As if golf didn't have enough rules already. Now, we've got to speak English to play it?

The LPGA, which already has a history of goofy rules and PR gaffes, has done it again by adopting a policy that will suspend any of its tour members (wink, wink, read South Koreans) if they don't speak English.

Suddenly, body English isn't just for coaxing in a putt. Now, you've got to mouth it. You can't just walk the walk and talk the talk. The talk's gotta be in English. So much for action speaking louder than words.

The requirement will go into effect immediately. But LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens said that players on the tour for two years will have until the end of 2009 to pass an oral evaluation of their English skills or face suspension. Foreign players must be able to conduct interviews and give acceptance speeches without the help of a translator.

Se Ri Pak, who pioneered the South Korean breakthrough in the LPGA, agrees that players should give a victory speech or post-round interviews in English. But she thought they should be fined, not suspended, if they don't comply.

Admittedly, it can be frustrating for reporters to have to rely on translators to convey what the players said.

I remember when Isao Aoki won the 1983 United Airlines Hawaiian Open. Aoki understood English and could speak it passably. But he didn't feel comfortable expressing himself in English. When he was asked a question, he answered in his native Japanese nonstop for about a minute or two, laughing and kidding with the translator as he went on.

The interpreter was asked, "What'd he say?"

"He said, 'OK,' " the interpreter replied, leaving everyone to wonder what was lost in translation.

Having a translator is still the best way to go about it until a foreign player can feel comfortable answering questions in adequate English without embarrassment.

Meena Lee and Seon Hwa Lee did so with some interpretative help to the satisfaction of the media after their playoff in the 2006 Fields Open in Hawai'i at Ko Olina.

Clearly, the LPGA took a cheap cop-out in this situation. It enacted an arguably racist policy instead of hiring a full-time Korean translator when more than one-third of the 121 international players on the tour are South Koreans.

Another reason the LPGA instituted the English-only policy is that sponsors and guests, who pay thousands of dollars to play in pro-am events, can't relate or interact with players who don't speak English.

Perhaps it's true for events nationally, but the LPGA is losing sight of the fact that it is trying to find a wider world market, especially in the Far East. It's one of the reasons it launched the inaugural LPGA Kapalua Classic, an October stopover en route to tournaments in South Korea and Japan and then Mexico on the way back. Sponsors and guests of those events will be playing in pro-ams with Americans who can't speak their language.

So we asked Matt Hall, Turtle Bay's director of golf, about his thoughts. His resort hosts the season-opening SBS Open, an event sponsored by Seoul Broadcasting System, from South Korea.

Hall could only laugh at first when asked about the LPGA's new English requirement. Then he quickly added, "The LPGA should be glad that they don't have a players union . . . To suspend a player is a little extreme."

Hall said SBS Open dignitaries and their pro-am guests, mostly from South Korea, prefer playing, despite the language barrier, with a Lorena Ochoa, a Morgan Pressel, a Paula Creamer or other English-speaking stars before they start selecting top Korean players.

So what do we have here? A xenophobic policy because of the huge success of the South Koreans, clearly the targeted group, on the LPGA Tour. The LPGA's version of the Monroe Doctrine is making it a strictly North American tour and sending a wrong message to the rest of the world.

Instead of striving to be a tour featuring the world's best women golfers, the LPGA has issued an ultimatum to players less skilled in English, which has nothing to do with golfing ability.

Who knows if Se Ri Pak would have gone on to a Hall of Fame career had she been subjected to this policy 10 years ago when she struggled with her English in her interviews after winning two majors her rookie season? Now conversant in English, Pak perhaps can be a role model in another way.

It's in the best interest of her countrywomen to learn the language of the land in which they're playing. They will in time, although two years might be rushing it. But they shouldn't be put under the gun to do so and definitely shouldn't be deprived of their livelihood.

"I understand the direction Bivens wants to take the tour," Hall said, "but the tack, the method, in which she's using to get there I don't necessarily think is the most agreeable."

Tact, not tack, might a better word. This issue could have been handled with more sensitivity for a person's culture, nationality and language.

Bill Kwon can be reached at billkwonrhs@aol.com.