Talk about politically incorrect: the LPGA will require its players to learn English.

For the past several years, the LPGA has impressed upon its membership the importance of communicating effectively in English. As the game’s dominance shifts to the East, the LPGA has strengthened its stance. Learning English no longer is a tour suggestion; it’s a requirement.

At a mandatory South Korean player meeting Aug. 20 at the Safeway Classic, the tour informed its largest international contingent that beginning in 2009, all players who have been on tour for two years must pass an oral evaluation of their English skills. Failure would result in a suspended membership.

I smell a lawsuit.

Annika Sorenstam, once the Tiger Woods of ladies golf, went quietly in her final major, finishing in a tie for 24th. In an interview after her round, she said that she thought she still had the skills, but no longer had the desire.

“It is what it is,” she said.

When I hear an athlete say that they’ve lost the desire, I think of Alexander the Great, who wept because there were no more worlds to conquer. Once you have achieved the pinnacle of athletic success, I suppose that there is not much left to drive you.

I wonder: does Tiger also go out on his own terms? Does he break Sam Snead’s PGA Victories record, and Jack’s Majors record and then quit as Annika did? Or does he continue to pile up the numbers. I’ve thought for several years—reading into things Tiger has said—that he won’t play as long as golf fans might like. I can’t see him playing in his 40s, satisfied to take the occasional victory from one of the young guns who he has inspired. Jack did, but he reportedly had money problems. Tiger doesn’t have that to worry about. His billion should last his lifetime, and of his children, grandchildren and longer.

There’s more on Sorenstam’s graceful exit, here.

I’m going to miss Sorenstam on the LPGA scene. I have loved the way she plays and comports herself before, during and after tournaments. I’m just sorry I never got to see her play in person.

And at the risk of sounding sexist, I’ve always thought she was an attractive lady. Not in the bombshell fashion of Natalie Gulbis or some of the lolitas on tour these days, but with a girl next door sort of look. She also was clearly comfortable with herself, as was proven with the now-famous near nude Annika did for Golf For Women.

Eighty five wins. Ten majors. That’s a heckuva career.

Golf For Women magazine has shut its doors.

In her parting column, editor Susan Reed makes some vague allusion to the magazine’s death being a result of the overall state of the economy, but I really don’t think that’s the case (in fact, in spite of all the doom and gloom of the move on media, we have yet to fall to the standard definition of a “recession.")

Golf For Women has been in existence for six years, and according to Reed, has some 600,000 subscribers. That’s more subscribers than some other fairly well known magazines, such as Scientific American, Automobile Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, Yankee, Guns and Ammo, Ski Magazine, Spin, and New York, among others.

So assuming that the magazine has not been badly mismanaged, its closing has to be a result of a dearth of advertising revenues. That, in course, implies that the major golf manufacturers, retailers , resorts, et.al., don’t think that women constitute an important segment of the golf market.

And that’s a very short-sighted perspective.

Women are the great, untapped market in golf. Just as there are tens of millions of male baby boomers retiring to lives of leisure, there also are tens of millions of female boomers doing the same thing. After years of being separated by careers, these couples are going to want to spend more time together. And if the husband is a dedicated golfer, the wife is going to want to play, too.

Just think about it. There are 75 million baby boomers retiring over the next twenty years. More than half of those are women. That’s probably 40 million potential golfers.

I see these women in ever increasing numbers on our local courses, mostly struggling down the fairway, trying to keep up with their husbands. But I’m also seeing increasing numbers of women foursomes out together.

Two such foursomes were ahead of me today. All eight of them were walking, pulling trolley carts behind them. Against the stereotype, they played quickly. My playing partner and I played two balls each and never had to wait.

A couple of weeks ago, at a local demo day there was a lady-of-a-certain-age who ruthlessly went through the poor rep’s limited supply of ladies clubs, before settling on a senior men’s driver. She could really hit the ball, and I thought at the time that it was a shame that there were fifty men’s drivers there in every configuration under the sun, but only half-a-dozen ladies clubs.

She saw me hitting a series of pathetic drives, and observed that my ball was too far back in my stance. And so it was. I fixed it and improved immediately.

I’ve also noticed that several local courses have offered beginning ladies golf clinics. It’s a good idea, but they need to do more.

The golf company that takes these women as seriously as they take the men can really position itself. And that doesn’t mean taking a man’s club, making it a little lighter and coloring it powder blue or pink. It means starting from scratch, and putting the same effort into research and development as they do with the men. Then they need to market that equipment—clubs, balls, bags, pull carts, and so on—with the same aggressive stance that they do with the men.

I think that Adams has started to do this with senior men. Maybe they could try it with women.

Let me repeat an earlier factoid: There are forty million female baby boomers reaching retirement age. They’re going to have a lot of time and money on their hands.

How many already play golf in some capacity? How many could be persuaded to play more golf? How many could be persuaded to take it up?

Quite a few, I’d bet.

In the meantime, here’s a suggestion for either Golf or Golf Digest. Every other month—instead of yet another article on the latest slice curing “move”—they should include a major section dedicated solely to women. Not a couple of tips, but the same package deal that they do with the special sections on the Majors.

Forty million retiring female baby boomers. Who’s going to tap that market?

The LPGA was out in front of the PGA Tour on a season ending championship. The ADT Championship playoff series predates the FedEx Cup by a year. Now it seems that Carolyn Bivens is stealing another march.

The LPGA is getting closer to piecing together the puzzle that it hopes will land a five-year network television agreement beginning in 2010.

Tour executives met with numerous television and marketing executives two weeks ago while the tour was staging the Sybase Classic in New Jersey.

Plans call for a competition series that would exist within the LPGA’s seasonlong calendar of events. The series would consist of eight events, likely including at least one major and one event outside the United States. Players would qualify for a championship event based on their performance in the series.

That championship could be a new tournament scheduled during the first quarter of each year as a lead-in to the LPGA season. Sources said the weekend before the Super Bowl was being considered

NBC is believed to be interested. 

When I first saw the announcement, I thought it was a joke. But it’s true: Annika Sorenstam is retiring from tournament golf at the end of this year. The New York Times reports:

At a news conference at the Upper Montclair Country Club, where she will play Thursday through Sunday in the L.P.G.A.’s Sybase Classic, she calmly revealed her plans. There were no tears, no deep breaths and, she said, no regrets.

“I have other priorities in my life,” she said, and she listed them: a golf academy, a foundation, golf-course design projects (she is working on her fifth course, with two more planned), corporate relationships, clothing lines and hosting golf tournaments. She said there were more, including starting a family.

“I enjoy playing golf at the top level,” she said. “I made this decision far back. I know what it’s like to be at the top.”

As of this writing, Sorenstam has won 72 tournaments, including ten majors. She ranks third on the career list. Only Kathy Whitworth, with 88 victories and Mickey Wright with 82 are ahead of her.

Sorenstam has clocked 8 L.P.G.A. Player of the Year awards, 8 money-winning titles and 6 Vare Trophies for lowest scoring average.

For years, she was the Tiger Woods of the LPGA. She’ll be missed.

PS Mrs. GolfBlogger, the labor and delivery nurse says she wouldn’t be surprised if Annika’s pregnant. I pointed out that Laura Diaz and others had played through similar conditions, but she’s sticking to her prediction ...