I am angry at the LPGA
03:00, 29 August 2008
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OFF-TOPIC RANT FROM JAYNE:
The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is the longest-running women's sports association in the world. It is a GLOBAL organization. And it is making a massive mistake in requiring that its tour members be able to speak English. If tour members can't speak English to the satisfaction of the LPGA, no matter what their golfing abilities, they will be dismissed from the LPGA tour.
What other American-based sports league has done something like this? The NBA? MLB? NFL? NHL? Imagine the amazing talent those leagues would be deprived with such a silly, xenophobic requirement. Imagine what the fans would be denied as well!
Yao Ming did not know English when he started playing in the USA. He knows it now, not because he was forced to learn it by some xenophobic rule, but because he's an intelligent person who understood that his career and personal life would advance if he could speak English. It was his CHOICE.
If the LPGA wants to repeatedly explain to its tour members the benefits of being able to conduct LPGA business, interviews and sponsorship meetings in English, fine. If the LPGA wants to make English classes available to LPGA members, fine. If the LPGA wants to go before the media and lament the difficulties of communicating with foreign players that don't speak English, fine. HOWEVER, players should be on the LPGA tour because of their golfing abilities, because of what they can do on a golf course, not because of their English-speaking abilities. PERIOD.
Shame on the LPGA.
Write the LPGA and tell them what you think.
