when the CP Women's Open was played in Ontario at the London Hunt and Country Club, South Koreans scored the top three positions. The winner was So Yeon Ryu, with Na Yeon Choi close behind, followed by Inbee Park, the world's current No. 1 player.
South Korea's emergence as a global golf power goes back to 1998, when Se Ri Pak landed like a lightning bolt as an LPGA Tour rookie, a winning spree that included the U.S. Women's Open. She was the youngest winner, although that has since been bettered by Park.
Women's golf is massive in South Korea. Park, who won the Women's British Open in early August to complete a career Grand Slam, went home thereafter and arrived to an adoring crowd of fans and media, a hero's welcome at the airport – a scene she's experienced several times.
The country has four players in the world top 10 – Park at the top, No. 4 Hyo Joo Kim, a 20-year-old LPGA rookie, Ryu at No. 5, and In Gee Chun at No. 9. By comparison, the United States has only two players in the top 10.
With the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro a year away, South Korea will almost certainly send four women, the limit for a country provided they're in the top 15 – otherwise it's a maximum of two. South Korea is so good that, based on current rankings, No. 11 Amy Yang and No. 13 Sei Young Kim won't get to go to Rio.
There is a camaraderie and rivalry among the top South Korean players. The tour, in general, is friendly, players say. Park and Ryu are close friends: Ryu, as well as Choi, was in Park's wedding party last fall. Park and Ryu often exchange golf tips. Park counsels Ryu on putting. Ryu provides tips for Park's short game. And while Park and Ryu look set to make the Olympics, the sheer number of ace South Koreans at and near the top means it's at least somewhat tense.
"I don't think that anybody's guaranteed," Park said on Wednesday.
South Korea's rise in golf prominence is often attributed to Pak, who inspired families and their daughters, not unlike Vince Carter in the early 2000s on the Toronto Raptors, who inspired many boys in the city who now fill the roster of Canada's men's national team.
Ko – who was born in South Korea and moved with her family to New Zealand when she was six, and gained citizenship there at 12 – named Pak as a "huge" impact for her when she was coming up in the game. "She really brought golf to Korea," Ko said.
But, to Ko, with something of an outsider's view of a country she knows well, there isn't a precise answer to what drives South Korean women's golf.
"I don't know if there's a secret recipe or whatever behind it," Ko said on Wednesday. "We all work hard. Working hard is the biggest thing."
Ryu said the number of South Koreans on the tour means that new members, who sometimes don't speak English well, have veteran peers for support. "We really help each other," Ryu said.
The Olympics, too, are poised to broaden the appeal of the women's game. The rules of how many per country can qualify means many countries will be represented in the roster of 60 players on the women's side.
"After the Olympics, it's going to be a lot bigger," Park said. "It's going to be fantastic for women's golf."
David Ebner