Korea Masters (BWF Badminton): Dates, Tickets & Venue (Asan)

A tournament in Admiral Yi’s hometown

The venue name tells you where you are. Asan is the town where Admiral Yi Sun-sin grew up, and the 2026 Korea Masters is held at the gymnasium named after him. Players and fans come from across Asia for a week of international badminton in a mid-sized city about 40 minutes from Seoul by fast train.

Indoors, it looks like any BWF event. Mats are laid over the sports floor, the line judges sit low at the court edges, and the umpire’s chair stands high at the net. A shuttle at full smash travels faster than your eye can follow. The rally is over before the crowd’s gasp is.

How the week unfolds

The Korea Masters has sat in the Super 300 tier of the BWF World Tour in recent seasons. That puts it below the big Super 1000 events, and it matters for spectators. Rising players and established names often share the same draw, so the early rounds put a lot of quality on the floor at once.

The tournament covers five events:

• Men’s singles
• Women’s singles
• Men’s doubles
• Women’s doubles
• Mixed doubles

Early days run several courts side by side, and you can watch whichever match grabs you. By the weekend the field narrows to one show court, with the finals usually played on the Sunday. The draws and order of play appear on the BWF’s tournament pages, which is where fans follow who plays when.

Reaching Asan from Seoul

Getting there is simple. Cheonan-Asan Station is the KTX and SRT stop that serves the area. High-speed trains from Seoul Station or Suseo reach it in well under an hour.

The cheaper, slower option is Seoul Subway Line 1. It runs south through Cheonan to Asan and Onyangoncheon Station, and the full trip from central Seoul takes around two hours. A T-money card covers the subway, local buses and most taxis. Taxis queue outside both stations, and local drivers know the gymnasium by name.

Many visitors stay in Onyang. It is Asan’s old spa district, with hot-spring hotels a short ride from the venue. Others base themselves in Cheonan, which has more choice and good rail connections.

Courtside manners at Yi Sun-sin Gymnasium

Badminton has its own etiquette in the stands, and Korean crowds follow it closely. Spectators stay seated during rallies. They move along the rows only when play stops: between games, or at the 60-second interval once a player reaches 11 points. Ushers often hold people at the aisle end until the rally finishes.

• Flash off. A flash in a player’s eyeline is the one thing that gets a crowd glaring. Photography without flash is generally tolerated.
• Cheer on the point, not the serve. The hall goes quiet at the serve and erupts at the end of the rally. Home fans usually save their loudest noise for Korean players.
• Pay by card. Cards and mobile payments work almost everywhere in Korea, including convenience stores and most food stalls near sports halls.
• Sessions. Early-round days are long. Fans usually drift in and out, and they pick their seats around the courts that matter to them.

The draw and order of play appear on the BWF tournament site. Ticket sales for Korean sporting events usually run through the host association and online ticketing platforms.

Between sessions: shrines, springs and a folk village

The admiral is everywhere in Asan. Hyeonchungsa is the shrine complex built in his memory, set among pine trees, ponds and his old family home. In November the ginkgo and maple leaves turn, so it makes a calm half-day away from the court noise.

Onyang Hot Springs have drawn visitors since the Joseon kings bathed here. The public bathhouses and spa hotels feel good after hours on a plastic stadium seat. The usual Korean bathhouse rules apply: wash fully before you get in, and no swimwear in the gender-separated baths.

Oeam Folk Village sits at the foot of Seolhwasan. Its thatched and tiled houses are enclosed by low stone walls, and some families still live there. Gongseri Catholic Church is one of Korea’s oldest parishes, in red brick, and it adds a short stop on the way.

Who comes, and why it works

The crowd is a mix of local club players, school teams, travelling fans from elsewhere in Asia and visiting coaches. Badminton is one of Korea’s most played recreational sports, so plenty of people in the stands can read a doubles rotation as well as the commentators.

Because the city is compact, a weekend here is easy to arrange. You can spend the morning at Hyeonchungsa, watch the afternoon semi-finals, then soak in the hot springs at night. Admiral Yi probably never planned to have a badminton hall named after him. It suits the town anyway.