I'm Not Sure What I Think About This Yet
So, I'll throw it out for your thoughts. The LPGA is going to require its golfers to be conversationally "proficient" in English by next year, or face fines. The rationale given is that the tour is dependant on sponsor money, and sponsors sponsor less when the golfers can't interact with them.
The article I read, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/27/sports/golf/27golf.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin, points out that 45 Koreans play on the tour, some of whom speak little or no English. Though I don't closely follow the LPGA, I do know that Korean players are usually a big component of the leader board (top ten/twenty) in tournaments.
So if I'm the CEO of Dave's Blog, LLC and I've sponsored the Rather Than Working tournament at Legacy Golf Links in Smyrna, there will be a pro-am round to kick off the weekend. The Pro's, playing with the Ams, who've paid hefty bucks to play, will be made up of a lot of players who can't talk with my big spending guests, who just might be less likely to sign up next year, making me less interested in next year's sponsorship.
That said, American athletes wander around the world not speaking the local languages. If I had a Spanish edition of the blog, held my En Vez de Funcionamiento tournament in Madrid and Tiger and Phil showed up with no ability to speak Spanish, am I or my guests going to be disappointed? Probably not.
So, is this a matter of provincialism or the LPGA's need to promote a second tier sport?
10 comments:
Oh wow, I didn't realize it's come to that.
Pro Golfers need to be proficient in English?
Though the reasoning behind it makes sense, doesn't that sound like the PGA guys are the big kid in the sandbox, telling the other kids that they can't play there?
Wouldn't Korean golfers (for example) be able to be sponsored by a multi-lingual or bi-lingual corporation?
There's gotta be a better way - like you said Tiger doesn't have to study a second language in order to play elsewhere...
Hmmm...food for thought.
So, is this a matter of provincialism or the LPGA's need to promote a second tier sport?
Answer: Yes. Both.
It is a little disquieting that there seem to be a lot of Korean women on the tour at present and they seem to be winning quite a bit... and one can't help but wonder if this isn't -- just maybe -- a way to freeze at least some of them out.
On the other hand, at the risk of being un-PC again, the LPGA has been trying to 'tart up' -- er -- broaden its appeal... encouraging calendars and such... and each of the Korean golfers who gets pictured in our papers here is better looking than the last one pictured... so maybe you're right on target that it's the Pro-Ams and corporate gigs from which purses are developed that is really the motivating force.
I have never heard a post-game interview where I came away thinking, "My, how wonderfully insightful! That wasn't a waste of my time at all!"
When Yao Ming first came to Houston he couldn't speak a word of English, but I still tuned in to watch him play. I tune in to watch amazing athletes do incredible things, not for witty banter and clever conversations.
9 times out of 10, I cringe when someone holds a microphone in front of a professional athlete. Any professional athlete. They are inarticulate. They use hackneyed expressions. And many have horrendous diction. Keep in mind that the sport I follow most is football. But I also watch baseball and hockey.
So, I think it's a bit of a double standard that the LPGA contestants are required to be proficient, but the ESPN announcing crew (made up of professional announcers and former athletes) for most football games clearly has no such requirement.
Yes, Emmitt. I'm talking to you.
Dave, professional golf in the U.S. is a business, not an amateur sport. "The Business" will do what it believes is best for it, as it should do.
If Korea starts promoting women's tournaments with big purses and decides to restrict the players who are proficient in Korean, so be it.
In the meantime, those excellent Korean female golfers may be making a killing in America while killing the business. Something's got to give.
On a personal note, the Good Witch enjoyed biscuits and sausage gravy for breakfast this morning in West Virginia. I didn't see that fare until I had already started my Comfort Inn waffle, but another traveler said I could have the gravy as a "second course".
Actually, my wife is from Kentucky so I've enjoyed buscuits and sausage gravy for most of my married life (now 42 years and counting!). But, glad to know you are also a fan of that wonderful Southern breakfast.
I've thought a bit more about this, read some comments on the NYTimes.com article linked in my post and talked to one of my non-liberal friends, Big Tony.
Yes, LF, pro golf is a business, and it will do what it thinks is best for it's business. That said, it is wrong from a business point of view, unless all it wants is to attract zenophobic, provincial, and probably racist sponsors.
I tried to go on line and get a list of LPGA sponsors and failed. If the LPGA wants to move to the big time, would Travelers, Cadillac, Nike, Buick, the list of
"A Grade" sponsors goes on, spend money on a product that says that a good number of their customers are second class consumers because they are rooting for a golfer that, like them, doesn't speak English?
My thought is no. And, if I'm wrong, it's still wrong I think.
Considering some of the dumb questions interwiewers ask these players ("you just won this tournment and one million dollars in prize money, how do you feel?") perhaps it's better if they don't speak English.
What Posolxstvo said. I know that's a cheap hangers on trick but he actually said what I wished I could have said, but waaay better.
Tiger doesn't have to speak anything but English because the big money sponsors speak English. English is the language of business all over the world.
English has become the Lingua Franca of business.
Yes, I understand the irony and it also shows the fragility of world dominance. The Lingua Franca may one day be Chinese.
I read all these comments,and I understand where people are coming from, but I don't think they understand the world of women's golf.
That world, like the PGA's Senior Tour, is one built on interaction with fans - particularly on the "Pro-Am" days that precede each regular tournament. People pay a lot of money to play with these women pro's, and they are typically the same people who help sponsor the local tournament.
Would you like to pay $1,000 to play with a young Korean pro who can't even say "hello" to you, let alone give you a tip when you skull your tee shot? Few people would.
All the best women golfers should be allowed to play in the major tournaments, regardless of language proficiency. But when the tour goes to Peoria, Hee Wan Han needs to speak English. If she doesn't, there won't be an event in Peoria next year. It's not about racism, it's about fans having fun.
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