Beating a dead horse California style

Some elected officials must worry the since dropped idea may be resurrected. From AP-

The California Senate has voted to make it illegal to hold events that require participants to speak nglish in a move prompted by the LPGA Tour's English-only proposal.

The women's golf tour wanted last year to require its players to speak English so they could talk with each other and the media and give acceptance speeches in English.

The LPGA backed off the plan after Sen. Leland Yee and others criticized it as discriminatory.

Yee says the proposal insulted women, minorities and immigrants and might disqualify the best golfers.

The San Francisco Democrat's bill makes such policies illegal in California without a "business necessity." It was approved Thursday 21-14 without debate.

The measure now heads to the Assembly.

I think the CA legislature has weightier matters that need tending to, rather than vote on something that was dropped. Anyone over the west coast notice the state is near bankruptcy? On the other hand the LPGA spends less than a month in California every year.

The English policy which was broken by Beth Ann Baldry of Golfweek some summer, probably gained the LPGA more media attention than anything since Annika Sorenstam played at Colonial. I was in the hospital recovering from ope heart surgery when the firestorm broke.(My wife told me about it. She doesn't follow golf) I thought it was a wrongheaded idea that would cause trouble with sponsors(which it did), was challlengable in a court of law, and was only likely to damage the tour. I wrote a long post about it here, after I got discharged. None of my opinions have changed, and Carolyn Bivens or any other LPGA Commissioner would have to be insane to bring this policy up again

Will someone at ESPN please pick up the Red courtesy phone

Way to go the sports leader!

Sorry to pop your balloons up in Connecticut, but Michelle turned pro in 2005. She has played seven major championships as a professional. Wie has finished third in majors two times since 2005.

If you don't believe me, a quick glance at Wikipedia would tell you the truth. Not to mention that Wie is probably more press than any golfer than Tiger Woods in the last five years. You would hope a member of the media whose dedicated to sports would happen to know this player's history. If they don't, its a sad state of affairs up there.

As I've pointed out many times fact checking is optional when it comes to golf reporting. Just like it seems optional to ESPN to give the biggest golf tournament of 2009 so far its due.