This is complete nonsense. Golf has never had much interaction between competitors and fans. Football and baseball and basketball have interviews with coaches and players right before and after the games - hell, hockey players talk to the media during the games - but not golfers. Media is not allowed on the practice range, and I don’t believe they’re alowed in the locker rooms. TV interviews are about 60 seconds long with the winner of the tournament, and they are usually not seen at all unless it is a major.
Actually, at least on the men’s side there are pro-ams before most tourneys where fat-cats pay big bucks to play with the pros. As I understand it most pros hate them, but they are required. I think they are generally held on Wednesday before competition starts on Thursday.
And I can imagine one thing tournament sponsors want in return for their investment is some sort of PR committment from the winner.
After each round the players report to the press tent for interviews. I believe they get fined if they do not show.
And ISTM that more get closer to pro golfers at many points during and after competition than you get close to a pro baseball/hoops/football player.
A quick search revealed that LPGA tourneys have pro-ams as well. Link
Not a lot of other sports come to mind where the competitors interact with fans in a similar manner as they prepare to compete. Planning on heading over to Wrigley for a little fungo with the Cubbies? Or maybe a quick game of H-O-R-S-E with the Bulls at the United Center?
That is purely fat cat stuff. Sponsors don’t pony up big bucks so they can play a few holes with Annika Sorenstam, they pay to get on TV. TV rarely shows any interaction with the players, especially in the LPGA. The most fan interaction in the LPGA happens in the Dinah Shore tournament every year in Palm Springs, and yet that is the one tournament where they rarely show crowd shots. Anyone who knows anything about women’s golf knows why that is.
According to Golfweek:
In order to assist foreign players in learning the language:
It should be noted that very few, if any, Koreans object to the rule. Furthermore, new tour members apparently have two years to meet the standard required - the rule is not immediately effective for them as stated in the OP’s link.
Well, I’m not aware of a bunch of other sports where even fat cats are able to participate alongside the pros in what is ostensibly a practice session.
During my search I saw one tourney explaining the best times to request autographs during the Monday and Tuesday practice rounds. My understanding is that golf pros vary in their willingness to sign autographs and otherwise interact with fans after a round.
In any golf tournament, any fan can position himself to get mere feet away from their favorite player. While that is not necessarily the same as “interaction”, I’m not aware of many other pro sports that offer such intimacy to each and every ticket holder.
Your initial post mentioning minute-long interviews with the winners ignored the requirement that golfers participate in the media tent interview.
And I’m not sure what to make of your crack about the Dinah Shore. Makes me suspect your intention may be to provoke a reaction, rather than to engage in an intelligent exchange.
The pro-ams provide much of the money for the purses, so they are kind of important to the LPGA
http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,1836650,00.html
Your post is meaningless in the context of why the LPGA is requiring speaking English. Press room interviews look the same in the newspaper the next day regardless of the language spoken. Interpreters are available. Fans do not carry on conversations with golfers during a round no matter how close they may be able to get, unless you consider yelling “Get in the hole!” to be a conversation. The only valid point you have made is that there is a pro-am every week. If you feel that the LPGA is adding this rule in order for there to be a better interaction during the pro-am , then I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
The LPGA is instituting the rule partly because of the Pro-ams, which are hugely important to the financial success of the tournaments and do NOT involve just “fat cats” (I’m hardly fat in that sense 
). But it’s also ostensibly instituting the rule to make the players more media friendly; after all, it’s one thing when your top-25 list has one or two players who have trouble with the language; when over half that list is non-proficient, you have to wonder if it’s an American Tour.
Personally, I think that the LPGA is grasping at straws and finding a convenient straw woman to explain their slow erosion of financial support. Yes, I am quite certain that the explosion of Korean and other Asian golfers on the tour has made the Tour less “attractive.” Sad to say, I doubt much that their English proficience will matter to that fact. :smack:
To me, this is just bad business by the LPGA. First of all, these players are individuals with different personalities. The ones that want to interact with fans and sponsors will learn English on their own. The ones that are forced to learn will do the bare minimum and wind up communicating to the fans and sponsors in broken or unintelligible English. They’re not going to all of sudden become Phil Mickelson.
Also, the LPGA’s end state is actually kicking players off of the tour if they don’t learn English. Also bad business. The world is smaller. European and Emerging Market countries have money to invest. If the best players in the world leave the US to play on competing tours, the LPGA’s image as the best tour in the world will be tarnished; especially if these expelled women continue to kick ass in the majors.
The LPGA’s time and expense is better suited at attracting sponsors and fans from other areas of the world. It should be marketing to more targeted audiences and sponsors, based on its evolving player base. And if it wants more English speaking players, invest in their development in the US. I’ve played around 10 rounds of golf this summer. I don’t recall seeing a single young female on the course, besides the cart girls.
Getting to the course for my weekly Wed 5 p.m. teetime, one practice green was crowded with teen girls. Saw my pro on another green, and he said it was the local HS team - they came to the course every afternoon and had just finished their practice round.
Gotta admit, golf is near the bottom of activities to choose in terms of feminine “scenery.” But my casual impression is things seem to be looking up ever-so-slightly on that front.
I never said they were. I asked if it was racist. You said it was. Do you still say so?
“Doesn’t speak English” is not a race. Are you suggesting that a non English speaking Nigerian would get a pass?
No one is forced to join the LPGA. It’s a membership organization. It has a language requirement that is applied to everyone. Anyone who objects is welcome to turn in her card.
I can’t remember if I heard this on the radio this morning or read it, but apparently the LPGA has been hosting players in private homes. I’m sure that some of the incentive for people to open up their homes to the players is the opportunity to get to know the player better and get a sort of ‘insider’s view’ of the tour.
I also read somewhere that the LPGA wasn’t requiring the players to speak English fluently, just to be able to communicate their basic needs and wants and hold simple conversations.
This is pretty common on all the tours. We have a friend that put up Fred Funk for years when he was a journey man player. Saves the young and struggling players a grand or two a week. Now the couple that hosted him are friends and get a look into the lifestyle and even an occasional round of golf with a pro.