suh-creen golp-uh

one of the surprisingly popular sports here is golf. why a surprise? because it's a mountainous country, and where there aren't mountains there are cities, so where, in that already limited space, are they going to fit golf courses? well they find ways, sure enough, but there aren't very many. and the ones that do exist are extremely expensive (like $200 on average). so, as a recourse, many fans play the digital indoor version - screen golf.

i used to be a bit of a golfer in my youth (ahhh youth), but i probably haven't hit a green in 4 years. still, i was pretty interested in trying out what digital golfing was like - probably somewhere between mini-golf and wii sports, right?

the first time i went to play was with a party of 5, which is too many, and for the most part the other 4 were first time players (to be fair, one guy was a lefty and they only had right handed facilities - so he was pretty screwed regardless). we started around 11pm and were informed that they would be closing at 1 in the mornin. in 2 hours we made it through 5 holes...yeaaaaah. not a great introduction. luckily my school bud, hwan sun, goes about once a week. so the next time, with just hwan sun and myself, we finished all 18 holes in about 2 hours and 10 minutes....yeaaaah. also i won, so that's cool.

aside from the obvious differences - you know, not being outside and shooting at a screen - the mechanics are pretty much the same. you can still slice the ball (which i did a lot on the drives). putting is near impossible because you have absolutely no feel for the green. chipping not too easy either. also you have to play by the rules which is a bummer. you cant go climbing out of bounds and find your ball and just hit it anyways. OB is OB. sometimes though you totally screw up a shot and it thinks you are like tiger woods or something anyways. for about $20 its a pretty good use of 2 hours. we ended up getting some fried chicken and beer and ate that in the room while playing, which is a little weird because its all greasy and then you have to grip a club, but im 100% behind the idea. fried chicken and beer belongs with every sporting event.

here's a crappy phone video of hwan sun playing (secret spy style):