Boxall's bizarre orientation of culture flies in Tour's face
THE world is full of foreigners!
A lot of them are Asian.
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, doesn't matter ... they appear to look the same to Sky TV golf commentator Richard Boxall.
The Englishman made the following observation about Anthony Kim, an American of Korean descent, during Saturday's broadcast of the HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
"With all these Chinese people around, I'm not sure if I bumped into him (Kim) in the hotel reception last night," said Boxall. "I'm not sure it was him."
Of course, no offence was intended. Even if he usually trips over any foreign name of more than two syllables, Boxall is a likeable, harmless soul.
Yet he and his English colleagues on Sky's European Tour commentary team sometimes forget the audience extends far beyond the snug at their local pub back home. There are people of all creeds and colours now watching the game - in every part of the world.
Not long after Boxall's Fawlty Towers-style faux-pas, Bruce Critchley swept in like 'The Major', telling us that Kim wore an expression of "oriental surprise" after one approach flew way over the pin. Do orientals really register surprise in a way so different to the rest of us?
Cultural and linguistic divisions exist throughout the European game. A couple of weeks back at Valderrama, Colin Montgomerie was told that several of his Tour colleagues viewed Miguel Angel Jimenez as a good choice for next Ryder Cup captain.
"How many of them are English-speaking?" the Scotsman retorted, insisting that Sandy Lyle, with the assistance of Ian Woosnam and Sam Torrance, would skipper the European team in two years' time.
In fairness, Justin Rose was among those who expressed enthusiasm for Jimenez as captain, adding with a chuckle, he'd also do well as team cook! For the record, the Spaniard is determined to play in the matches at Celtic Manor.
Incidentally, even Boxall would've had little difficulty recognising US Ryder Cup star Kim in the crowd at the 11th tee on Sunday, given the player's blushes as he was disqualified for using a non-conforming club.
Kim knocked his driver out of kilter when he tapped it off a sprinkler head on his way down the seventh hole.
After a triple-bogey eight at eight, Kim completed the front nine in eight-over 44 and was then disqualified when he reported the incident to a referee after playing 10 holes in par.
- Karl MacGinty
