Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Help me, golfers

Maggie admits:
I know nothing about golf, but what's the deal with this? The LPGA is now requiring all players to speak English. Isn't that a little... big-brothersister of them? A bit xenophobic? Is there precedent for this policy in U.S.-based sports? I can't imagine something like this flying in baseball or basketball, where the teams work together to come up with ways to communicate with their Japanese or Latin American players, for example. Not to mention, most players seem to take the initiative on their own, and learn fairly quickly once they're living and playing in the U.S. And those are team sports, where one might argue there's a real need for everyone to speak the same language... but an individual sport like golf? What exactly is the LPGA trying to accomplish, besides upsetting folks?