"The biggest issue is not the players, it's their parents, their guardians and their agents"

Now that the dust has settled on the LPGA rescinding their proposed learn-English-or-else policy, a few intriguing items have popped up.

Brian Hewitt of TheGolfChannel.com says the incident has put Carolyn Bivens on notice.

To be sure, the LPGA needs to get everybody on the same page before it can expect everybody to speak the same language. And that means doing a better job judging the impact of its decisions before those decisions are made public.

Len Shapiro in the Washington Post analyzes the fallout and offers this from an LPGA Tour insider:

"The biggest issue is not the players, it's their parents, their guardians and their agents," the source said. "Many of them are 18, 19 years old and the players are not making their own decisions. They're being told to spend all their time working on their games and don't worry about learning English. Our feeling was that if there was no teeth to the policy, we'd never change the culture. That's all we were trying to do."

But as Shapiro then notes...

Still, if only a dozen players were involved in the first place, there had to be another way than a heavy-handed suspension to stress the importance of learning English. Suspending a player essentially would have amounted to preventing them from earning a living in their chosen profession. Perhaps fines might have been appropriate, or mandatory attendance in English classes, with fines levied for missing a session.

And thanks to readers Eric and Chris for this Eric Adelson ESPN The Magazine piece that I'm not sure how to characterize. It's just a very good read and the kind of insightful look at the issue from both the LPGA and player's perspective.

Comments

[Ian C]

That ESPN article shows just what an incompetent organisation the LPGA is. How hard is it to arrange for a Korean translator to be available on site on the weekends of tournaments? Seems to be a ready made business opportunity here for any Korean-speaking golf fans in the US.

[Scott]

If an American basketball player goes to Italy or Russia, they are provided by the team with housing and a translator.

The LPGA needs to take care of its players by providing translators. If you are trying to grow your product, then you need to take care of the players better. The LPGA cannot think of the players as independent contractors like the PGA TOUR does. There are many more rules that LPGA players must follow. One could be that each player must have a translator. If you cannot find one, then the LPGA will provide one. Once the Koreans have learned English, then the LPGA can work on another facet of their image problem.

[Ha]

That article was written in March 2006 and over 2 years later Bivens comes up with the awful plan she did? That's horrid and just continues to show how incompetent she is at her job. How much longer before a new commissioner is brought in?