Mandatory Military Service On The Line This Week For PGA Tour Korean Stars

Si Woo Kim and Sungjae Im will compete at the Asian Games

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 27 September 2023

The Ryder Cup isn’t the only big event in golf on this week, and for the likes of Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim they’re playing for a much bigger prize than just the Asian Games title in China.

Both Im and Kim are included in the South Korea golf team that will compete for individual and team medals at West Lake International Golf Course in Hangzhou, but the prize they have their eyes on is more than just a medal.

That’s because if they can win gold in either the team or individual event they’ll be exempt from completing the 21-month military service requirement that’s mandatory in South Korea.

PGA Championship winner YE Yang and eight-time PGA Tour winner KJ Choi both completed their military service in their 20s before their golf careers took off, but Sangmoon Bae is the big example of how it could disrupt a promising golf career.

Bae had won twice on the PGA Tour when he had to do his military service in 2015 aged 29 – and he’s never quite found his form again.

Im and Kim missed the chance to avoid military service when they failed to grab a medal of any colour at the last Olympics in Tokyo – and if they fail to get gold in China then next year’s 2024 Paris Olympics could be their last chance.

Koreans have to complete their military service by their mid-30s, so both 25-year-old Im and 29-year-old Kim are starting to run out of chances to claim that Olympic medal - especially with Tom Kim's emergence likely making it harder to guarantee a spot on the team.

A ruling in 2022 that professional golfers could now compete in the Asian Games, which had previously just been for amateurs, opened the door for another chance.

That gave the likes of Im and Kim an extra chance at claiming military exemption, but unlike the Olympics, where any medal will do, it has to be gold at the Asian Games.

Teams from Europe and USA may be fighting for the more widely recognised trophy, but for Im and Kim the rewards on offer at the Asian Games are even greater.

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.

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