English-First Moves to English-Only Golf
This lady would be way gooder if she played in English.
For those of you who believe Nashville isn’t a trendsetting city, take one look at the women’s golf tournament, the LPGA. It’s blatantly stealing our concept of bagging on people who don’t speak English.
Beginning next year, the tour will require that all players be able to speak English. Apparently golf isn’t nearly as good when played in foreigner. Those who can’t pass a test will be suspended for two years. Further violations may include forcing players to dress in earth tones and wear cowboy hats.
Though it seems a weird move for an international sport, the LPGA is worried that foreign players are driving away sponsors, especially during the recession. If you’re a marketing VP for a national insurance advertiser, who would you rather talk to in the VIP tent: Someone named Lon Su? Or a really nice woman named Mary? But we’ll leave the official logic to deputy commissioner Libba Galloway, who had this to say to the Associated Press:
"Why now? Athletes now have more responsibilities and we want to help their professional development. There are more fans, more media and more sponsors. We want to help our athletes as best we can succeed off the golf course as well as on it."
We’re not quite sure how suspending Korean women will help them off the course, but that’s probably why no one’s asking us to run their golf league either.
Comments
Cain't they just handicap them? I might finally have a chance to be a pro if I played against a bunch of handicapped people that cain't speak English. Then I wouldn't have to learn golf at all.
Posted 08/26/2008 at 05:36:42 PMThis is blatant racism. Imagine how you would feel if all the players in the Olympics had to learn Chinese. Not fair to remove a player simply because they cannot speak your language. Also, the quota idea of only 40% international players is bad.
Posted 08/27/2008 at 09:30:54 AMI thought the LPGA was an American organization? The Olympics are international, not national -- your analogy doesn't hold water. And no it's not "racism" to have language requirements. That's just absurd. What color does a language have? Can you tell me if English is pink or chartreuse? How about Russian? I sorta feel an aura of pale tangerine hovering about whenever I see Russian writing. Also, I think that the color of the Lapplander language is definitely robin's egg blue. Just
a feeling, I don't really ahve anything concrete to go on.
"Racism" -- the McCarthyism of our time.
Posted 08/28/2008 at 12:19:20 AM"12 of LPGA's 37 tournaments — are played outside the United States. Host countries include Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, France, Great Britain, Canada, China, Korea and Japan."
"stupidity" -- the stupidity of our time.
Posted 08/28/2008 at 02:15:44 PM