LPGA

• Report: LPGA to require English proficiency

  
  

  Orlando, FL (Sports Network) - The LPGA plans to require its members to learn and speak English, according to Golfweek.

  The new requirement was revealed to the tour's increasing South Korean membership in a mandatory meeting at the Safeway Classic in Portland, Oregon on August 20. The LPGA plans to suspend any golfer's membership if they don't comply.

  LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens has given players to the end of 2009 to comply and all players who have been on the tour for two years must pass an oral evaluation of their English skills or face a membership suspension.

  "Hopefully what we're talking about is something that will not happen," Libba Galloway, the tour's deputy commissioner, told Golfweek. "If it does, we wouldn't just say, 'Come back next year.' What we would do is work with them on where they fell short, provide them the resources they need, the tutoring ... and when we feel like they need to be evaluated again, we would evaluate."

  08/26 13:09:45 ET