Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Virtual Golf Makes Sport More Accessible for South Koreans

by Caleb Johnson on September 16, 2009 at 06:30 AM


Don't expect Tiger Woods to practice this way, but for many South Koreans, hitting the virtual greens is much more practical than playing the real sport. According to a report from CNN, many of the country's 3.5 million golfers opt to play golf simulators instead of the 260 golf courses, which tend to be prohibitively expensive and crowded. In contrast, a round of virtual golf costs somewhere between $20 and $30 (about 10-percent of the cost for a real round of golf), and at last count, there were nearly 12,000 'golf cafes' spread across the country.

South Korea lays claim to one of the highest concentrations of golf simulators in the world; around seven of every 10 machines sold around the globe wind up in the Asian nation. But the phenomenon is expanding overseas, too. James Day, director and founder of Urban Golf in the U.K., says more than 1,000 enthusiasts visit one of his two London golf cafes each week. Crediting the accessibility of this new craze, Days says, "[We] don't have a membership or a dress code and we provide the equipment so it is accessible to more people."

We realize that golf can be one of the more pretentious sports, but there are still places for the average Joe to play on a Saturday morning. Whatever happened to you and your friends riding around on golf carts at the local public course with a cooler full of beer? [From: CNN]

Tags: golf, south korea, SouthKorea, sports, top, video games, VideoGames, virtual reality, VirtualReality

Comments

1

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular