In Bee's response to Grand slam controversy

Great article! Thanks for posting it.

From what I've seen over the years, it seems like the Koreans are a bit more candid and less politically correct when they give interviews in Korea than when they do it over here. But those interviews don't get translated, so Americans aren't privy to those opinions.

Parsing the article, here are the major points.

1. Inbee is being criticized by a bunch of American press (especially the Golf Channel) who seem gung ho on denigrating her Grand Slam. I agree 100% that if it had been Paula Creamer who had done this, they would not be making such a big deal about this nitpicky point.

2. I agree with her point that she has a career Grand Slam (room for argument, of course!). For several reasons. First, the LPGA says so, which trumps the press opinions. Second, if you look at the list of players who have slams, every one of them has at least four. Now, some of them must have played at times in the LPGA history when there were three or even two Majors, yet we don't see anyone given credit for a Slam for winning the two Majors from those days. I think this indicates that what Slam really means is winning four different Majors. If you want to make meaningful historical comparisons, it's unfair to hold Inbee to a higher standard than the others.

Imagine Se Ri retired in 2013, and after a decade of trying to complete the Slam, she finally won the Nabisco that year. Nope, sorry, no Grand Slam for you, we have a new one now. Tough luck? No, that's totally lame! Se Ri would have one IMO.

3. I guess her legends-having-to-win-another-Major argument doesn't work because the way it works is, once you get the Slam, you have it even if the Majors change. But as my Se Ri example shows, it would be lame to penalize someone who has spent most of her career operating under one system if it suddenly changes. Since she was a little girl, Inbee dreamed of winning four Majors, and through no choice of her own, that's suddenly not enough? But it was for all those other golfers? Weak sauce.

4. The bit about the Americans being jealous is spot on, and I also agree that the Koreans would probably feel annoyed/threatened if the shoe were on the other foot.

5. The 'machine' comment. Oi vey. Machine/Robot has been used as shorthand to dehumanize the accomplishments of the Asians in much the same way as 'natural athlete' was used once upon a time to imply that African American athletes had an unfair advantage. They are most clearly not machines. They work hard and have to deal with far more flack from American press, fans and culture than entitled Trump-loving Crusty Kerr could even imagine. They learn a new language, adopt to new foods, and learn to interact with people very different than they are. And by and large do it joyfully, with a smile and with great class. Way to go, Inbee, for telling it like it is and flinging the robot comment back in Kerr's face. Quote of the year.

Why not?

It's American elite media that has decided that the US Women's Open is "the best" tournament in women's golf and that it is the must win for anyone to accomplish the Career Grand Slam. I don't get it. You don't see that in the men's game - all of the majors (with the exception of the PGA) has something about them that can make someone claim that it is "the best". Most will say The Masters is the "must win" tournament, even though it's the newest of the four.

Organizations like the Golf Channel want to forget the Evian exists because they can't imagine a scenario where TWO of the biggest tournaments in the world are outside of the US. They also see money equals prestige. Money is nice, but that's all it is - winning the Women's Open doesn't get you any closer to the Hall of Fame, nor does it get you a longer invitation to play on Tour than the Evian does. 

Inbee is 100% accurate on this - if it were an American, we wouldn't have this conversation. Hell, if it were Lydia Ko, it wouldn't be a conversation. They refuse to accept that Inbee is the best golfer of this era, so they do everything they can to diminish her accomplishments.

If it isn't white entitlement then it is black proclaimed righteousness. Asians always have to play by the rule and work 2x harder than others just to get ahead in the land of Murica.

There is however, an 'official' Golfchannel opinion on this, that this does not count as a Grand Slam. Several of the commentators on Morning Drive mentioned that. Which struck me as kind of weird, but whatever. I will agree that there are several who come down on Inbee's side, notably Charlie Rhymer and it seems Jerry Foltz (I saw a tweet to that effect from him).



It sounded to me like a little bit or irritation or even entitlement: she wants to be able to put in a token amount of effort and make a ton of money. Sorry, Cristie, that's not going to cut it anymore.

I do think that 'robot' (I read somewhere this was the actual word she used, then it was changed to the less offensive 'machine', but they are both bad) has unfortunate connotations, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for her to apologize.
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Yup! From 2046, the Wong Kar Wai movie.

If you remove my posts then you should remove everybody else posts, non golf related jpeg pictures. My words was not explicit. Stop being a racist and learn something for a change white boy.

'white boy'?  Isn't that a racist and condescending comment?  I don't know your background at all but some of your posts are very offensive and controversial.  I find that it is better to be cordial when posting on any kind of boards since you can't see their facial expressions or ascertain what kind tone they are using.  It is your prerogative to post whatever you want but other board members like me may feel a little uncomfortable.  This will be my last post regarding to this topic.