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LPGA says all players must learn English

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Seahawk, Aug 26, 2008.

  1. Captain_Kirk

    Captain_Kirk Well-Known Member

    This wouldn't possibly have any relation to the current Asian domination of the tour, would it?

    I'll offer the dissenting opinion:

    The requirement for a player should be to have the skill to play the sport. End of story. There's plenty of other players that can market the tour, and isn't that really the job of the tour suits anyway?

    I don't think this reflects very well on the tour, or for that matter, the country: the typical America-centric view that others find so unattractive about us (US).

    Playing along these lines, the same principle would have kept Angel Cabrera from winning last year's US Open.
     
  2. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    I don't know. Nearly all of the LPGA's events are played in English-speaking countries (save for a few events in Asia in the fall and the Evian Masters in France). You can say it's America-centric, but if you're going to play most of your events in the U.S. or England, shouldn't there be an effort to at least learn basic English?

    I'd say the same for any American baseball player who plays professionally in Japan. Gonna live there and make a living there? Learn the language.
     
  3. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    There's also an additional problem no one wants to talk about publicly. Since there's an LPGA rule that fathers can't caddie for daughters (the U.S. Open is an exception -- not an LPGA event), English-speaking players (from the U.S. and European countries such as Sweden) have accused Korean fathers of calling out swing advice and club selection to their daughters, from behind the ropes, in Korean. A few years ago, there were rumors of a players-only meeting where former LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw warned the Korean and Asian players about that (it's a violation of the rules, for you non-golf fans, for anyone to give swing advice and club selection other than the caddie).

    The American Junior Golf Association thought it was enough of a problem to actually pass a rule two years ago: English is the only language that can be spoken on a course by spectators. Since there aren't a whole lot of spectators, it's pretty easy for AJGA officials to enforce when they make spot checks. Some American parents had said that while Korean parents wanted everyone to think they were yelling "hit a good shot baby" in Korean, they were really yelling "hit the cut 7-iron."
     
  4. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Cabrera has enough of a working knowledge of English to get by. And I don't think the move to require them to learn a little English is an effort to stem the tide of Asian players on the LPGA.
     
  5. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Hondo, you might be the best person to answer this question...

    Would this be as much of an issue if Sorenstam didn't retire?
     
  6. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Well, she has been the face of the LPGA for a long time. But Ochoa hablos English pretty well. The problem is that all the Kims and Parks get lost in their own shuffle, and they all seem to have the same personalities. If they spoke more English, maybe we'd find out more about them, more interesting things, and put some human emotion in there. The last three LPGA majors were won by Asians, and there's not a damn person in the world, Fergie included, who could name all three right now, without going to the LPGA web site.
     
  7. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    Learning English would be an asset for these players in terms of marketability and sponsorship.

    But mandating it is going a little too far unless the LPGA is going to start to pay players for doing interviews.

    I don't care if Vlad ever learns a word of English. I come to watch him play.

    In any case the only interviews more boring than golfers are hockey players.

    Besides, all those Koreans---they all look the same anyway.
     
  8. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    It seemed like just a year or two ago there were all these young American players who were supposed to be the next big thing and it doesn't seem like they've lived up to the hype.
     
  9. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    If me, old Tony or Zag had typed that last sentence, you'd be screaming to high heaven about what a racist statement that was.
     
  10. Seahawk

    Seahawk Member

    Just asking, would it be possible for the LPGA to have Korean-speaking officials on the course who could monitor such comments from the crowd? Offending members of the crowd could be tossed, no?
     
  11. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    That's really interesting... Damn cheating Koreans... :D
     
  12. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    There. Fixed just for you.
     
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