Clothes make the man, and the man occasionally makes a golf course. At least that’s how it went on Namhae Island in South Gyeongsang Province, where a South Korean clothier has fashioned his first golf course. His name is Jung Jae Bong, and his South Cape Golf Links is the centerpiece of a small waterfront community.
South Cape’s 7,312-yard, daily-fee track has been designed by Kyle Phillips, who reports that Jung gave him “a dramatic site” along “a rocky, craggy coastline” that offers “fantastic views” of the mainland and other nearby islands.
“Water is present on every hole,” Phillips notes. “Every hole has a view of the sea.”
Jung (his name is sometimes written as “Chung”) is the CEO of various entities, Handsome P&D Company and Fashion Exchange Corporation among them, that manufacture and sell men’s and women’s apparel under at least a dozen brands. I don’t know why he chose to build a course on Namhae, but I do know this: The island was the home of the South Korean character in “Lost.”
The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the April 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
• Get ’em while they’re hot: Forbes Life reports that Greg Norman has cut his design fee by roughly 30 percent, to $900,000 from $1.25 million.