LPGA backs off...

tonyzackery

Someone finally came to their senses and now the LPGA has backed off their stance to fine/suspend players (99% Asian) who are not or don't become proficient in English...

2008 and still having to deal with this type of B.S...I'm suprised, but I know I shouldn't be...

Bro Deal

As near as I can tell, not following golf at all, the LPGA has a legitimate concern. A series dominated by foreigners will have a hard time in the U.S. Open wheel racing in the U.S. has similar problems. The average Joe Sixpack has a hard time watching the win of a "furriner" from a country he cannot locate on a map and with a name he cannot pronounce. If the winners cannot speak English, it makes the situation ten times worse. This is a simple economic reality; sport is entertainment, and a big part of that entertainment is the personalities of the contestants.

That said, it seems like the LPGA could have handled this in a much better way, like providing "americanization" training, for lack of a better word, so the golfers can better handle interviews and such. They could spend some effort on PR for individual asian players and promote the series more heavily in the U.S. asian community and asian countries. Perhaps with the right marketing campaign, they could turn their series into a lucrative avenue for marketing to asians.

BTW, a lot of us are moving to http://justcycling.myfastforum.org/index.php because no new members can post here.

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"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates