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There is a much-told story that when Kim Jong Il played his first ever round of golf he supposedly scored 11 holes in one. When British journalist Richard Shears visited North Korea and investigated the claim, he found that it was – of course – a myth, but also that it was a myth propagated by the western media, not by Pyongyang.
The claim originated when a Western journalist asked a club professional in Pyongyang whether Kim Jong-Il had ever played golf. The pro, under close scrutiny from security officials, claimed Kim was terribly good at golf and had scored five holes-in-one. After this was reported, the figure then got inflated to 11 holes in one, and further embellished by the claims that 17 armed bodyguards witnessed that he scored 38 under par, and that it was Kim's first ever round. But one North Korean propaganda expert said he'd never seen the claim from the country's propaganda machine and that golf was perceived as an upper-class sport, so even if Kim had played golf, the regime was unlikely to report the fact.
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