LPGA… Habla Golf?

Angel Cabrera: “You don't have to speak English to play golf. I remember what [Roberto] de Vicenzo once said to me. If you shoot under 70, everybody will understand you. If you don't, they won't want to talk to you, anyway.”

K.J. Choi: “It is a difficult situation. It is good for them to help players learn English. When I learned English, I became a better player. But to suspend them? I don't think so. I would have had to go home.”

Padraig Harrington: “Surely if you can say, 'Hello,' that's English. Is that good enough? Who draws the line about how many words you've got to know in English? What if you have a person who genuinely struggles with learning a new language; they have a learning disability? That's tough to ask somebody with a learning disability, who might have found golf as the saving grace in their life, to ask them to learn a different language or else you can't play. There's a lot of different issues to that. It's a big step to actually put it out there.”

Deputy Commissioner Libba Galloway: “We have been puzzled, if not surprised, by some of the reactions. We see this as a pro-international move. You have to interact effectively with your pro-am partners. You need to be able to do media interviews. And you need to give a winner's acceptance speech in English. They must speak at a level that effectively accomplishes those three things. We're not just looking at the LPGA as it is now. We're looking at the future of the LPGA. As you well know, we have a large international membership. All indications are it's not going to get smaller. We believe so much in what we're doing. If we're getting any criticism, it's coming from outside the organization. It's not coming from the players, and those are the people to whom it applies.”