Looks like the LPGA English policy is drawing criticism from sponsors, the very people whom they claimed were an integral reason for establishing the mandate in the first place. Serves you right, LPGA. It seems your PR people are the ones who should get a bit more training in dealing with the media. Who in their right mind would try and establish a policy like this, first of all, by positioning it as a policy, as a type of law? You should be setting incentives, framing it as a personal growth opportunity for the players rather than making it abundantly clear that you are enacting these rules for your own monetary and selfish reasons. How do you expect to continue to spread the sport internationally if you are adding more layers and barriers to new international players? You should be welcoming and encouring these women with open arms, not throwing English proficiency tests in their face before letting them play. When you get down to it, that’s what you’re basically saying: If you can’t speak English, you can’t play. How retarded does that sound? How unethical, how un-American, how ethnocentric, how xenophobic can you get? Even your sponsors are ashamed of you! You have achieved the exact opposite of what you intended. Sponsors are backing away and thinking twice about associating themselves with you, rather than celebrating your demonstration of power and supposedly making it easier on them. Even when you tried to defend your policy, you continued to choose the wrong words and the wrong type of message:
“Much of the criticism of our policy has centered around the LPGA’s penalty for players who do not meet the minimum language threshold. The penalty is meant to underscore the importance of this issue to the LPGA’s long-term business success.”Glad to see your priorities are about making money rather than about promoting golf or women’s role in it.
Update: It appears the LPGA has had a change of heart (coughThe news about sponsors like State Farm scared them offcough). The original policy will be undergoing revision and they will announce a new one, “absent playing penalties”, before the year is over. Yeah, that’s what I thought, suckas!
