Thread started: Aug 28 2008, 6:19 AM EDT
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The LPGA made the announcement last week in a mandatory meeting of South Korean players at the Safeway Classic in Portland, Ore. (Seven of the LPGA's Top 20 players are Korean and half are from East Asia; 45 of the LPGA's 121 international players are from South Korea.) According to the article, many Korean players approve of the policy (at least publicly), but that doesn't make it any less sinister.
Angela Park, interviewed in the story, appears to be under the impression that the LPGA officials could impose quotas on Korean golfers if they wanted to. "The LPGA could come out and say they only want 10 Koreans, but they're not," Park said to Golfweek. "A lot of Korean players think they are being targeted, but it's just because there are so many of them."
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!
Professional athletes generally learn English because it is in their financial interest to do so, but those who don't should not be penalized. In addition to Ballesteros at the Masters, an English-only policy would have denied golf fans the great 1980 U.S. Open battle between Jack Nicklaus and Japan's Isao Aoki. Today's fans would not get to see Argentina's Andres Romero, one of the game's brightest young stars. The list could go on and on.
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