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Why Asian women compete better than Asian men?
If you look at the number of Asian golf players there are a lot more successful Asian women/girls on the LPGA tour than Asian men on the PGA tour.

An Asian friend of mine theorized that in Korea, the number of women golfers is about 55% that of the men but in the US and Europe the number of women golfers is only about 10% or even less. Therefore, women golf in Korea is more competitive than women golf in the US.

An example he gave is the US women soccer team. In the US, the number of women players are almost equal that of men but in other countries where gender equality (Title 9) is not as good as the US there are a lot more men players than women players. As a result, US women soccer is top rate.

Do you buy this argument?

If his numbers are correct his reasoning seems sound to me. The high number of Asian women pros does seem to be a mostly Korean phenomenon. The soccer/Title 9 argument sounds logical, also.

I'm with waz, if the stats are accurate, then it seems logical to me as well...Maybe we should send all of our female golfers to Korea to get some "real" competition...

I read somewhere that reason theres not that many Korean men out on tour compared to their ladies is that the men have to do compulsory military for like 3 years I think. So there all level with the women for a while then they join the service and may not hit a ball for say 3 years. After they get out maybe there prioritys have changed or the drives gone. I don't know.
I think here in NZ only around 10% of registered golfers are female.

I read an article on why there are so many Korean females pro golfers but really only one Korean male and what kiwidave mentioned is the explanation I found most plausible. All men in South Korea are required to do military or police training in their early 20's for 3 years. They had stories of guys who would break 70 practically everytime out but had to leave for training.

Yeah. Korean Men have mandatory 26 month service, usually between the ages of 18-24. If youre a great golfer, imagine not hitting a ball for 26 months. It would **** and you would lose so much of your game. Usually the Govt gives exceptions to players in sports that bring Korea honor (ie 2002 World Cup team who all got exemptions from the Military and Chan Ho Park got an exception for leading Korea to the Asian Cup title in baseball). But besides that, its rare.

If the numbers are indeed correct, it makes a lotta sense. Also, golf in Korea is so expensive only the rich can afford to play. Maybe that has something to do with it (getting better teachers, more practice time, etc). Grace Park came to America for golf when she was really young, and her family is very well off in Korea.

I think asian women are physically on a level playing field worldwide - They match up physically to other women players worldwide. But the men are smaller, shorter, and dont hit as far as the best men players worldwide. Hey, this sounds un-pc but I'm asian myself and my friends & I have thought about it before. I mean look at the guys that you do see.. Tanaka, Miruyama, etc.. they're small guys. They gotta hit driver perfect every time just to get 280 yds or so..

I believe the next generation of Asian men players will make a bigger impact because they're getting bigger.

There maybe some merit to this although some of the Korean women on tour are quite small, as well. Also, while the really big guns on the mens side are all over 6-foot, there are many average and even undersized guys who make a very successful living on tour.