What if all those dollars from Asia started flowing somewhere else? What if all those great Korean and other Asian players starting playing somewhere else?
What if the Korean LPGA, Japan LPGA and Ladies European Tour saw an opportunity, got together and created a Eurasian Tour? If I were involved in running any of those tours, I'd already be talking to the others about ways to capitalize. Women's golf is far bigger in Asia than it is in America, and is growing rapidly in Europe. Would those sponsor dollars start staying home rather than flowing overseas? Would Asian golfers start staying home rather than coming to the LPGA?
If such a Eurasian Tour were created, and if many or most of the Korean and other Asian players now on the LPGA started playing there, such a tour would quickly grow in stature - and would probably be offering purses larger than the LPGA Tour fairly quickly.
And when that happened, well ... golfers go where the money is. And American golfers would start leaving the LPGA for the Eurasian Tour.
That future is a bit of a stretch at this time, to be sure. But it's plausible. And it's also plausible that the new rule will wind up having no effect at all because the LPGA will never actually take the step of suspending a player.
But the LPGA Tour, over the past couple years, under Commissioner Carolyn Bivens, has been on a path to globalization - on a path to conquering those parts of the world where women's golf draws the most interest, to chasing those Asian dollars. This English-proficiency policy seems to me a step in a wayward direction - one that risks a backlash and a backfire that could ultimately weaken the LPGA Tour.
Other reactions:
- Mark Whicker, Orange County Register: "Obviously, a fence was too expensive."
- Ron Sirak, Golf World: Clash between cultural respect, business practicalities.
- Richard Oliver, San Antonio Express-News: A necessary move, borne of desperation.
- Bob Harig, ESPN.com: New policy goes overboard.
- Bill Bradley, <i>Sacramento Bee: It's just a business decision.
- Alan Shipnuck, Sports Illustrated: Legal questions abound over English-only policy.
- Chris Baldwin, TravelGolf.com: A terrible rule from the worst-run organization in sports.
