LPGA: Speak English or else!
Golf.com reports on a new LPGA English requirement in LPGA to require all players speak English.
The LPGA Tour boasts players from all over the world, and it wants all of them to be able to speak English.
The LPGA will require players to speak English starting in 2009, with players who have been LPGA members for two years facing suspension if they can't pass an oral evaluation of English skills. The rule is effective immediately for new players.
"Why now? Athletes now have more responsibilities and we want to help their professional development," deputy commissioner Libba Galloway told The Associated Press. "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."
The LPGA is going to have to tread carefully on this one. Some might interpret this requirement as racism.
Update: That didn’t take long. Here is Michael Walker, Jr. in LPGA’s English-only policy is unsportsmanlike and un-American:
Even those in favor of the concept should be troubled by the fact that the LPGA won’t have a standard testing procedure. Players would be targeted for evaluation based on staff observations, according to Golfweek, and those “who already demonstrate English proficiency will not be approached.”
I had to read this paragraph three times to make sure it wasn’t a satire from The Onion, or a secret police manual from the Eastern Bloc. Not only are they requiring a language evaluation for their golfers, but they’re also making that evaluation subjective and arbitrary!