This article was machine-translated from the Korean original. Read the Korean original
01Prologue: The Fairway Runway Where the Scorecard Disappeared
On a weekend morning, I head to a prestigious members-only golf course in the Gyeonggi region with a sense of excitement. Having checked my equipment and the weather for days and resolved to engage in a close battle with my companions, I arrive at the teeing ground. However, an ominous atmosphere hangs in the air from the very first hole. The cart of the group ahead is standing still, showing no signs of moving. Is some major tournament taking place? As I cast my gaze into the distance to assess the situation, a bizarre sight catches my eye.
Young female golfers wearing ultra-mini skirt-fit golf wear with flashy neon colors and lace are striking seductive poses next to tee markers. In front of them, a male playing partner or a caddy with an anxious expression is repeatedly snapping photos of their shirts while lying almost on the ground, rotating their smartphones horizontally and vertically.
"Unnie, that backswing angle just now isn't good! My legs look a bit short. Take it again!", "Try shooting in burst mode, timing it with the skirt fluttering in the wind!"
In their conversations, there is not a shred of sportsmanship to be found regarding today's green speed or the course layout. They are people who have sold their souls solely for a "single shot of the lifetime" to post on their Instagram feeds, garnering thousands of "likes" and envious comments. This is the sad reality of the Korean golf course, now overrun by so-called "Insta Golf Princesses."
Established media outlets, which chase only trendy sensibilities and the flow of capital, are busy packaging this phenomenon with glamorous skins and pictorials, labeling it the "spectacular influx of MZ generation female golfers and fashion trends." This is because the luxury clothing brands worth millions of won worn by these princesses are the magazines' biggest advertisers.
However, Club14, which strips away pretense and hypocrisy from the perspective of sincere golfers who silently sweat and truly love the sport, does not condone this nuisance. This article is a full-scale scathing essay that exposes the raw ecosystem of "Insta Golf Princesses" who delay tee-off times and destroy the mental state of the following group solely for the sake of taking photos, and brutally dissects the bitter landscape born of Korea's deformed culture of showing off.
02Step 1: The teeing ground is not a studio
The space where the nuisance behavior of Instagram golf princesses is most blatantly and destructively revealed is undoubtedly the 'Teeing Ground,' the starting point of each hole.
According to traditional golf etiquette, the teeing ground is a space where one must finish the tee shot as quickly as possible and step down. This is because it is a sacred starting point that maintains distance from the group ahead and determines the tempo of the game. However, the moment the "Golf Princesses" step in, this space instantly transforms into a trendy profile studio in Cheongdam-dong.
The first thing to be sacrificed is the labor of the companions and the caddies.
Before grabbing the driver, they take a high-definition camera or the latest smartphone out of their pocket and hand it to the caddy. "Sister, I'm going to stop for just three seconds at the top of my backswing, so please take the shot from a low angle looking up. You know what I mean? To make my legs look long."
When the caddie reluctantly presses the shutter, she immediately checks the screen. If she is not satisfied, she says, "Ah, the composition isn't good. I'll do it again," and repeats the tee shot staging five or six times.
It doesn't matter whether the ball flew properly. Whether you hit a top ball and it crawls like a snake, or slice it and it flies into the out-of-bounds area in the mountains on the right, as long as your finish posture and bright smile shown to the camera lens are perfect, the mission for that hole is a success.
While the tee-off time is dragged out by five or ten minutes as they frantically compose shots and take staged photos on a hole, the golfers in the group behind them sit idly on benches behind the teeing ground, smoking cigarettes or yawning, their bodies growing cold in vain. It is a scene where 'consideration for others,' the most basic and noble etiquette of golf, is ruthlessly trampled upon by someone's private desire for ostentation and feed filters.
03Step 2: "Don't look for the ball, because we need to adjust the filters" — The Art of staging bunkers and rough
Their tearful obsession with photography unfolds in increasingly sophisticated and extraordinary ways as they move closer to the fairway and green.
Usually, when playing golf, the ball is bound to land in a bunker or sink into the deep rough. True golfers grip a sand wedge, calculate the resistance of the sand, and display a high level of concentration to escape this crisis. However, for golf princesses, the bunker is not a space for escaping a crisis, but merely a backdrop that creates an exotic atmosphere, as if they are standing in the middle of a desert.
When her ball gets stuck in a sand pit and the caddy brings her a club to escape, she doesn't think about swinging it but strikes a silly pose. She plops down on the sand fiddling with her sun visor, or rests her chin on a wedge club while gazing at the distant mountains with a wistful look. "Guys, take a picture of me with a desert stranding concept!"
Only after her companions have taken dozens of photos of her staging a bunker shot does she swing haphazardly, kicking up a lot of sand, pick up the ball with her hand, and gently place it on the fine grass of the fairway (also known as 'ball dropping and slipping').
The nuisance continues even on the green. When faced with a three-meter birdie putt, she lies prone on the grass pretending to read the lie and winks at the camera. Even when the players in the group behind her glare at her from inside the cart with burning eyes because their score is falling behind, her radar sees only the composition on my smartphone screen. In essence, their real strategy for the round is not about the honest score of sinking the ball into the hole, but rather about how much to slim down their waists and lengthen their legs using beauty apps on the photos they took today.
04Stage 3: Behind the glamorous feed, the Tower of Babel built with the capital of others
Then why do so many young women obsess so fiercely over their Instagram feeds, even at the cost of ruining the essence of the sport of golf? The reason lies in the 'cartel of capital and ostentation' that dominates the South Korean golf scene.
As the editor sharply exposed in the previous [Editor's Choice] section, the glamorous rounds of the "Insta Golf Princesses" do not come from the wallets of the majority of them. The green fees and high-end brand clothing costs, which amount to millions of won per month as they frequent weekend membership courses, are covered by capital from middle-aged sponsors—bosses—or business-oriented men in "All Care" groups who open their wallets behind their backs.
For them, the Instagram feed is not merely a device for recording daily life, but a 'business portfolio' to prove their charm and ticket power in order to secure sponsorships from bigger brands or more substantial sponsors. As their follower count rises and comments such as "You are so pretty" or "You have the physique of a pro athlete" are posted, their market value and value on the field increase.
Ultimately, their thoughtless, nuisance-like behavior during rounds and the resulting delays are nothing more than a desperate act of survival to keep the illusory castle built on borrowed capital from collapsing. Behind their use of the fairway as a fashion show stage under the guise of sports lies a distorted entanglement of the cunning to consume a free luxury lifestyle using appearance as currency, and the insidious capital of older men who derive vicarious satisfaction from fulfilling this need.
05Editor's Note: Looking at the filter-free fairway
Instagram's flashy filters and retouching features may make the grass on the fairway greener, but they cannot fix your embarrassing golf etiquette.
A truly great golfer is not defined by clothing brands or the number of Instagram followers. A golfer's true 'class' is revealed in the rhythm of quickly running to prepare for the next shot when one's ball is mis-hit, the consideration of promptly marking and moving away on the green to avoid obstructing the progress of the group behind, and the mature attitude of knowing how to offer warm thanks to the caddie.
If there are any beginner golfers out there tonight who are envious, thinking "I want to hit like that" while looking at the feeds of golf princesses showing off with perfect finishing poses on their Instagram feeds, I hope you will no longer be deceived by the filter of illusion.
Because your honest shots as a "100-handicap golfer," played with your own money, sweating it out legitimately, and scurrying swiftly across the fairway without worrying about the team behind you, are a million times more valuable and beautiful than the deformed birdies of those women who act soullessly on the runway while held hostage by the capital of others. On your next round, I hope you will please tuck your smartphone camera deep inside your pouch bag and show the dignity of a true gentleman by focusing solely on the ball in front of you and the grain of the wind.
