LPGA requiring English spoken on tour?

[FlamingLonghorn]

Not going to bother linking to any site because it's all over the place. What are your feelings on this? It is a US based organization but plays internationally. I think its a load of crap personally.

[Montana Moe]

I have an issue with requiring someone to learn english, but the LPGA will have trouble if most of their viewers cannot relate to the athletes through a common language.

When there are more winners in the LPGA named Hee Won Han than Christie Kerr, they are going to have trouble attracting viewers, and more importantly, sponsors. If Hee Won Han were to speak clear english (and she very well may), it may go a long way toward securing those sponsors, as well as the casual fan, which dare I say, most are.

[GirlySports]

I think the rule make sense but the LPGA could have gone about it in a less-threatening way. Players have to learn English because they are being paid by sponsors. Imagine the LPGA comes to your town and you get to play in the Pro-Am and you get a partner that can't speak a word of English. That would be pretty irritating and you probably wouldn't go next time. TV channels have had to cut off the trophy presentation because there was no speech or interview in English.

The rule itself is not bad but threatening to have English tests and losing your tour card if you fail is sending the wrong message. Also how is the tour helping these girls learn English? Are they providing tutors? It could have been handled alot more delicately.

[cSpooge]

they apparently have been helping all the players who want to learn the language learn it, the thing that is not in the article is that they have been discussing this for 2-3 years and most of the players knew it was coming.

[FlamingLonghorn]

There is an article with Padraig Harrington's response. He poses a good question. What if there is a golfer with a lesser learning disability which makes it all but impossible to learn english? I think there would be grounds for a discrimination lawsuit. Stephen Ames has also come out against it as well as Marilyn O' Connor. Seve Ballesteros the 1980 Master's winner didn't speak English. Another ridiculous thing is that there isn't a test for it, it's going to be based on staff observations. That's about as subjective as it gets.

[transplant99]

I certainly understand both sides of this, but i have to come down on the "its a stupid rule".

Certainly if the LPGA wants to grow the money aspect of the game, then they need their players to be able to speak english enough to thank the sponsors at each event. I know if I invested 5 million dollars on a weekends tournament and the winner (or the face of the event if you will) isnt even able to thank my company and the organizers and the volunteers etc....then I would think twice about doing it again.

however, threatening suspension because you dont have a good grip on a language seems ridiculously over-the-top.

Not sure what the "meet in the middle" point is on this one, but I have no doubts that most of these girls will try and become more fluent in English...after all this is the most lucrative womens tour in the world by a very large margin.

Not going to bother linking to any site because it's all over the place. What are your feelings on this? It is a US based organization but plays internationally. I think its a load of crap personally.

Agreed...but at almost every one of those events not on American soil, the predominant language will most certainly be English.

Its pretty transparent to me that this move is aimed at one group specifically and that is the Korean contingent who are beginning to OWN this tour. So I guess I understand where the LPGA is coming from when a whole bunch of those ladies really cannot speak the language of the sponsors.