There's an ugly divide building in the LPGA between the South Korean players and pretty much everybody else. Derided as emotionless, robotic golfing machines devoid of personality -- or, dare I say, a soul? -- the South Koreans, like Song-Hee Kim there at right, have become the de facto whipping girls for the LPGA, and the unspoken but obvious impetus for the LPGA's "Speak English or Die" policy that made so many headlines a couple of months back.

Well, the New York Times' Karen Crouse recently spent some time getting to know a few of the South Korean players, and guess what? Turns out they're not such robots after all:

Walking the fairways of the L.P.G.A. Tour for two weeks, one finds that the South Korean players are an eclectic and varied lot who love their parents, Facebook and pumpkin pie. They are crazy about purses, texting and practicing, and manage to balance a lot of complex relationships, including their often confused feelings about golf.

Crouse notes that the ham-handed manner in which the LPGA implemented the rule not only left no doubt about its intended target, but also served to completely obliterate any legitimate point the LPGA was trying to make:

Although language has become a primary talking point on the tour, the cultural gap may be wider than any English-speaking policy can bridge. [LPGA Commissioner Carolyn] Bivens has since strained relations more by indicating that her plan was also meant to help the South Korean players shake their omnipresent fathers. By singling out the South Koreans, Bivens has reduced them to one-dimensional stock characters, which is like reading no break in a putt on a contoured green.

These aren't the times for the LPGA to be screwing around with either its fanbase or its players. With sponsors departing at a significant clip and the economy withering on the vine, the LPGA and its fans need to stop demonizing one particular group and start focusing on some more pressing problems, like how to maintain viability in an economic apocalypse.

But man, that's hard. Can't we just find somebody else to make fun of and blame for all of our problems? It'd make us all feel better.