More people play golf alone along, following eating-alone trend

With the recent culture of “honsul” and “honbap” (eating-alone and drinking-alone), “hongol,” a new word to describe the act of playing golf alone, has become a new trend in Korea.

Thanks to the implementation of the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act (Kim Young-ran Act), free golfing disappears and go Dutch (paying bills separately) has been the norm. More people begin to play golf alone and they do not care about others’ opinions.

The Internet golf portal Mennal Golf (www.mennalgolf.com) helps people, who enjoys playing golf alone, to find other golfers to join for a round of golf. This website frequently hosts golf meetings, in which more than three teams participate, held in main golf clubs across the nation for amateur golfer communities. People can participate in the event by joining as a member of the website. Other golf websites offer similar services to their members, but they had many setbacks as they do not disclose the information about the participants. However, Mennal Golf hosts golf meetings all around the year at the same time and same venue and organizes team members considering handicaps, gender, age, and other conditions, based on the information of members that they submitted upon subscription.

Golfers will have group discounts by 10-20 percent. If a golf club offers a free round of golf for one or two golfers, the benefit goes to all participants by dividing the fee into the number of participants. Also, Mennal Golf provides its members with meal service so that they can get acquainted each other after game and hosts other events such as awarding ceremony based on scores of the day.

Mennal Golf is also looking for a chairman of each region now. The selected chairman will be given maximum 2 million won each month for operating expenses according to the record of meetings. “The number of golfers who visited golf clubs decreases these days as scheduling and composing members have become difficult," said Park Su-cheol, CEO of Mennal Golf. "We plan to create an environment where everyone easily visits golf clubs and enjoys playing golf and to make golf clubs as true venues for social interactions.”

김종석기자 kjs0123@donga.com