Why a podium finish would mean so much more than a medal for two Olympic golfers at Paris 2024

Ben An and Tom Kim are representing South Korea in the Olympics. They could gain an exemption from military service with a medal.

For 58 golfers in the field at Le Golf National this weekend, an Olympic medal would mean national recognition, a shiny medal, and a place in the history books. But for Tom Kim and Ben An, it would be life-changing.

WAAC (Win At All Costs) says the branding on the side of the South Korean pair’s team caps in Paris. Podium At All Costs would perhaps, be more appropriate because a top-three finish come Sunday evening would instantly end their obligation to military service in their homeland.

The nation rules that able-bodied men aged 19 or over, regardless of their career or where they choose to reside, must return to the country and serve between 18 and 21 months in the armed forces before they turn 35 and, ideally, by the time they are 28.

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They can postpone the date of their service but without a significant cultural justification, like an Olympic medal or a gold medal at the Asian Games, the South Korean government says service is mandatory.

Ben An (An Byeong-hun, to give him his full name), is already 32 meaning time is running out for the Orlando resident. The former US Amateur Champion, who has wins on the Challenge Tour, Korn Ferry Tour and DP World Tour (winning the flagship BMW PGA in 2015), has already delayed his enlisting on several occasions and knows he needs something to happen quickly if he is to avoid pausing his golf career for a far less glamorous chapter.

At 22, Kim (Kim Joo-hyung), who already has three PGA Tour wins to his name, has far more opportunities to rid himself of that threat and avoid having to up sticks from his Dallas home. But, as the old saying goes, there’s no time like the present.

After 36 holes of Olympic action in the southwest suburbs of Paris, An has work to do, sitting T31 and nine shots off the medals after rounds of 72-68. Kim, on the other hand, is eight under, tied for fifth, and just three shots off the podium heading into moving day. Muscling his way into that top-three won’t be easy with defending champion (and two-time Major champion) Xander Schauffele, 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, and Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood – a man who loves this golf course having won the French Open and Ryder Cup here – tied at the top on 11-under.

The World No.20 will also have to overcome in-form Jon Rahm, Thomas Detry, and 2020 bronze medallist CT Pan, while World No.1 Scottie Scheffler and four-time Major champion Rory McIlroy are among those just breathing down his neck.

South Korea isn’t alone in having a conscription system, but few enforce it as strictly and many in the country see it as right and proper. And being a millionaire sportsman has never been a get-out-of-service-free card.

Seung Yul-Noh and Sang-Moon Bae both had wins on the PGA Tour when they had to head home for their mandatory service obligation. They’ve returned to golf since but neither has come close to regaining their form. Bae entered the military as a rifleman in 2015, immediately after playing in the Presidents Cup. Speaking when he returned to the tour, he admitted he’d thought of nothing other than getting discharged during his service. He was comfortably inside the world’s top 100 when he headed home. Now he’s 552^nd having missed more cuts than he’s made since returning to golf in 2017.

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In 2018, Tottenham Hotspur footballer Heung-Min Son, a star of the Premier League, was facing service having missed out on an exemption at the 2014 Asian Games. Fortunately for Son who, like Kim, spends much of the time wearing a huge grin on his face, South Korea won Gold in the 2018 Asian Games, to leave him in the clear. The nation’s baseball team achieved the same.

Last year, Si Woo Kim, a four-time PGA Tour winner, and Sungjae Im, a two-time PGA Tour winner, ensured they wouldn’t face the same fate by winning gold in the golf at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. It was a story that was missed by much of the golfing world with all eyes on the Ryder Cup in Italy in the same week. Their achievement was even more special given they’d both missed an earlier opportunity at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

“This has been the longest four days of my career,” Im said after securing gold. “Every hole felt so important. I wanted to fight for every shot and do the best I could until the finish.

In recent years there have been talks that the government will revise the exemption categories, with many South Koreans calling for a higher bar to achieve it – an argument that gathered pace when eSports was added to the Asian Games in 2023. There’s something ironic in a youthful Call of Duty genius being able to secure an exemption from the real-life thing.

But Kim and An have largely avoided discussing the matter in Paris this week. In fact it took 13 questions for the subject to be raised when they faced the press ahead of the tournament.

“I think the easiest answer for us is we’re here to play good this week,” Kim said. “We are not focused on that. We are here to represent our country and I want — to be honest, I want me and Ben to be standing in that stadium not for exemption but for our country. That’s the most important part. That’s the pride of being a South Korean, we have our services and it is what it is. We are going to go throughout and we are going to play our best and I really hope he and I are standing on that podium.”

While potential military service looms over the South Koreans, it’s something that has already happened to another member of the field.

Finland’s Sami Valimaki, T19 at four-under after two rounds, served mandatory time in 2018, when he was just 20. He spent six months in a bitterly cold forest where he executed rifle drills. Valimaki’s service came before he’d turned pro, but he understands his rivals’ predicament this week.

“I heard they need to do two years, and it’s really strict,” Valimaki said sympathetically when asked about the Koreans’ situation.

“So it’s tough, especially for him (Kim) now. He’s playing so well. For me, it was a bit easier because I kind of did it all before my pro career. So it didn’t hurt that much, and it was only six months, so it made it easier. But I would say it’s really a good thing for the Finnish country to have the military and get the boys a little bit working on the military. I think it’s good for the country.”

Kim and An will be hoping their service to the “good of the country” will come in the form of a medal in the Paris sunshine.

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About the Author

Rob Jerram – Digital Editor

Rob specializes in the DP World Tour, PGA Tour, LIV Golf, and the Ryder Cup, spending large chunks of his days reading about, writing about, and watching the tours each month.

He’s passionate about the equipment used by professional golfers and is also a font of knowledge regarding golf balls, rangefinders, golf trolleys, and golf bags, testing thousands down the years.

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