Golf Question of the Week: Is It Wrong for the LPGA Tour to Force Its Players to Learn English?
The LPGA Tour is now requiring its players to learn English, or face suspension. And the media hue and cry hasn't even had the chance to reach a crescendo.
Yet that hasn't kept the Fourth Estate from weighing in - heavily. The move is "excluding multiculturalism," as Jerry Burnes writes at Northern Star Online. It smacks of the Tour being "racist," as TravelGolf.com's Chris Baldwin suggests. It's "unsportsmanlike" and "un-American," as Michael Walker Jr. contends over at Golf.com.
I can't help but look at all this from a marketing perspective. Hey, that's just me, and my nature. And my instincts tell me that for all the flak Carolyn Bivens has caught in her tumultuous tenure as LPGA Tour commissioner, the hubbub about this move is way, way overblown.
Like it or not, here's the basic message she's delivering to her players:
"Look, ladies. If we're gonna help you, we have to be able to help each other. Learn the language. Use it during your interviews and television appearances. Help fans in the country that's the lifeline to your LPGA career embrace you - because the simple fact of the matter is, rightly or wrongly, they won't if you give the impression that you're making no attempt to assimilate to the culture that's making you rich (even if you are trying).
"Heck, they don't necessarily even have to like you. But if this tour is to continue to make money - much of which winds up in your pocket, if you're good enough to earn it - you have to be relevant in the public eye. The American eye. You have to be able to make some kind of connection with your audience. And if people cannot find that connection, they'll look elsewhere for it.
"Fair? Of course not. Reality? You better believe it - now, not later."
To me, this isn't about jingoism, or pushing an agenda that must bleed red, white and blue.
It's all about the green, baby. Like it or not, the sooner we accept that reality, the less likely we'll all be to get ourselves in a lather - and the more likely the LPGA Tour will be able to prosper in the long-term.
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