Golf

On Friday I was invited by Citibank to an "economic briefing and golf game". The "economic briefing" is more of legitimising the idea of taking a Friday off to go play golf. This is very different from South Africa, where if you are invited for a game of golf, nobody even gives it a second thought, it is a good place to discuss with suppliers, customers, colleagues etc. But here it is completely the opposite, golf is seen as very elitest, and normally can only be played if you are quite wealthy. The typical round of golf will cost between US$ 200 to US$300 for green fees. If you are taken for a game of golf, it can quite often be seen as a type of bribery, or in the case of pharmaceutical companies and doctors, as a form a rebate or discount.

Anyway, I went along for the game, which is only the second game of golf I have had since being in Korea (so currently averaging 1 game a year, no good my score...) and the last time I played was in Germany last year May, so that was 17 months ago.

The golf course was East Valley Country Club, which is apparently in the top 5 courses in Korea. I was considering buying a membership, but then at a fee of US$1.2 million I thought it was just out of my price range.

The course was really fantastic, it was in some mountains about and hour outside of Seoul. The mountains were beautiful, as all the trees are changing colours, the hills were an array of reds, yellows, oranges mixed with some green.

My game went a lot better than expected, except I was putting birdie 8 times, and only managed 3 pars, ...

After the game, the shower and the hot bath, we went for drinks and dinner. This is where it gets very different, and where the Relationship Managers in Korea really earn there money. I have mentioned sometime before about the requirement to drink in Korea, and when you drink, you are really required to drink until you fall over.

By the end of the evening, I think the only people that could stand properly were the foreigners. Most people could not string a sentence together, even in Korean. I really felt sorry for the Relationship Managers from Citibank, they are mainly ladies in their 30's, and have to drink with all the "macho" men who show off how strong they are by the amount they can drink. Then with everyone completely legless, the RM's have the men hanging all over them.

It all ended well, but I am sure that there were many headaches the next morning.

Oh, nearly forgot, as Korea's legal driving limit is 0.02, Citibank arranged drivers for everyone, so I was then shown to my driver, who drove me home, and then dissappeared into the night. This is a really nice convenience in Korea, if you have been out and had some wine, etc you are able to call a driver, they will come to you, drive your car home, and then dissappear into the night. It is also not very expensive, so is definitely worth it.