south korea The End Is Near

South Korea may be seeing a lot of golf construction these days, but, like Japan, it’s effectively been tapped out as a market for future golf development.

That’s the view of David V. Smith, who’s been working on golf projects in South Korea for a decade and is currently managing the development of the 54-hole Sanyosoo resort in Chuncheon.

Smith, who operates through Agoura Hills, California-based Golf Projects International, says that the prices of golf memberships at the clubs on Jeju Island, the nation’s premier golf destination, have fallen by 50 percent over the past 18 months –- evidence, he believes, that developers have already built too many courses there, just as they have in other parts of the nation.

As a result, he predicts, only about 100 additional courses will be built in South Korea.

“For the next two years there will be opportunities in Korea, but that’s it,” he says. “The market is saturated.”

As for the next big thing, Smith is lukewarm on Vietnam and Thailand, where, he says, prospects are limited to resort development, but he’s hot on India, where golf has been played since the 1820s and the middle class is thriving.

“If I were 10 years younger,” he says, “India would be my next stop, no question about it.”