Volume 2, Number 6, May 5, 2004
 

Editorial: Korean Players and the LPGA

 Pages 1, 2, 3

Well, this is all past history. The question is, has the LPGA taken steps to right these problems? Or are we still seeing the same old stuff? And what about the new Korean players? Is their assimilation going more smoothly?

Of course, there are still issues, and this is doubtless an ongoing process, but I have seen evidence that both sides have worked to improve the situation for the betterment of all. The first step was to offer Grace Park a seat on the LPGA's Board of Directors. Although she is a nonvoting member, she is still able to represent the young and Asian players viewpoints to the top brass of the tour, which will hopefully allow the tour to avoid mistakes like the CheatGate meetings in the future. They also hired (or said they would hire) a full time employee who is bilingual in Korean and English to aid the non-English speaking players with their questions about tour life.

Grace Park's fluency in English and high profile made
her the perfect candidate to represent
the Asian players

Se Ri Pak was recently featured in a pictorial
on the LPGA's web site

The next step was to announce the first ever conference of all the top tours in women's golf, to be held this month. The goal is to insure the growth and success of women's golf worldwide. Among the items on the agenda is the (long overdue) discussion about including the Asian women in some sort of a Solheim Cup-like event, and the creation of a world ranking system like the men have.

Best of al,l the LPGA tour has started promoting the Korean players more and more. The Koreans have gone along with this, submitting to whatever the tour asked of them in terms of publicity photos and what not. This year we have seen several features about Grace Park on LPGA.COM; a photo spread about Se Ri Pak; Aree Song's Rookie Diary, a regular feature on their website; and photos of those three players, Hee-Won Han, Mi Hyun Kim and Shi Hyun Ahn prominently featured in their rotating collection of players shown on their homepage.
There are still questionable calls by the tour. This year they released a promotional calendar that included several American stars, Annika Sorenstam, Grace Park... but not Se Ri Pak, the clear #2 player on tour. To the LPGA's credit, the oversight was quickly rectified, and Se Ri was added to future printings of the calendar, but it shows that she is still not first and foremost in their minds as a player who might best promote their tour.
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