LPGA golfers are a worldly bunch... that's for sure. Membership includes 121 international players, from 26 countries. And these global golf girls travel the entire world for their tournaments, with twelve non-US tournaments currently in their season long schedule.
So it was surprising to hear of a recent
A common language in organizations and institutions, presumably brings with it increased efficiency and fewer errors, and is not, in itself, objectionable to most. In fact, quite a number of the international LPGA players who were presented with this mandate recently, agreed with the premise... in principal.
What is disturbing about the situation is the way it's come down... the way it appears to have been presented by the LPGA, as a one-size-fits-all rule. The PR team does not seem to have been able to present the positive aspects of basic linguistic uniformity. They don't seem to have succeeded in reassuring some of their best players that their cards would not be pulled out from under them, and they've been unable to avoid the appearance of American arrogance, and sponsor pandering. There seems, in the way this matter has come to the attention of the press, to be little regard for golf's international growth and huge international fan base.
One of my favorite golf writers, Jason Sobel, presents his position on this issue in a podcast here, and as usual I agree with him.
What do you think?
Let's just face it, the Koreans are among the best players the market for golf in Asia is growing at an incredible pace and the decision of the LPGA to suspend players who have difficulty with English is ridiculous. I wonder if the European Tour will be suspending anyone for linguistic reasons
ReplyDeleteSo much for let the sticks do the talking????
ReplyDeleteIt really makes you wonder, doesn't it? Who is running the show at the LPGA and how could they let something like that...and obvious communications blunder...happen?
ReplyDeleteIt makes a mockery of the very idea that the best athletes must be present for the competition to be a real reflection of athletic ability.
If you go along with that line of thinking all athletes participating in the London Olympics should be required to pass an English test.
What an ignorant person that Carolyn Bivens must be to have allowed this to happened.
I think you hit the nail on the head Patricia. The LPGA this was a public relations / communications fiasco more than an attempt to exclude any members from the tour.
ReplyDeleteI may be naeve but I believe that the goal of the LPGA with this policy was actually to empower foreign players... who are so good, so attractive and have such star potential... to be able to deal with the media - and interact with, and profit from, sponsors. The problem wasn't the message in this case. It was the messenger. Amd I thin that person (those people) should be fired.
D-I-S-C-R-I-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat's next?
The Olympics?
Golfer Girl Power
Golf Tips
67% of the respondents on the poll on the page you linked to say "YES" it's okay to make them speak English to play on the LPGA Tour, which is based here in the USA. I agree with the right to make their rules for their tour.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who doesn't want to play, doesn't have to.
The lanmguage issue is for more than the awards ceremony. These ladies play for a living. How'd you like to be out there with 2 players who don't speak the language and have to ask for a ruling, to ask what they got on the last hole, to ask who's up first, etc.
If you or I go to another country and play on their tour and take their money, they too would want us to be able to say "Thank You" in the proper language.
Sponsors keep the tour alive and sponsors want to be able to interact with the players. Pro-Am particiapnts want to get their money's worth by talking to players, as well.
Maybe this is a last resort by the commissioner. Maybe she's been asking nicely for 2-3 years and they won't do as they're asked ?
Wonder if that could be the case ?
Maybe we see this public statement and haven't seen the times she's asked nicely in private ?
It's her toy box. If you want to play with her toys, you gotta play by her rules.
Yes, dear, you're missing something. The game may be global, but the LPGA Tour is US based and depends on sponsors and the media for purse money and for getting the word out about these women.
ReplyDeleteSponsors want to be able to invite top players to functions and have them interact with their guests. The media wants decent interviews for TV and print consumption. Both are nearly impossible if the players can't speak the language.
Sponsors want return for their investment - and if they can't get it with the LPGA, they will go elsewhere. The players know this and they do their best to support the tour and its sponsors.
Carolyn Bivens, as much as some members of the media who weren't in the room when she addressed the Koreans have tried to paint her as some tyrant cracking a whip over the heads of cowering little Korean girls - threatening them with suspensions if they don't learn to speak English.
She isn't asking them to perform Shakespeare - just be able to carry on a little social conversation and give a halfway decent interview.
My guess is that they will be able to pass the test with relative ease, but it may take a little time for them to get comfortable - so they will take lessons or classes and practice.
It's just business - and these women understand the situation.
Teq - the women don't have the depth of sponsorship to "let the sticks to the talking." They have to shmooze a little more than the men. (and if the men don't get better before Tiger quits, they will find themselves in the same boat)
Mike and Court...In my post, the point I was trying to make was that the communication of the policy was handled poorly...not that the policy itself was inherently bad.
ReplyDeleteMy business is corporate communications and public relations, and it surprises me that no one within the organization was able to anticipate this fiasco. Do they just not have any CorpCom or PR people? If they do, those folks were asleep at the wheel. And now, not only have they managed to alienate some of their best players, they've also found a way to get a message out that the LPGA is racist and exclusionary.
I would venture to say that they need a good PR firm. STAT.
I wonder how the players feel about all this. I can only imagine it just adds to the stress of an already stressful job.
ReplyDeleteIt's really quite thankless what most of them do. Other than the top players they're quite poorly paid, required to travel all over the place, continually at risk of losing their cards. They really don't need this added discord within the tour.
Earlier this summer I spent two days at the Wegmans and I was really amazed by the Asian girls! If they weren't on the course competing they were on the range or the putting green practicing. And they were always ready to sign autographs or have photos taken by fans. The thing that was remarkable was that the other players finished their round an disappeared the Asian girls didn't. They might not have spoken fluent English but they were very friendly and accessible to fans.
ReplyDeletePatricia, you are right on mark about the lack of PR competence on this issue. Bad delivery of ANY message can be a huge disaster. Now the LPGA is forced to do damage control. It simply didn't need to be this way.
ReplyDeleteGG - you're asking for perfection in the arena of emotion. You will NEVER say or do everything so perfectly that nobody will find fault.
ReplyDeleteThis meeting was a week ago - not Monday or Tuesday. If this was such a big deal, why did it just come out on Tuesday ? The media that are screaming about this were not in the room - they are getting it second hand.
The statistics being thrown out about the Korean numbers is also incorrect. The number of Koreans is correct - but that is not the number of Koreans who cannot speak English. A lot of these women went to college and golf academies in the US, and they do speak English.
The rule does not JUST deal with Koreans - it is across the board for non-English speaking members. (I wonder if they are keeping an eye on Michelle Wie - bah-dum-bum) :-)
It boils down to this - the modern media thrives on the negative. If there is anything that can be construed as negative, or twisted, that is what they will run. The players aren't complaining - just these wanna-be PC media types who put a picture of Bivens looking more like an angry dictator than the regular person she is.
I dare say that if the media wanted to take a pot shot at you - as beautiful as you are - they would take enough pictures to find one that is embarrassing. Look at Hollywood stars and models - an eyelid halfway closed means they are drunk or high. A furrowed brow of any kind means they are boiling mad. Whether it is the truth or not - it is what they want you to think.
What about Angel Carberra? Are they going to make him learn English? Oh, I forgot he's a guy. Guys can speak any language they want.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me the LPGA is pandering to a bunch of lecherous old men with deep pockets who probably prefer to play with a tall, busty, blonde who'll chat them up than a reserved Asian player who just plays really great golf.
golfdiva - You're probably right to some extent. The sponsors and their guests would almost always be men, and men are they way they are - not all men but most of them - while they could enjoy a round of golf with an Angel Cabrerra just watching him bomb the ball off the tee and try crazy things, they often won't have an appreciation for the more precise game women play, therefor they feel like they get their money's worth if they have a fun, flirty, fashionable (stealing from GG here) golfer to "entertain" them.
ReplyDeleteIt's not fair but it's the way things are and the LPGA can't survive without these guys. It's a tough issue and, it seems one they've been wrestling with for a while now.
golfdiva - as ignorant as that second statement is, the first one really cracked me up. Don't forget Jose Coceres in 2001 where he wrote his message in Spanish on a towel to friends and family back home, then used a translator for his acceptance speech twice. (there is only one tournament that has an individual's name on it even though it is technically sponsored by Trump's corporation - the rest are sponsored by corporations)
ReplyDeleteYou're comparing apples and oranges. The number of men on the PGA Tour that don't speak English can be counted on one hand - and they don't win very often. There are dozens on the LPGA Tour and the DO win.
Thanks for blogging about this Patricia.
ReplyDeleteThe LPGA decision makes no business sense unless you look at it through fear (read "discrimination") tinted sunglasses.
No other major US sporting organization has anything remotely similar to what the LPGA is requiring because they are in it TO MAKE MONEY.
Business reasons may have prompted this dumb policy but DISCRIMINATION IS BAD FOR BUSINESS.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Commissioner Bivens should look to the global market for more $$ rather than tryng to shrink the depth and breath of the tour -- don't forget suspensions were mentioned - suspensions of non-english speaking athletes will only cause more image problems and scare corp. dollars away -- maybe the nitwit courtgolf-- who yet again has jumped on the bandwagon of those who promote outdated values-- should consider that.
ReplyDeleteWhat outdated values, anonymous?
ReplyDeleteTell me how you would fare if you were offered a job in Korea at a Korean company and spoke none of the language. You would not be hired in the first place, but even if you were, you wouldn't last a week.
LPGA Tour players are expected to: 1. interface with mostly American corporate sponsors, 2. interface with American pro-am partners at those tournaments which occur in the United States, and 3. interface with media which is comprised mostly of Americans.
Working in another country, we regular people would be expected to be proficient in that country's language and customs.
Why is it when we reverse it and ask the same thing of others, we're now being discriminatory? It's like cultures around the world are diverse and precious but our own culture and language are meaningless to people.
Elite players have gotten by because they're insulated by handlers and translators and agents and managers. The commissioner feels it's not enough. Would you move to another country and insulate yourself from its culture and language? Would you be able to? Better yet, would you want to?
Total discrimination, and the legality of this is still being called into question. Demanding that they speak English is ridiculous. If foreign players beat American players constantly, shouldn't it be the other way around? :)
ReplyDeleteWe blogged about this as well on mygolfclubreviews.com. Interesting topic, interesting debate. I will be curious to see how far it goes.
As the old saying goes, "it's not personal- it's strictly business". If you're a tour that's going to lose maybe four stops next year, what do you do? Try and do anything to keep the sponsors happy. And if they want the pro-ams to be an enjoyable experience for them and that requires the players to learn English, so be it.
ReplyDelete(and I do agree with other comments on the beauty issue- I'd bet a lot of the "corporate" sponsors given a choice between Loren Ochoa and Sophie Sandolo would choose Sophie- Loren might be the better player- but Sophie, while not a regular LPGA tour player (but she is on the European Tour and was the runner up on TGC's Big Break series this year), does have a line of risque calendars...it's a T&A world, unfortunately..)
double eagle
ReplyDeletesure other counries discriminate but we have laws against it in the US. We are better than that, we take our constitution seriously you bone-headed moron!
It is amazing how something like this can happen in today's golf! Then again, give it a few years and all the key sponsors will be Asian. I would love to see all the Western players speaking Chinese and Korean :-)
ReplyDelete