The LPGA is right about English rule
As an LPGA member and former touring professional, I’m closely following the controversy over the Tour’s English-proficiency requirement, which will be enforced at the end of the 2009 season. I played many events in Asian countries, and I can certainly appreciate the language barrier. Often I was paired with young players or caddies who did not speak a word of English except “good shot!” But we Americans are spoiled because in most foreign countries people realize the importance of knowing some English. Asian tour officials, hotel staff and others connected with my travels all spoke conversational English. While it may seem strict and discriminating on the surface, the LPGA policy is actually a great idea for the Tour and its international players. Here’s why:
1. It’s a free education! The LPGA is fully committed to offer resources and tutoring to help foreign players become more proficient in English. Who wouldn’t take advantage of this opportunity? By no means is the LPGA putting the burden exclusively on the player and asking them to be fluent in less than two years. In a letter to LPGA members posted Tuesday, commissioner Carolyn Bivens says, “New members do not need to immediately possess the English-language skills in order to earn their way onto the LPGA; nor are they expected to gain the skills on their own. Instead, the LPGA provides and will continue to provide on-line learning along with tutors and translators over the course of two years in an effort to help them gain the functional communication ability needed to succeed on a U.S.-based tour.”
2. The LPGA Tour does not make sufficient revenues through ticket sales and advertising like many other professional sports. This means the players assume the responsibility for creating and maintaining relationships with corporate sponsors and their customers. These relationships formed in pro-ams and charity events benefit both the player (through endorsement contracts) and the Tour. Corporate involvement equals more events to play and potentially more money to win. In addition, the LPGA needs every bit of visibility it can get. This is not Major League Baseball or the NFL, with their billion-dollar TV contracts and sponsorships. LPGA players need to be able to give interviews, make acceptance speeches and directly interact with fans and volunteers. Seon Hwa Lee, the only Asian player with multiple victories this year, works with an English tutor in the winter. She told Golfweek, which first reported the new policy, her English is improving. "The economy is bad, and we are losing sponsors," Lee said. "Everybody understands."
3. Foreign players may actually perform better as a result of learning English. Consider this story: After playing the third round in the 2006 Florida's Natural Charity Championship in Stockbridge, Ga., South Korean rookie Kyeong Bae and her father drove 400 miles to her home in Florida. When she got home, she logged on the Internet to learn how much money she had earned. To her surprise, she realized the event was NOT YET FINISHED! (She did not realize it was a 72-hole event.) Barely able to speak or read English at the time, Bae had misread tournament information given to the players and thought it was a 54-hole tournament. So she and her father got in the car and drove the 400 miles back to Georgia. Tired after the overnight trip, Bae nonetheless shot a 68 in the final round to finish in a tie for 13th place and win $21,500.
With the LPGA Tour becoming truly international, the English-proficiency policy is a necessary step in preserving the integrity and growth of the Tour. Fans and sponsors in the United States will benefit as will the players themselves.
Posted by: nelson | Sep 3, 2008 8:21:52 PM
I don't dispute that there is an economic incentive to learn English for both the players and the LPGA tour. However, the imposition of a putative measure might not be the most positive way to acheive the desired result.
Posted by: T Rex | Sep 3, 2008 8:50:59 PM
No offense, but your 3 reasons to support this "English proficiency" are silly at best.
1. This is a free education - Please remember this is supposed to be a "Democratic" society that people have the right to choose what they want to do. It should be up the players to decide if they want to take advantage of this so-called "Free Education" and set their own pace in learning. The LPGA has no right to set this as an requirement to force these players to do it the LPGA way.
2. To improve ticket sales - This is an ultimate insult to all women. Keep in mind, these women golfers are top professional athletes and NOT escorts !!! We pay to see how they perform on the course and not how they entertain the sponsors.
3. Players might perform better as a result of learning English - Mike Walker Jr of Sports Illustrated wrote: "The world of sport is supposed to be a true meritocracy. All athletes should be measured by their skill, not their nationality, personality or linguistic prowess". As a matter of fact, by imposing this "English Proficiency" requirement, the LPGA has created unnecessary stress to the foreign players that would no doubt affect their on course performance.
There's no need for you to come up with any excuse to defend this stupid policy. The truth is no matter how LPGA wants to dice it, slice it, and camouflage it, this rule is clearly targeting the Asians woman golfers who have been dominating the LPGA tours. To say the least, this rule is unfair, biased and outright discriminatory.
I thought America was a Nation who believes in Human Right and Freedom of Speeches. Or, am I wrong that both the Human Rights and Freedom of speeches are for the English speaking only?
If you truly believe that this rule is fair then you must be living in a different world. As a proud American citizen, I am urging you and the LPGA to stop bullying the minorities and pushing America back to the dark ages.
Posted by: Tom Brown | Sep 4, 2008 1:08:12 AM
I believe that all American citizens and legal residents who benefit from living in the great USA should be required to speak conversational English.
However, in professional sports, in an international arena, like the LPGA, that have athletes from across the globe, who win or lose based on their performance as an athlete, should not be required to speak a specific language. The only requirement that should be imposed is their ability to be athletically competitive with their fellow peers.
It's not about how you can diagram a sentence, but rather how you can get a small ball into a hole with the fewest amount of swings.
I wonder what would happen if other LPGA golfers were required to be fluent in the language of the country they are playing in? If so, the "other" tours will have far fewer "foreign" players.
I predict that the sponsors, of which there are many foreign companies, will question this new policy to the point of pulling their sponsorship. I, for one, would boycott a company that encourages this type of discrimination or any other.
I am a proud Korean-American.
Posted by: Jim O'Connell | Sep 4, 2008 5:23:19 PM
T Rex, I can't agree less with your statements here. Firstly the LPGA has to look out for itself and its members. The PGA Tour and the LPGA demand as a right of membership that its members play in the pro am before the tournament. I've played in a few of these and paid dearly for the priviledge. I would never have done it twice if my pro couldn't speak my language. Ergo: money lost for events. Take a look at LPGA TV ratings. Two words. They suck! The LPGA provides a comfortable lifestyle for most of it,s members. Take away smoozing with pro am partners and you lose more money. Ultimately no LPGA, or at least a very watered down version. You can bring out the race card all you want. But I truly believe you are wrong. Being proficient in English will allow these women to get lucrative endorsemnent deals. If you don't know, the average tour pro makes about 4-6 times as much in endorsements than they do in prize money. Freedom, or the American way is not an issue here unless you have to make it so. It is the survival of a second tier sport at stake.
Posted by: Mary | Sep 4, 2008 9:10:56 PM
Whether you play in the LPGA should be determined on your ability to play golf not your ability to speak English or "sell" the LPGA. Tournament fees are meant to promote events. I think this new rule is discriminatory and I for one will now reduce my watching of LPGA events from little to none.
Posted by: Brian | Sep 4, 2008 10:51:34 PM
Perhaps the opposed should consider that Formula 1 requires the use of English for official documents and for post qualifying and post race interviews. It should also be noted that Formula 1 is governed by the FIA, a French body.
There is nothing wrong with an organization mandating a standard for communication. This would be the same as the LPGA insisting on written correspondence being formatted a certain way and half the country complaining that they don't do it that way so they shouldn't have to do so.
Also, in case it has been forgotten, this is a business. You may call it sport, but make no mistake, this is a business and if I had to go to Italy or anywhere else to do business and deal with their partners I would not consider the need to communicate in their home language unjust.
Posted by: You | Sep 5, 2008 2:35:16 AM
They said that learning English can partly help the sponsors of the athletes in endorsing their products. But let me say this: How many Nike ads have there been with Tiger in it, where Tiger didn't even say anything?
Sure, that's a random fact, but it's not like anyone else that's posted on here has anything better. The LPGA has many world-class players, all of whom are able to shoot the lowest scores in the best tournaments on the best and most challenging courses, and you're going to SUSPEND them for not knowing how to speak a language? This isn't about helping the international players, it's about the LPGA bending the rules to help the American golfers win tournaments. Let's look at this year alone: who were the winners of the major tournaments this year on the LPGA? Lorena Ochoa, Yani Tseng, Inbee Park, and Ji-Yai Shin. Americans? Hell no. What the LPGA doing is traditional American: if you can't beat the best, bend the rules. We've done it for years. When we couldn't beat the world at international sports, what did we do? We created our own, and won at those sports. Of course, golf originated in Europe, which further perplexes things, since it's not even our game that we're trying to regulate. And when americans couldn't win at the sports they created, what do we do? We change the rules so that we win again. It's how it's always been. This is the LPGA as an American staple. Now they plan to suspend anyone that doesn't speak English, which in many cases can involve some of the best up and coming players on the tour. This won't increase ticket sales! You're taking out the competition. That's not to discredit those players from other countries who can speak English either. But this attitude toward international players is basically saying to the world "Your game doesn't mean as much as your face value."
How about this? The international language for the LPGA should be the fist pump when you hole a long birdie putt to add the pressure to the leaderboard on Sunday afternoon. The international language should be the handshake between players at the end of the round. The international language should be the applause that the crowd gives to the champion for playing her game, and raising that trophy at the end of the week.
That is, of course, if there's a crowd at all.
Posted by: Santiago | Sep 5, 2008 1:03:11 PM
The LPGA is a US organization for female professional golfers. It is a US organization that runs the LPGA tour, the tour that is played on US courses. Why should "athletes" that come to the US to play be treated any differently then any other alien that comes to the US to find work? It is a US tour with international players who come here because this tour has the best players and the most prize money. Some own or lease homes for the entire season yet that they have to learn to speak english is discrimination? Any foreigner that comes to the US for work, regardless of what that work is, should be required to learn english. The discrimination and bias is that fact that these "Professional athletes" don't have to do what is necessary to live and work in the US as any other alien that comes to this country to work as a dishwasher, gardener, teacher, housekeeper, doctor or engineer.
Posted by: Chris | Sep 5, 2008 1:51:10 PM
Look, I don't disagree that these foreign players, especially the Asians, and LPGA would stand to benefit by increasing language proficiency of their players. But to say that is one thing, to implement a punitive policy is discrimination, even if the LPGA didn't mean it to be so.
LPGA is badly mismanged under the leadership of Bivens. Blaming the Asians for the lack of sponsorship is flat out scapegoating by the LPGA.
And if I was a sponsor playing in a Pro-Am event, language isn't my concern. It's whether or not my partner is pleasing to the eyes. Sorry folks. I'd rather have a beautiful curvy foreign lady who don't speak a lick of English than an obnoxious English speaking player who can't shut her mouth.
Posted by: jbh0125 | Sep 5, 2008 4:11:01 PM
nelson -
Get off of your soapbox before you fall and hurt yourself!
You apparently didn't read or don't understand point #2. The LPGA has a crisis. There are no big sponsors and there is no big TV contract. The tour has been in the position of having to pay to get TV coverage that the PGA gets to sell. Nobody's watching and that's probably because they can't identify with or interest in the top players!
Since there is no money coming in from the networks, the LPGA must rely on sponsors. Why would anyone sponsor an event that nobody's watching? Maybe it's to interact with the players. Oh but wait, they can't talk to the players because the players can't talk to them. Now there's a reason to sponsor a tournament! NOT!
You pay to see good competition? You obviously don't pay enough because 13th place pays $21K. That's about 10% of what 13th place pays on the PGA Tour. If the players on the LPGA Tour want to make more than car fare, they need to step up their marketing. If they want to play in the US and make money doing it, they need to market to Americans in a language the American customer understands...English.
Perhaps you would have the LPGA fan base learn Korean. The best way to do that is to move the Tour to Korea and become the LPGK. That's the alternative because the marketing opportunities in the US are dying if the status quo is maintained.
Posted by: joe | Sep 9, 2008 10:19:46 AM
My its so nice to be so righteous. The LPGA is a business enterprise and is making business decisions for its survival. We are free to agree or disagree but it is certainly their choice to make decisions for their welfare. Play or don't play by their rules. Unfortunately money talks the rest is hot air
Posted by: Bob | Sep 9, 2008 6:11:57 PM
I just hope the LPGA has a lot of money to defend and finally pay off the lawsuit.
Posted by: Mike | Sep 10, 2008 6:38:15 PM
HOw much Korean or any other language can the staff members of the LPGA speak. Considering that 1/3 of their exempt players are Korean one would think that the staff should be able to talk to these girls and try to make them part of the tour instead of being so righteous and making everyone else conform to their way to thinking. It's a two street. If I was the editor of any national golf magazine I would have my reporters ask the commish questions in Korean or some other language and see how well she does.
Posted by: James | Sep 13, 2008 10:33:24 AM
I live in Canada where we have language laws that force a business in Quebec to have larger letters in French and where many government jobs require fluency in English and French.
What most people are missing is that the LPGA is NOT recreational golf where one would have to speak English to go play a round on a course. The LPGA is a BUSINESS! One is not an escort to be required to mingle and talk to sponsors. That was a ridiculous statement.
Ask yourself if there are jobs where one needs to speak Spanish in the USA? Are there jobs where one needs to be very proficient and fluent in English?
Look at job ads and see if there are language requirements. The LPGA is being very generous in helping the athletes to learn the language. If any player doesn't like the requirements she can always play the Asian tour.
Is a language requirement the same as a job skill requirement if you want to work for that business?
If I wanted to play the Asian tour and they required that I learn to speak Korean or Japanese, you can bet your last dollar I would be hitting the books and the tapes & finding a class to attend. It would be their money I wanted to earn so I would abide by their rules. This has zero to do with democracy!