Really? This is a big deal?The LPGA wants its players to effectively communicate with fans, the media and sponsors. A problem arises when you stop and consider the fact that 121 lady golfers are foreign, including 45 from South Korea. Many of the tour's successful golfers can't speak English and have to speak through translators.
In an attempt to fix that, the tour is going to require that all players who have been on the tour to pass an oral evaluation. Golfers who've played on tour for two years will face suspension if they fail. To be fair to the golfers, the LPGA will teach the language to any player who requests such.
Betsy Clark, the LPGA's vice president of professional development, said a team of evaluators will assess players on communication skills including conversation, everyday survival phrases and "golfspeak." Players must be able to conduct interviews and give acceptance speeches without the help of a translator, she said, according to the report.
So is it really that "bad" that tour players need to speak a good level of communication? Imagine if Phil Mickleson didn't speak English. After every tournament, he speaks through a translator. He probably isn't the biggest thing to hit left-handed golf and would be nothing more than Vijay Singh with less victories.
Some of the foreign golfers on the LPGA tour think the English business is a good thing.
"The economy is bad, and we are losing sponsors. Everybody understands."- Seon-Hwa Lee, who has two victories this year
"The bottom line is, we don't have a job if we don't entertain. In my mind, that's as big a part of the job as shooting under par."- Hillary Lunke, 2003 US Open champion
"We agree we should speak some English. We play so good overall. When you win, you should give your speech in English." - Se Ri Pak
"The LPGA could come out and say they only want 10 Koreans, but they're not. A lot of Korean players think they are being targeted, but it's just because there are so many of them." - Angela Park, Korean American golfer born in Brazil
From a legal perspective, everything the LPGA is doing is perfectly acceptable. From a practical perspective, I see no problem with requiring golfers to speak English. If they're going to play in an American organization, make American money and receive American endorsements, being able to communicate in English isn't asking a lot.
Try telling that to some media folk:The LPGA apparently feels too many South Koreans are winning - clearly targeting them with a rule that makes absolutely no sense for a Tour that has long claimed it's building its brand globally. Is this the Ladies Professional Golf Association or Paranoid Americans Are Us?
The LPGA's a sports league. Or at least it claims to be. What does speaking English have to do with your ability to hit a golf ball?
The LPGA's new rule, which actually puts in the possibility of a suspension punishment if any LPGA player who has held a Tour card for two years cannot pass an oral English exam, is not just amazingly offensive. And racist.
Yes! Racist! The LPGA is RACIST for requiring their players to speak the language of the organization that pays them.
It would be racist if the LPGA didn't allow its golfers to speak anything but English or didn't hire anyone who speaks a language other than English.
Some say the idea of a suspension for a failed evaluation is too harsh while others say the lack of structure the "judges" use in "grading the tests" needs fixing; I don't disagree with either of those assertions, and those are things that could be ironed out through time. But at face value, the LPGA requiring its players to speak English to be able to communicate with fans, media and sponsors isn't the atrocity some in the media make it out to be.
The expressed views are solely those of the author and don't necessarily reflect the views of JoeSportsFan.com, its writers and its mustaches. You can bet your bottom dollar, though, that Joe Mustache speaks English.
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