LPGA
Dutch2
1,590 Posts
This morning on ESPN they reported that the LPGA is trying to force that all of their members speak English. They have several members playing on the tour from other countries that speak either broken - to no English. This will/may be interesting to watch play out...
Comments
Nae
Supposedly, a purpose is to help members learn a variety of languages.
True all air traffic controllers must speak English - but as the child of a pilot I can tell you that not all of them speak it well!
No one even took offense at my saying 'thinning the herd' - I am shocked.
Well, I've said before, my grandfather used to call it [i]cow pasture pool[/i], I guess the herd analogy fits. Bovine billiards?????
Obviously you were not happy with us letting the 'little' mistakes slide.
Your grandfather was a product of his time so couldn't help his little stupidities. What is your excuse?
After I wrote the post I realized how it sounded. Thanks for letting the mistake slide, Nae. You are a kind woman.
I took my daughter to an LPGA event last summer and it was a fantastic experience. There are alot of Korean players and probably half have the last name of Kim. We met one of them in the fan area and she did not seem to speak english. It didnt necessarily detract from our experience but I understand that the LPGA feels its "product" needs to be fan friendly and that means the players need to be able to interact with the fans.
Personally, I feel if a player is coming to the US to play professional sports they should understand that the prize money that goes into their bank accounts comes from the fans and sponsors. No fans means no sponsors. No sponsors means no prize money.
So for the LPGA to recognize that fans wont feel engaged with players who cannot speak english seems reasonable. Personality = popularity. Popularity = dollars.
Oct 24-26
Grand China Air LPGA
Hainan Island, China $1,800,000
Oct 31-02
Hana Bank • KOLON Championship 2008
Incheon, Korea $1,600,000
So for these two events I guess all the ladies need to speak rudimentary Chinese (which dialect?) or Korean?
I guess I have an issue with how we believe people from other countries should adopt our language - if they choose to work here and live here, then yes. My brother in law immigrated from South America and is now a citizen. The LPGA is international.
As Nae says, my 2 cents.
I agree, it is reasonable - if the tournaments are only held here.
I'm off my soapbox now.
Friede...?
I said I was off my soapbox, I lied x}>
The tour was concerned that the general public wanted to see more feminine, attractive players.
Whether the would admit it or not, I am sure the tour gets excited when an attractive player like Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis, or Christie Kerr (who won the Safeway Classic last week) wins a tournament.
I dont believe there is an anti-Korean bias necessarily. One of the more popular players on tour for awhile was Grace Park. She just happened to also be very pretty. I think their concern is that some of the Korean players have ZERO personality coming across.
On the men's tour, Vijay Singh struggled with this problem for yours. He was a marquee player that never got any respect because he had no personality coming through. Nobody really got excited when he would win. At the end of the day, these tours are businesses and their product is competing with the NFL, NBA, and other sports.
This "english requirement" mandate is stirring up alot of controversy. Its possible the LPGA is finally getting the attention they have wanted for a long time.
Apparently the LPGA is trying to attract golf's largest demographic: middle age men.
Lets use Ray as an example and see if this works. Let's post a photo of LPGA golfer Natalie Gulbis and see if we can get Ray to pay attention.
[url]http://jeteblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/gulbis.jpg[/url]
I'm afraid he may have hit his head when he fell out of his chair....