Money is the impetus for LPGA Tour's xenophobic new language policy

[Robert Lawless]

What if they can't speak English for only one year?

Harold Schiffman wrote:
> Money is the impetus for LPGA Tour's xenophobic new language policy
>
> RANDY PHILLIPS
> The Gazette
>
>
> Thursday, August 28, 2008
>
>
>
> The LPGA Tour wants to suspend players who can't speak English for two
> years. What's next? Insisting in the future its members look like its
> Tour poster beauty Natalie Gulbis? Golfweek magazine this week first
> reported the Tour's new language policy and upon reading it the
> thought was this was some kind of April Fools' joke, but the calendar
> reminded us it was late August and yeah, that it also was 2008. The
> next thought was, okay, what's the Tour's impetus for a policy that
> seems draconian or xenophobic, or both?
>
> The policy is aimed at the Tour's international, or foreign-born
> players, of which there are 121 from 26 countries with the largest
> contingent being 45 players from South Korea. Also worth noting is
> that 16 of the top 20 on the Tour's money list are foreign-born,
> comprised of eight South Koreans, two Australians, two Swedes, a
> Norweigian, a Brazilian, a Taiwanese, and a Mexican who just happens
> to be Lorena Ochoa, the No. 1 ranked player in the world. Golfweek's
> Beth Ann Baldry reported on the magazine's web- site that the LPGA
> held a meeting with the Tour's South Korean players last week before
> the Safeway Classic where commissioner Carolyn Bivens issued what was
> tantamount to a warning that if they, Tour members by virtue of having
> already met the qualifying standards to play, didn't become conversant
> in English, passing an oral evaluation, by the end of next year they
> would face suspension.
>
> The reason for such a drastic measure of course is money. The Tour is
> concerned its non-English speaking stars lack appeal to corporate
> sponsors, the Tour's lifeline financially and the only way it survive.
> Libba Galloway, the Tour's deputy commissioner, has been front and
> centre in the wake of the fallout from the policy becoming public and
> put it this way to Larry Dorman of the New York Times:
>
> "We live in a sports-entertainment environment. For an athlete to be
> successful today in the sports entertainment world we live in, they
> need to be great performers on and off the course, and being able to
> communicate effectively with sponsors and fans is a big part of this.
>
> "Being a U.S.-based tour, with the majority of our fan base, pro-am
> contestants, sponsors and participants being English speaking, we
> think it is important for our players to effectively communicate in
> English."
>
> To date, the LPGA has not received a single complaint from a sponsor
> about the inability of one of its international players to express
> herself without a translator. While Galloway's contention might
> utlimately have some merit, the Tour becomes the only major
> professional sports organization in the world with the need for such a
> policy. All this despite being lauded for its global appeal with
> tournaments held in Mexico, Singapore, Japan, France, England, Canada
> and South Korea.
>
> Suddenly, the ability to play great golf and shoot low scores is no
> longer the only prerequisite to membership and we have to salute our
> own Lorie Kane, the 12-year Tour veteran from Charlottetown, for
> making the point that while she believes there is a need for everyone
> to learn to communicate "whether or not you can communicate shouldn't
> determine whether or not you have a card on the LPGA Tour."
>
> Stay tuned folks, this is just starting to heat up.
>
> LG Skins foursome: LG Skins Game two-time defending champion Stephen
> Ames will be joined by Phil Mickelson, K.J. Choi and Rocco Mediate in
> the
>
> $1-million LG Skins Game at the Celebrity Course at the Indian Wells
> Golf Resort in California, Nov. 29-30.
>
> For the cause: The third annual Peter Gzowski Invitational Golf
> Tournament to benefit adult literacy will be held Sept. 25 at Le
> Diamant in Ste. Monique near Mirabel.
>
> Founded by Gzowski, a Canadian writer and broadcaster who died in
> 2002, PGI golf tournaments across Canada have raised more than $10
> million dollars to support adult literacy and this year's keynote
> speaker and poet laureate will be Shelagh Rogers and Lorne Elliott,
> respectively.
>
> Proceeds go to the Quebec English Literacy Alliance to help coordinate
> and fund literacy programs across the province. For more information
> on the event call Phil Gribbin at 514-602-8214.
>
> She said it: "I don't believe in taking steroids. I don't believe in
> taking anything that enhances my ability to play golf. I've never done
> that. I've always played fairly, and I think I should be rewarded for
> that."
>
> - LPGA Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez in the Boston Herald, revealing she
> takes hydrochlorothiazed, a blood-pressure medication that is on the
> Tour's list of banned substances because it can also be used as a
> masking agent.
>
> Lopez has submitted two "letters of necessity" from her doctor to the
> Tour seeking a waiver for use of the medication, but has been denied.
>
> rphillips at thegazette.canwest.com
>
> http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/sports/story.html?id=2f739f73-6b95-43e0-a660-a1927824ccb6
> --
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