Thursday, August 28, 2008

Golf Tour’s New Rule: Speak English to Stay in Play

The New York Times headline:

Golf Tour’s Rule: Speak English to Stay in Play

“Concerned about its appeal to sponsors, the women’s professional golf tour, which in recent years has been dominated by foreign-born players, has warned its members that they must become conversant in English by 2009 or face suspension.”

With 43 of the top 100 players in the LPGA from Korea, Taiwan, Japan and other countries in Asia, the LPGA must have employed some great lateral thinker.

If you cannot beat them in golf, make sure you can with a new rule.

The Cockroach Catcher checked the latest version of Rules of Golf from the Royal and Ancient and the USGA. Not there.

LPGA is different, my golfing partners told me this morning.

The trouble is that most of these young girls move to Florida anyway and in less than six months they can speak better English than any American player can speak Korean, Japanese or Mandarin.


Canada's Lorie Kane
does not think LPGA's English rule is the answer:

"Right now we have an awful lot of tournaments internationally and a lot of them are in Asia. I don't speak any Asian languages. If we continue to play over there, are they going to require me to speak Korean?"

Luckily they did not have such rules in Psychiatry otherwise I would not have had the pleasure of listening to Anna Freud and a number of others with their heavy Viennese accent.

I can see that there will be a number of English language coaches prospering in Florida. What if you speak Scottish? Even I find that hard to understand sometimes.

What about
Padraig Harrington?

Harrington is not playing in the LPGA.

Golf Posts:

Golf and Disability
Golf, Cholera and Tiger Woods
Ancient Remedy: Modern Outlook
Golf and Health
Tiger Woods and Breathing
Autism, the Brain and Tiger Woods

3 comments:

Elaine said...

You really must try harder to understand the Scots. We are a very prideful people and have many great golf courses.

(I am not nearly as pompous as that sounds).

Am Ang Zhang said...

Welcome back Elaine. I was just trying to see if the LPGA can see how ridiculous the new rule is as they are serious about it. I know Scotland have great golf courses and you have a Wee little Scotch as you play the 18 holes.

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