Gender, Transnational Migration, and Athletic Career Development: the Case of Korean Players on the LPGA of Japan Tour

Ku Ok-hee became the first ever Korean female golfer to win a tournament on the LPGA of Japan Tour (JLPGA Tour) by her victory in the Kibun Ladies Classic on March 31, 1985. Since then, Korean players as a group have amassed 228 victories on the JLPGA Tour by the end of the 2019 season. Although this has been a truly remarkable accomplishment in the history of international sports, no systematic investigation has been conducted thus far about the factors that contributed to the success of Korean women players on the JLPGA Tour. The primary purpose of this study is to analyze the rise and fall of the Korean players on the JLPGA Tour from the perspective of their career life cycles. More specifically, this study will apply the career life cycle model to the career pathways of the players on the tour. Each individual player’s career history on the Korean LPGA Tour before the player’s transnational migration to the JLPGA Tour will be examined to ascertain whether or not the player’s pre-migration record is a reliable predictor of the post-migration performance on the JLPGA Tour. The number of tournament victories of each of the Korean players during the player’s entire career on the JLPGA Tour will be reviewed. The all-time history of each individual player’s money ranking on the tour will be investigated for both the active and the retired players. A cohort analysis method is used in investigating the tournament wins and money ranking history of the players by comparing the tournament win records and the all-time money rankings on the basis of the entry cohort to the JLPGA Tour.