Sports Anchor Rafer Weigel

He’s golf’s newest anti-hero. And he will do more for the sport’s popularity than even Tiger Woods. Maybe not internationally. But on American soil, it’s me and you and a golfer named “Boo.”

Boo Weekley, a self-proclaimed “red neck” from a small town is actually from the Florida Panhandle. The Panhandle? I didn’t even know it existed anymore. I thought that disappeared with the “Grapes of Wrath”.

Boo Weekely, bridging the gap between golf and NASCAR

The 35 year-old who speaks in a heavy Southern drawl, hunts deer and even alligators. He compared America’s Ryder Cup team with six rookies as “new pack of hunting hounds”.

“You don’t know what kind of dogs you get until you run them,” Boo said. “So let’s run them and we’ll see.

His primary sponsor, Moss Apparel, specializes in camouflage pants.

He once boxed an Orangutan and was knocked out cold.

But it was him who helped Team USA deliver the knock out punch to the Europeans in one of the more unlikely upsets.

Weekley kept them loose and laughing. After his tee shot on No. 1, Weekley rode his driver down the fairway like Happy Gilmore. After every made shot, Weekley waived his arms to pump up the crowd, known as “Boo Birds” like he was a linebacker playing in his home stadium.

He broke all decorum and that’s why we love him.

And that’s why, while Woods crossed racial barriers, Weekley will cross cultural ones and open the sport up to a whole new class of people that previously shunned it—working class NASCAR fans.

The fact is, golf just ain’t that popular amongst the working folk, most of them anyway. Too stuffy. Most Americans have never been in a country club let alone played on a private course.

There’s rules you have to follow. You have to dress and even act a certain way.

Not Weekley. He did put on the uniform, but he still sported the white tube sox underneath which screamed “attention Wal-Mart shoppers”.

Even Weekley’s rise to popularity comes with a contradiction—winning as a team player in a normally individual sport.

Sam Snead—arguably the greatest golfer that ever lived—had a style similar to Weekley’s. Snead from the hills of Virginia once saw his picture on the New York Times and said he didn’t understand because he’d never been to New York.

But Snead was before the age of television and technology.

Now Tiger and Phil should look out. While Weekley may not match them on the course just yet, the crowds will follow him.

And from the looks and sounds of things, they’ll be plenty rowdy.

From Sports Anchor Rafer Weigel

The LPGA is venturing into uncharted waters—making all of its players learn English if they want to play golf. Starting next year, players will go through an “oral evaluation” and unless they can carry on a "reasonable" conversation in English, they’ll be suspended.

LPGA players who don't speak English could find themselves in the rough.

Sound crazy? Maybe a little. Can you imagine the PGA doing this? Last year's U.S. Open winner Angel Cabrera wouldn’t have been hoisting the trophy.

The tour says the mandate is about improving communication with the players and helping them succeed on and off the course, especially in terms of earning endorsements for themselves and the tour.

The sad reality for the LPGA is that it's losing sponsors. Their most marketable star, Annika Sorenstan—who’s Swedish by the way and speaks perfect English—is retiring. They’re looking for replacements.

Many of the LPGA’s 121 players are from countries outside the US. 46 are from South Korea and some of them say they feel that they’re being unfairly targeted.

The tournament is not coming out and saying this, but it appears that this is about … money. If you can’t speak English, you’re not marketable in America.

But South Korean Seon Hwa Lee, the only Asian with multiple victories this year, agrees with the decision. She’s even hired an English tutor because she wants more sponsorship opportunities.

“The economy is bad, and we are losing sponsors,” Lee said. “Everybody understands.”

But while it’s a good suggestion, can the tournament demand the players know how to speak English? And if they don’t, is suspending them a bit harsh? If that happens, how do you get your suspension lifted? If you don’t currently know English are you going to be able to learn it in two months?

Is this American arrogance or just good business?

Let us know what you think.