Every shot has a purpose for those helping Taiwanese executives swing their way to success.

“I might have been the only Taiwanese child to play golf back then,” says Brian Ko. “Or at least one of a few.” He shows me black-and-white pictures of a young boy with a wild, excited expression, his back twisted to position the golf club correctly in his hands.

As a child, the now middle-aged Ko was considered a golf prodigy. He participated in the China Open at the age of 14, having already reached a professional standard with a sub-zero handicap at 13.

But soon enough, life and its expectations got in the way of his golf ambitions. By the time Ko had finished his university studies and started managing part of the family business, golf had become no more than a time-consuming hobby.

That remained the case until seven years ago, when Ko’s son passed away. It was a tragedy that turned everything on its head.

“I quit my job and started looking for something to do that would help me repair myself,” he recalls. Ko decided to turn back to golf and dedicate himself to helping people gain the confidence to play better. Now, he’s the owner of BrianGolfClinic, a Taipei membership-based coaching studio.

BrianGolfClinic is home to state-of-the-art golf simulators and an endless row of golf clubs and equipment. Ko’s style of coaching has proven greatly successful. A prime example is a 35-year-old student who, after two months of intensive training with Ko, scored 99 in his first real game on a golf course. (In comparison, golfers on online forums report breaking 100 after no less than a year of serious practice.)

While he accepts patients of all sorts, Dr. Brian specializes in “golf emergencies.”

“If you need to improve your game by tomorrow and you’re worried you can’t play well enough, you can come to my emergency class,” he says. He adds that it was an executive at an international company who named the studio for him. “She doesn’t have a lot of time to practice golf. But she always calls me in emergencies.”

Current and aspirational business executives are the typical demographic at BrianGolfClinic. “Golf is not cheap,” he says. “And it plays an important business function. So our members will be people like the chairman of a bank or an analyst at Deloitte.”

Ko’s customer base reflects the general profile of a Taiwanese golfer. Golf is the most played in the northern part of Taiwan – the island’s business center – where golf courses and clubs also provide the most lucrative entertainment tax source for the government. 

In recent years, revenue from golf venues have made up around 33% of the total entertainment tax collected in the north, according to the Ministry of Finance. By contrast, claw machines still dominate central Taiwan at 30%, while Internet cafes, arcades, and KTV parlors are the biggest contributors in the south at about 50% of the total.

The association between golf and the business world has long been recognized for valid reasons. It provides a unique opportunity for professionals to engage in a relaxed and informal environment, away from the confines of their offices, fostering a sense of camaraderie and connection among participants. It’s no wonder that research shows that approximately 90% of Fortune 500 CEOs actively engage in golf.

For those who wish to get started to boost their career, the biggest barrier is financial. Ko is correct – golf is “not cheap.” On average, a golf membership – often lasting a lifetime – can range in Taiwan from approximately NT$1 million to NT$3 million (about US$33,000 to US$100,000). Additionally, members can expect annual fees and other expenses related to maintenance and usage.

And membership fees are far from the end of a golfer’s spending items. A complete set of new golf clubs range from NT$30,000 to NT$150,000, depending on the brand and quality. A box of premium golf balls typically costs around NT$1,500 to NT$3,000, and a quality golf bag can range from NT$6,000 to NT$18,000. Add to that a pair of shoes and the mandatory golf apparel, and you can expect an additional NT$15,000 to NT$30,000.

For the fun of it

It was on a hazy – I regret to say – Thursday night that I first found myself at The Upper House, a social club on the top floor of the shopping mall Noke in Taipei’s Dazhi District.

A friend of a friend, who was an Upper House member, had dragged our dinner group north to continue the night after the restaurant closed. Although most of us were quite tired, we quickly perked up once we stepped into an ambiently lit room with black chairs and round marble tables, complete with a golf simulator and a karaoke set. 

Before I knew it, I had a glass of champagne in one hand and a golf club in the other. Luckily, I still had the presence of mind to put the glass down before I swung the club toward the screen.

The Upper House is a membership-based club that offers private rooms with virtual golf, baseball, and soccer, as well as KTV and food and beverage services. Apart from these rooms, the establishment hosts a lounge, complete with a bar, and an outdoor putting area where people can practice to the backdrop of the Miramar Ferris Wheel and Taipei’s northern districts.

“We started out with offering virtual golf since golf enables people to build relationships with others,” says Roger Lin, marketing manager of The Upper House. “Lots of people play golf in Taipei.” Still, he adds that for those who can’t or won’t play, The Upper House offers several other entertainment options.

Members of The Upper House are company leaders, who don’t always have time to hit the golf course. “It’s also more fun to drink and play in a more relaxed environment sometimes,” Lin says. A former golf coach and a PR expert, he was tasked to help build up the establishment about a year ago.

“We started with recruiting more mature executives, and now we’re targeting the 30-45 demographic,” Lin says. “We’ve invested a lot in high-quality simulators and diverse experiences, and we’ve also worked with high-end brands to host their launch parties.”

For the comfort and convenience of members, membership has been capped at 100 people, and applicants are vetted before they’re approved.

“Our older members tell us they used to go to the golf course to discuss sensitive matters, because it’s very private,” says Lin. “Now it’s become a part of business culture. That’s why we created this place – we want to give people a relaxed, private environment to network and discuss business matters.” Still, The Upper House also organizes special events at the clubhouse as well as monthly games at a golf course to encourage networking between members.

Lin points to two trends that have spurred recent growth in Taiwan’s golf market – the pandemic and a growing interest from women. “During Covid, people could mostly do outdoor activities, and a lot of people started playing or picked up the game again. Now it seems like just about everyone is playing, which makes it even more of a social sport.”

Not just for the rich

“My dad had three babies in four years,” says Eily Ho, vice president of Pei Tou Kuo Hua Golf Club. “My brother, Kuo Hua, and me.” Although Ho is younger than the 54-year-old golf course she now manages, it’s become her baby, too.

Situated in Taipei’s Beitou District, just a bit over half an hour from downtown Taipei, Kuo Hua Golf and Country Club is the one closest to Taiwan’s business hub. Naturally, the target demographic for Kuo Hua is Taipei businesspeople.

After spending years in Hong Kong as a professional golf coach, Ho moved back to Taipei and started her own business venture. When the pandemic hit, she found solace in working on her business at the golf club. As she started spending more time at Kuo Hua, Ho gradually assumed more and more responsibility for its management. Now, she is focused on the family “baby.”   

During the pandemic, Ho and her team started slowly upgrading Kuo Hua. “We started out with the green and the teeing ground,” she says. “They are the most important – everyone starts in the tee area and ends in the putting green, but not everyone makes it onto the fairway.” 

Kuo Hua management is now focused on finding solutions to two major challenges. The first is Taiwan’s shrinking number of caddies. “Our caddies are getting older – most of them are 60 plus,” Ho says. “And the weather is very hot, making it hard for them to do several rounds in one day. So we want to shift our service to offering one caddy for four customers rather than two.”

The second challenge is to build a professional management team to meet the needs of Taipei businesspeople for efficiency. Ho’s goal is to enable Taipei’s golfers to play 18 holes at Kuo Hua and still be back in the city calmly for lunch or other itineraries. To this end, the Kuo Hua team is finding ways to streamline the course travel time.

“If I can manage and control the speed of play better, and if our reputation for a round of golf at Kuo Hua is that it can be completed within four hours and fifteen minutes, Taipei residents will be inclined to come play more often,” she says.

Addressing both these issues, Ho plans to create a product called “golf pass,” similar to the Golf Pass part of the certification system at Hong Kong’s Jockey Club Kau Sai Chau Public Golf Course, where Ho used to certify HK residents.

To qualify for the Hong Kong Golf Pass, players need to meet specific handicap requirements to ensure they have the necessary skills and knowledge to play safely and competently.

Similar systems also exist in Europe. For example, golfers in Sweden and Estonia need to obtain a “green card,” which involves completing a course that covers the basics of golf, including rules, etiquette, and techniques. After finishing the course, players must pass both a written and a practical test. Successful candidates are then issued a green card, allowing them to play on golf courses across the country.

Kuo Hua’s Golf Pass plan includes partnering with an academy that trains customers on proper golf etiquette and driving. Players who obtain Kuo Hua’s Golf Pass will be allowed to have one caddy for four customers rather than two, as members will drive the cars themselves. Ho describes this as a win-win situation – customers pay less for the caddy fee, and the caddy can earn more by providing higher level service quality.

Kuo Hua’s smaller-sized cars will also enable members with passes to drive onto the fairway right up to where their balls have landed, saving considerable time compared with walking. Currently, the club already allows those 65 and older to drive the two-seater car right next to their ball.

“Our cars have also been installed with iPads that show the distance from the ball to the flag, which removes the need for a caddy to measure it,” says Ho. This technology improves accuracy and saves the caddy from running around the course to measure distances, which allows them to conserve energy for another round.

Although golf will never be cheap, it doesn’t just need to be limited to the ultra-wealthy, Ho notes. To encourage more people to play golf, she is introducing short-term memberships of between one and three years, which are far more suitable than the lifetime memberships that are the norm here.

“This type of membership also works better for companies that appoint GMs for limited periods and cover their memberships for networking,” Ho adds.

While women have traditionally been excluded from many informal spaces for business discussions (think gentlemen’s clubs and hostess bars), golf is not gender-limiting and can thus be a viable means for more women to enter business spaces.

To encourage women to play, Ho plans to introduce a discounted membership for “single ladies” (she clarifies that you don’t have to actually be single to gain this type of membership).

“More women are playing crucial roles in important companies, and I want to encourage them to play more golf as well,” Ho says. “It’s really thanks to them that the industry is growing right now.”

Asked what she sees for the future of Taiwan’s golf industry, Ho responds with determination:

“If I only ‘see,’ it won’t change much – but I will do my best to make it change,” she says. “Hopefully, I can play a role in enhancing and changing the golf industry’s role in business. It’s a lifelong project.”