Starting immediately, being (1) one of the top golfers in the world; (2) a great sportsman; and (3) female are no longer enough to earn you a spot in the US Ladies Professional Golf Association.
In a first for any pro sports association anywhere in the world, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (the only game in town for pro women golfers in the US) has imposed a language requirement on its membership. All new LPGA golfers and golfers who have been on the tour for more than two years must demonstrate their proficiency in English. Golfers requiring time to hone their language skills have until the end of 2009. The penalty for failure to comply? Suspension from the tour.
The LPGA insists that the language requirement is not targeting any specific group of players — although, just as luck would have it, the top tier of US women’s golf is being rapidly taking over by (surprise!) Asian women. Oh, those wacky Koreans — always causing trouble!
Libby Galloway, the LPGA Tour’s deputy commissioner, who I venture to guess will explain to anyone who cares to ask that she’s not a racist and that some of her best friends are hard-working Orientals, offers this unspeakably lame justification for the policy:
“For an athlete to be successful today in the sports entertainment world we live in, they need to be great performers on and off the course, and being able to communicate effectively with sponsors and fans is a big part of this.”
Gosh, someone better get an interpreter to explain that to Yao Ming — I guess that’s what’s been holding him back.
But wait — there’s more! Guess who gets to decide whether a player’s English is good enough? Yep. The LPGA. All foreign players are now at the mercy of an army of self-important tour officials, any one of whom may have a problem with foreigners (other than Annika Sorenstam — they all love Annika Sorenstam).
By the way, the LPGA tour includes a number of events in foreign countries (including Korea). Funny — the LPGA isn’t requiring any of its English-speaking members to learn any of those languages. You’d almost think the LPGA was governed by a bunch of hypocritical, racist jerks, who are appalled that the lily-white game of golf is being taken over by Asians.
But I’m not anti-LPGA. Heck, some of my best friends are LPGA…
Tags: Annika Sorenstam, Anti-Asian, Golf, Korea, LPGA, Sports, Yao Ming
I see that the dictatorial imperative that “everyone must speak English” now extends to golf.
At least the Beijing Olympics appointed an Esperanto translator and CRI broadcast daily, about the Games, in this language.
You can see detail at http://esperanto.cri.cn