Forget the language barrier, solving the sponsorship barrier

Its official, America is becoming a more and more intolerable country by the second. While it is a little shocking and slightly offensive to minorities all around the United States to hear that the LPGA has begun to require their players to have a certain level of mastery of the English language or risk suspension, the real problem is that since this news broke a little over a day ago, an alarming number if ignorant comments have been appearing all over the internet. It seems that bigotry is again out in full force. Immigrants to this country have been dealing with situations of this nature for a while now, and it appears that the same ignorant sentiments about migrant and low-wage workers from poor countries applies even to million-dollar athletes: "If you cant speak OUR language then get out of OUR country!"

There could be so much time and effort devoted towards this ruling and the indecency behind it, but enough attention has been paid to that already. The only thing that needs to be said is that the LPGA is wrong; English should not be a requirement for their golfers. The entire notion of it reeks of bigotry and ignorance.

What does warrant some extra attention is what the LPGA claims as the reason behind their decision. According to multiple sources, the LPGA is struggling financially. The tour has already dropped a few tournaments due to lack of sponsorships and is in serious danger of loosing more. So in order to fend off this trend, the LPGA decided to attack the problem by pandering to their current and potential sponsors. Libba Galloway, Deputy Commissioner of the LPGA, said that their players have a high level of interaction with sponsors and players, and that communication between the two parties is key.

For American born players this concept does not present any problems, as the shared language makes it easy for them to entertain sponsors. But for the foreign born players - a full quarter of the tour (121 golfers in all) - the language barrier is difficult to overcome, making it harder for a player from South Korea (45 of the 121 foreign players are from South Korea) to interact with an American sponsor. One of the staples of the LPGA's marketing to potential sponsors are the Pro-Am tournaments, which pair a player on the tour with a willing patron who has dealt out anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 or more to play with a professional. But when there are language and cultural barriers present, sponsors are less willing to shell out that kind of money. According to the LPGA's ruling it is easy to see their thought process: language barriers turn into sponsorship barriers.

While this may be true on some level, the perceived solution to this problem is extremely shallow and narrow-minded. What the LPGA needs to do to solve its financial woes is to think outside the box, and outside the country.

Think Korea.

As mentioned earlier, 45 of the 121 foreign players on the LPGA Tour are from South Korea, making them the largest contingent of foreign-based players on the tour. The LPGA doesn't need its Korean players to attract American sponsors, it needs them to attract Korean sponsors. The ironic notion to all of this is that while the LPGA is struggling here in the United States, it is flourishing in South Korea. This is according to Eric Adelson, a writer for ESPN, who has profiled the LPGA's influx of Korean players and their affect on the game here and in their home country.

It seems very logical that internationally based companies might be willing to attach themselves to players from their native lands; all the traditional lessons of marketing seem to line up with this idea. And by doing so, the LPGA could help solve their Pro-Am crisis by selling those spots to international customers, those who speak the language of the player. It makes perfect sense for the the LPGA to venture out to where they are most popular and attract sponsors from those regions.

But sadly no, the single-minded LPGA did not try to solve their problems by looking outward. Instead they took the easy and misguided way out and instituted a system of exclusion in order to get their players to fit into a nice, comfortable package to sell to American sponsors.

What the LPGA doesn't seem to realize is that it doesn't matter what language the players are speaking, American sponsors aren't biting. There are numerous reasons why, but it would be safe to say that one glaring reason is the the LPGA Tour has doesn't have a recognizable - and marketable - American face. In the past few years the tour been dominated by a Swede, a Mexican, and a swarm of Korean players.

The LPGA needs to realize that unless they start venturing out they could go belly-up.