LPGA requires EnglishFollow

The LPGA is represented by 26 different countries, however South Koreans are easily the largest group of non-Americans. They're also good.

Apparently, because of concerns and complaints from sponsors, the LPGA is setting an English competency level, effective immediately. If the golfer can't give an understandable interview to the media, in English, they don't make the tour.

LINK

I want to say that this really stinks, but without the sponsors it's just another game of golf, right?

I want to say that this really stinks

It does? It's a private organization who relies almost exclusively on English language advertising sales. If none of the stars speak English, this doesn't do well for their brand. They can only pray that Michelle Wie didn't really peak at 14 years old for so long. If I had to learn to speak Korean to continue to be paid seven figures for playing golf three times a week, I think I could probably manage.

Private organizations can still do things that "stink." Particularly when the organization has a near-monopoly in our market.

Start an all Korean speaking golf association, then. This isn't Baseball, there's no anti-trust exemption for the LPGA.


Of course speaking English would increase revenue somewhat, but this is a rather ham-handed approach. Will the advantages outweigh any public backlash, or is all press good press?


What public backlash? People who watch individual sports on TV in the US want to see people they can identify with winning, not people they can't relate to at all. Why did Agassi, by any measure a less talented player, get better ratings than Federer, probably the greatest tennis player in history?


And what is their requirement for "speaking English?" What good will badly broken English be?


Who cares? It's unlikely this will do anything but force some professional golfers to take three weeks of language lessons.


Nobody expects Yao Ming to learn any English beyond the 10 words they feed him for a TV commercial script. Or soccer players playing on teams in non-native countries. 'Course those sports are rolling in dough, so I guess it doesn't matter. But is the LPGA about to collapse? Will any amount of marketing make it anything beyond a marginal sport? Are they a for-profit entity? Do they have shareholders? (I really don't know here, I'm curious as to who in the organization stands to profit).

The LPGA has real problems on many fronts. Their primary target demographic is crossover from PGA watchers who are, by and large, older conservative white guys. What would be ideal for them is to have good looking straight American women win every week. Barring this, good looking straight women who speak English. The fact that a large percentage of their athletes are lesbians is something they can't do much about. The fact that many of the best players can't speak English is. I really don't see this as a big deal at all. They players are employees. Part of the job is communication. If the NBA became populated by 80% Mandarin speaking players, they'd likely do something simmilar.

Well, in fairness, how many words in any language are in a typical jock interview?

"They played a good game but I felt really strong out there. Thank God."

They won't even have to learn those last two words.

I dunno. Lesbians love their sensible shoes.

Do the ladies really only play three rounds?