Stephenson and the Korean Tour

[rstyle]

Several years ago Jean Stephenson was vilified for making comments about the Korean players taking over the LPGA. Well..................I feel she was somewhat right. Today you turn the TV on during a tournament and the list of 15 players at the top all have Li; Jang or Jing in the last name and they are all 16-21 yrs old. I can't tell them apart on the field either.
It sounds discriminatory but that is not my intent.(Se Ri Pak was one of my favorites early on).
I thought about it when I saw an article in the paper saying how Jang had given and incredible show at the McDonald's but I can't remember which one she was because I can't attach or associate the similar names with the player!!!
I think they need to put a picture of the player next to the name on TV during the tournament

[rogerhuang]

LOL. That's ok. We asians have trouble telling all you round eyes apart as well.

All kidding aside, I can't tell if you wish American women could practice harder, play better, and win vs. your inexperience/ignorance in identifying asian names and faces.

Let's be frank: asian men do not enjoy the same dominance on the PGA for the simple reason that the American men (e.g. Tiger Woods) practice and work much harder than their American women counterparts.

Until that happens, you better brush up on your asian identifcation skills, becuase the party isn't going to end anytime soon.... In fact, the Koreans aren't even worried about American women players. They're more worried about the Taiwanese and Japanese players nipping at their heels. Can you say "Natalie Gulbis who?????" LOL!

[Shindig]

Several years ago Jean Stephenson was vilified for making comments about the Korean players taking over the LPGA. Well..................I feel she was somewhat right. Today you turn the TV on during a tournament and the list of 15 players at the top all have Li; Jang or Jing in the last name and they are all 16-21 yrs old. I can't tell them apart on the field either.

Because so many events this year were won by players with those names and not names like Ochoa or Sorenstam.

Do you feel the same way about the PGA Tour? Other than the occasional Kim, Imada, or Woods, of course. Can you visually distinguish Ben Crane from Jonathan Byrd if you saw them without logos?

It sounds discriminatory but that is not my intent.(Se Ri Pak was one of my favorites early on).

This is just something that comes with following it for a while. You'll see them give interviews, you'll see them play shots, you'll see their pictures in golf magazines, and you'll start to know who is who.

[itzzzberny]

Several years ago Jean Stephenson was vilified for making comments about the Korean players taking over the LPGA. Well..................I feel she was somewhat right.

if you see her point of view and agree. stop being so ignorant. the pga (mens, womens, and senior) is meant for the best players in the world to compete in the US. complaining about having a lot of koreans in the lgpa is like complaining how come there are so many mexicans in los angeles.....

yea they're everywhere here but without them who's gonna do all the hard daily grind jobs. (they work a lot of the jobs americans won't take) they need us as much as we need them... lpga needs the korean players as much as the korean players need the lpga... - they expand the market - bring more competition - possibly bring in more sponsors (samsung,lg,kia,hyundai could one day start sponsoring events) -

[JaY_B]

They are *taking over* in terms of dominating success on the tour, but lets be honest, they earnt it through hard work and there's nothing wrong with that.

[beung]

lol, haha you said "nipping" :P

I am korean and frankly I can't tell asians apart either.

[rogerhuang]

lol, haha you said "nipping" :P

ha ha. Being that you're korean, I'm not surprised at all....LOL

[Cody]

Who pays attention to the LPGA tour anyway, pff women golfers.(Kidding kidding my girlfriend golfs and i watch the LPGA tour as well).

Meh who cares Lorena Ochoa is still my favorite!

[rstyle]

Wow! Pretty aggressive responses! (By the way, I am hispanic)

I really do not care if they are from Africa, Ireland, Korea or Iceland.
I appreciate rogerhuang's response, who apparently is oriental, and seems to understand what I was trying to refer to.
The names are all the same, or the orders of the first name and last name are reversed but the same of another player. Physically many look similar.
When they show on TV the list of players in the top ten during the tournament and then show them and mention them by name while playing the holes, I can't tell them apart because the names are all almost the same.I don't know who wins or loses!!!! Was it Jang or was it Li. Was it Jang Li or was it Li Jang.!!!!!! Did Jang Li win 3 weekks ago or did Li Jang win????

Maybe nicknames??

It would be the same if I was watching a golf tournament in Russia with russian players.

[rstyle]

By the way, I would like to remind rogerhuang that N Gulbis is the girl that makes the Sky Caddie commercials, who once used to play golf and who if I hear her again with her squeaky voice saying "once you play golf with the sky caddie, you will never want to play golf without it again" will lead me to a
violent temper tantrum ... LOL

[rogerhuang]

By the way, I would like to remind rogerhuang that N Gulbis is the girl that makes the Sky Caddie commercials, who once used to play golf and who if I hear her again with her squeaky voice saying "once you play golf with the sky caddie, you will never want to play golf without it again" will lead me to a

I agree! Gulbis has turned into the Anna Kournikova of golf. I know she won the Evian, but that's still only 1 tournament. She's in danger of becoming a 1-hit wonder.

[pjsnyc]

...I appreciate rogerhuang's response, who apparently is oriental...the orders of the first name and last name are reversed but the same of another player. Physically many look similar...

Just gonna chime in here - 'oriental' might tickle somebody's angry bone. Also - when trying to understand asian names, try not to think of first name/last name. Think of given name/family name (where the family name is most important - so it typically goes first).

...I am korean and frankly I can't tell asians apart either.

My mother is korean and sometimes I have trouble too! Here's a website to help brush up on your skills -

http://www.alllooksame.com . But then again I probably couldn't tell the difference between someone from the U.S. and Canada just by looking at them. Or the difference between a person from spain and a person from portugal...or even argentina for that matter. In any case - I suppose it would be nice to have headshots or something next to players' names on the leaderboard when shown on TV to make it easier for the smiths and joneses to distinguish fook yu and fook mi.

[rstyle]

Thanks PJSNYC!
Never to late and always willing to learn.

Tell me one thing though............is "oriental" not an appropiate term?
I am asking out of ignorance since I never associated it with a "bad" or slang term as some terms used with other races.
Does "asian" versus "oriental" represent people from different countries or is "oriental" just thought as a lower class term.

In any case the Korean ladies are very good and I enjoy watching them. I just wish I could tell them apart and I guess that will come with time.

For some reason orientals, asians, hispanics, canadians etc do not have any trouble knowing PAula Creamer on TV..................ooops ...we are talking golf

[pjsnyc]

Thanks PJSNYC!

No problemo meng. Here's a wiki on the term 'oriental' -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental (not that I use wikipedia for all factual information, but it pretty much gets the point across). And yes - I enjoy watching korean ladies too ;)

[jambalaya]

American girls have just picked it up a little in recent years. But look at the dominant players of the last 10 or 15 years: Anna, Karrie, Se Ri and now Ochoa. We haven't had the dominant player since Nancy Lopez. Yep, the Koreans may well "take over" if the American girls don't pick up the pace even more. I for one would not watch the LPGA as much if that happened. I only watch a lot now because we have some very good, young American players competing out there.

[GaijinGolfer]

If the Korean women golfers work harder or are just plain more talented and dominate the events, good for them. If thats the case, they deserve to win.
Sounds like instead of whining, our American lady golfers need to start practing and training more.
Id love to see Gulbis and Wie winning (or any American lady golfer) more, but it doesnt offend me if a Korean wins. Its much the same as back when Tiger first went pro. Some in the golf community resented the fact that he was black. So what if he is black? He's a very talented player who works his butt off training and practicing, who cares what color he is. Its the same with the Korean lady golfers.
As far as not being able to tell them apart, thats just a matter of watching the LPGA more and getting to know who is who.

[rogerhuang]

If the Korean women golfers work harder or are just plain more talented and dominate the events, good for them. If thats the case, they deserve to win.

It's funny how most people think that Tiger Woods is black when it comes to his minority status. Those who know him well are aware that he considers himself asian first, and black second. Makes sense, as he has more of an asian genetic makeup than black. His mother is 100% asian (Thai) and his father is a mix of black, asian, american indian.

Yet for some reason, the mainstream media keeps portraying Tiger as black. People keep labelling him black. He doesn't understand why, and frankly, neither do I....

[GaijinGolfer]

It's funny how most people think that Tiger Woods is black when it comes to his minority status. Those who know him well are aware that he considers himself asian first, and black second. Makes sense, as he has more of an asian genetic makeup than black. His mother is 100% asian (Thai) and his father is a mix of black, asian, american indian.

Perhaps an attempt to get more interest in golf from the African-American community. I couldnt care less what color he is or what his ethnic background is.

I judge people by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin...