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Beneficiary from the Pandemic: Golf
The Rise of Golf and How It Differs Between U.S. and Korea
Nowadays, if you don’t play golf or at least don’t possess basic knowledge about golf, it’s easy to feel left out from conversations. Or at least, I’ve personally felt that way regardless of whether I am in Korea or here in San Francisco (or Bay Area). The surge in golf’s popularity is partially attributable to Covid-19. During the government imposed Covid-19 shut-down from Summer 2020 to Spring 2021, people (including myself) went through cabin fever (a state of mind that can develop when a person is confined to their home and unable to have social interaction). Everything was shut down, except for one place — driving ranges and golf courses. That made perfect sense because people are socially distanced while playing golf and everything is done outdoors.
Naturally, more and more people started getting into golf during the peak of the pandemic. After a long hiatus, I also picked up golf again to force myself to go outside. Although golf-population has normalized compared to last year, it is still a war to find a good weekend tee times (my go-to reservation method is Golfnow -https://www.golfnow.com), or it is inevitable to avoid wait times at driving ranges (again, my go-to driving range is Stanford Golf Driving Range in Palo Alto).
