LPGA to require players to speak English: Asians Are Killing Our Tour

Opinion

Barry Artiste

You know the USA LPGA, won’t be winning too many friends in the golf industry or with viewers.

Boy it’s a good thing this doesn’t carry out in our National Hockey League where French Canadians may not have a good command of the English Language or Russian Hockey Players drafted to play in the United States, not to mention the Drafting of Chinese and African Basketball players whose English for the NBA may not be up to par.

But then sports was never about linguistics, cause if it were, we would be so totally screwed. So one can only look forward to an LPGA tour with the Ladies wearing their Golfing Whites, complete with White Hoods, and Caddies carrying the Gas, and Crosses for a Bogey of contraversy.

http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=749852

LPGA to require players to speak English

PA SportsTicker

Published: Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Jan Stephenson knew what she was about to say was going to get her in trouble.

So the former star of women’s golf did not just say it, she went blazing into the minefield of a looming political debate with the bombshell declaration that “the Asians are killing our tour.”

Foreign players were winning too much and speaking too little, she told a golf magazine five years ago. She proposed drastic measures, but nothing quite like the LPGA itself has now made mandatory – that all players have learn English, or risk suspension.

The governing body convened a mandatory meeting for its South Korean members last week, informing them that golfers with two years’ experience would have their language skills tested beginning next year. According to Golfweek, which broke the story, every player was left with the impression the punishment for failing that test would go beyond a mere suspension and result in the revocation of their tour card.

Word of the proposal spread quickly Tuesday, drawing strong criticism from corners of the Internet. Some charged the entire notion smacked of racism, while one blogger affiliated with The Sporting News claimed it is “a heavy-handed and nannying approach to player management that makes the NFL seem laissez-faire in comparison.

” “Why now? Athletes now have more responsibilities and we want to help their professional development,” LPGA deputy commissioner Libba Galloway told The Associated Press.

“There are more fans, more media and more sponsors.

We want to help our athletes as best we can succeed off the golf course as well as on it.” Forty-five of the tour’s 121 international players are from South Korea, making it the largest foreign contingent playing on U.S. soil.

More than a dozen of the top 20 players on the money list were not born in the United States, and Asian players have won eight of 25 tournaments so far this season.

The language issue has been raised before as a reason why the LPGA has struggled to retain a stable footing in an already volatile market. Foreign players without a basis in English are unable to mingle with the corporate sponsors and heavy-hitters who pay to play in Pro-Ams before the big events.