Sep 5, 2008 11:15 pm US/Central
In The Know: English, Official Language Of Golf?
(WCCO)
English as the official language: It has been a political football kicked around by political parties for years. Don Shelby said, it isn't a football anymore. It is a golf ball.
This concerns the LPGA, the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
Earlier this year, having noticed that more than a hundred of its tournament players were from a lot of countries other than the United States, some of whom couldn't speak the English language, the LPGA was discomfited.
Officials of the LPGA said the players need to be able to communicate in English. You see, asians won three of the four majors this year. So, the organization decided to fine and suspend golfers who could not speak English -- for their own good, said the LPGA.
Well, that decision hit the fan. Promised law suits and new laws were piling up, so the LPGA backed off the suspension deal, but might still fine players who don't speak English.
Discriminatory? Very likely. Short-sighted? Bingo. You see, the LPGA stages golf tournaments in China, Thailand, South Korea, France and Japan.
Would it ever occur to the LPGA to suspend English-speaking women golfers for failing to become fluent in the languages of all those countries? The LPGA should just back off and say, "Mea Culpa."
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