Immediate future for South Korea’s Bae Sang-moon will involve a putter or a rifle

Possible military stint could stall Bae Sang-moon in his prime and pull South Korea's best golfer off the links until 2017, writes Steve Elling.

South Korea’s Bae Sang-moon is playing this week at a tour event in Maui and it may be his last as a professional until 2017. Robert Laberge / AFP

The cadre of confidants, gurus, sycophants and psychologists continues to grow as quickly as the purses.

Take a look at the practice range or putting green at a major golf event in Europe or the United States and the hangers-on are often as thick as the rough at a US Open, to the point where some players have separate coaches for their short and long games.

A rising South Korean player has made a novel addition to his personal payroll, but only out of necessity. Bae Sang-moon, the second-winningest Korean in PGA Tour history, has hired a law firm to see if he can avoid a lengthy interruption in the middle of his prime earning years.

Similar to the UAE, which began a national military conscription plan last year, South Korea requires native-born males between ages 18 and 35 to serve a stint in the military.

Bae, who won his second PGA Tour title at the 2014/15 season opener, the Frys.com Open in northern California on October 12, is trying to delay what appears to be the inevitable.

Bae, 28, is playing this week at the US tour’s elite, winners-only event on Maui and he had better make the most of his Hawaiian trek, since this month might be his last as a tour professional until 2017.

His mother last weekend told a Korean news outlet that her son had his overseas travel permit extension request rejected by the Military Manpower ­Administration.

Bae, the top-ranked Korean and third-best player from Asia, at No 83 in the world rankings, must return to Korea by the end of January or risk criminal charges, his mother said.

Bae will withhold comment on the matter as the legal wrangling unfolds, his management group said.

In his third season on the US circuit, Bae certainly has the ability to play with the big boys. He topped the Japan Tour money list in 2011, has won on multiple tours and his two PGA Tour victories are second among Koreans players only to veteran star Choi Kyung-ju, best known globally as KJ, who has eight career wins in the US.

Choi began a two-year military hitch at 22, serving as a rifleman, working at a radar installation and helping in the kitchen. His modified service allowed him to work two days and have two days off, allowing him to practise.

Yang Yong-eun, another two-time US winner and the lone Asian player to win a major championship, served a stint as a gunner in the ROK Marines, a tough outfit.

The scrappy Yang famously took down playing partner Tiger Woods to win the 2009 PGA Championship, becoming the first and only player to successfully erase one of the notoriously unflappable Woods’s 54-hole leads at a major.

Military service might toughen up Bae, to a degree, but it would leave his career stalled until he is 30, which sounds like an unhappy scenario. However, the democratic south of Korea has been known to bend at times if players can deliver high-profile performances.

If Bae can earn an extension, there might be a silver lining, not to mention a golden or bronze one. As the top-rated Korean player, he is at the front of the nation’s line as far as earning a spot in the Olympics in 2016.

South Korea has, at times, waived the military-service requirement for sports figures who took home Olympic or Asian Games medals.

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