Korean women's golf tour introduces childbirth support payments

Golf

Published: 03 Jan. 2024, 15:23 Updated: 03 Jan. 2024, 17:52

Korean women's golf tour introduces childbirth support payments

Park Hee-young, who gave birth to a child in Jan. 2023, watches her tee shot during the second round of the BMW Ladies Championship in Paju on Oct. 20, 2023. [AP/YONHAP]

Professional women’s golfers in Korea could soon get paid for giving birth through a new childbirth incentive for athletes on the sport’s domestic tour amid a nationwide population decline.

The Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) has added childbirth support to its welfare policy ahead of the 2024 season, with players now eligible to receive up to 5 million won ($3,840) after giving birth.

As of Jan. 1, athletes are eligible to receive 1 million won after giving birth to their first child, 3 million won after their second and 5 million won for every child after that under a revision to the KLPGA “Mutual Aid Association” regulations.

“We will continue to improve the welfare of our members by expanding various systems and providing services,” the KLPGA said in a press release announcing the incentive last week.

The KLPGA’s policy change comes as the country as a whole fights a dangerously declining birth rate, with the Korean government announcing new policies in the new year to fight historically low marriage and childbirth rates.

But it also comes as multiple professional golf organizations have worked to expand maternity leave policies for athletes.

The LPGA in 2019 expanded its policy to allow players to freeze their status on the Tour for up to two years after taking maternity leave and removed the cap on the number of tournaments a player could enter while pregnant.

And the U.S. Golf Association (USGA), the sport’s governing body in the United States and Mexico, expanded their leave policies in 2020 to allow both women and men a one-year tournament deferral while on maternity or paternity leave.

Women golfers are also eligible to “freeze” their position on the Rolex Women’s Golf Ranking or World Amateur Golf Ranking while on maternity leave — a key change, as rankings affect a professional golfer’s sponsorship opportunities.

Golfers are not paid directly by professional associations — they earn money from playing in tournaments throughout the season and from corporate sponsors — and must continue to perform at a high level in order to maintain their Tour status and with it, eligibility to play in championship events.

Japan's JLPGA Tour, which allows up to three years of maternity leave, also recently expanded its childcare benefits to mothers on Tour.

In October 2023, the JLPGA opened its first childcare facilities for athletes to leave their kids at tournaments, decades after the LPGA opened theirs.

“In Japan, as women become more active and society changes to become more diverse, professional athletes also need an environment where they can work while raising children even after marriage and childbirth,” JLPGA President Hiromi Kobayashi said in a statement released by Sumitomo Corporation, a sponsor of the childcare facilities.

“I think that the players can broaden their horizons in terms of their desire to work and planning their lives, and it allows them to look at their lives over the long term,” Kobayashi said.

The KLPGA faced backlash last year over its maternity leave policy, which allows up to two years of leave but requires players to submit a request with at least 70 percent of a season’s tournaments still to go, according to a copy of the policy obtained by JTBC Golf, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily.

It is unclear whether the leave policy has changed since the JTBC Golf report in April 2023.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]