VOICE ONE:
The most famous athlete in the United States is a young man namedTiger Woods. He has earned millions of dollars playing golf. I’mSteve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Shirley Griffith. The sport of golf is our report todayon the VOA Special English program This is America.
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VOICE ONE:
Experts say Tiger Woods may be one of the best American athletesever. He is only twenty-five years old. But he has been playing golfsince he was a very young child. His father began teaching him howto play when he was only two years old. Tiger Woods won manychampionships as a child. He became a professional golfer inNineteen-Ninety-Six.
The next year, Tiger Woods became the first African-Americangolfer to win the Masters Tournament. It is one of the mostimportant competitions in golf. Experts said it was one of the bestperformances in the history of professional golf.
VOICE TWO:
In Nineteen-Ninety-Nine, Tiger Woods became the first golfer inmore than twenty years to win eight professional golf competitionsin one year. Earlier this year, Tiger Woods again won the MastersGolf Tournament. The win set another record. It made Tiger Woods thefirst golfer to hold all four professional major golf championshipsat the same time. Last year, he won the United States Open, theBritish Open, and the Professional Golf Association Championship.
Golf experts say it is not just the fact that Tiger Woods has wonthe four major championships. It is how well he played when he wonthem.
Many sports experts believe Tiger Woods will only improve as agolfer. They say he has not yet played his best golf game. Duringhis five years as a professional golfer, Tiger Woods has earned morethan any other golfer in history. He has earned more thanfifteen-million dollars. He earns even more money doingadvertisements to help sell sports products. He has a five-yearagreement with the Nike company worth forty-million dollars.
VOICE ONE:
Tiger’s real name is Eldrick. His father, Earl Woods, is anAfrican American. His mother, Kultida Woods, is a native ofThailand.
Sports experts say Tiger Woods is mainly responsible for anincrease in the popularity of golf in the United States. They saymore people are playing and watching golf because of the young golfstar. And they say the game is becoming popular with new groups ofpeople. In the past, most of the people who played golf were olderwhite businessmen. Now the game is becoming popular with youngerpeople and with members of minority and ethnic groups.
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VOICE TWO:
Golf is an outdoor sport in which a player hits a small hard ballover a long distance. It is played on a large area of land called agolf course. The course is divided into eighteen areas, calledholes, of different lengths and difficulty. Players must hit theball into a small cup in the ground at the end of each of theeighteen holes.
An eighteen-hole golf course covers about sixty hectares. It isusually at least six-thousand meters from the beginning of the firsthole to the end of the eighteenth. The player who hits the ball thefewest number of times while playing the eighteen holes is thewinner.
Players hit the ball with one of several kinds of golf clubs. Theclubs are long thin sticks with different shapes at the end wherethe ball is hit. The kind of club used depends on the distance ofthe ball from the hole.
VOICE ONE:
More than twenty-five million Americans play golf. In recentyears, the number of female golfers has increased as has the numberof African American golfers. Men, women and children play golf as anindividual or team sport. Young people play golf in teams in highschool or college. People play for fun, to get fresh air andexercise.
Yet golf is not a sport for everyone. It requires a lot of skill.A golfer must have the power to be able to hit the ball a longdistance to get it to the smooth green area that surrounds eachhole. Then the golfer must be able to hit the ball carefully for ashort distance to get it into the hole. It takes a great deal oftime to play the complete eighteen holes. So sometimes people play ashorter game of only nine holes.
VOICE TWO:
Golf costs more money to play than many other sports. A playermust have a set of golf clubs and golf balls. And it costs a lot ofmoney to play on most golf courses. The United States has more thansixteen-thousand golf courses. About thirty percent are private.They are open only to people who pay a large amount of money everyyear to be members. About seventy percent of American golf coursesare open to the public. People can pay to play golf for a day.
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VOICE ONE:
Experts say that the modern game of golf began in Scotland. Thefirst organized golf group began in Seventeen-Forty-Four inEdinburgh. It established the first written rules of the game. Thepopularity of golf spread from Scotland and England to parts of theBritish Commonwealth, including India and Canada.
Experts say people may have played golf in the United States asearly as the Seventeen-Hundreds. In Eighteen-Ninety-Four, theAmateur Golf Association of the United States was established. Itserved as the governing body for golf in the United States. It isnow known as the United States Golf Association.
VOICE TWO:
In Nineteen-Sixteen, some American golfers formed theProfessional Golfers Association, or P-G-A. Professional golfersearn money from playing golf and winning competitions. The P-G-ATour includes forty-nine golf competitions each year in the UnitedStates, Scotland, Canada, Spain and Argentina. P-G-A Tour golferstravel for most of the year to play in many of these competitions.
VOICE ONE:
There also are two major golf competitions for women. One ofthem, the U-S Women’s Open was played last month in North Carolina.A young golfer competed in that event. Morgan Pressel is onlythirteen years old. She was the second youngest female golfer tocompete in the U-S Women’s Open. She has been playing golf for fouryears. Another woman in the golf tournament made news. She is BrendaKuehn. She played the tournament while eight months pregnant withher second child.
This year, the U-S Women’s Open awarded a record of almostthree-million dollars in prize money. Karrie Webb of Australia wonthe championship.
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VOICE TWO:
Another American professional golfer also made news last month.Casey Martin has a disorder of his circulatory system. It blocksblood flow to his right leg. The condition makes it painful anddangerous for him to walk long distances.
Casey Martin wants to compete in the P-G-A Tour competitions. Buthe is not able to walk about eight kilometers around a golf course.So he wants to ride in a golf cart designed for traveling on a golfcourse. The P-G-A Tour bans such vehicles in its tournaments. Itsays walking is an important part of the sport. And it says makingan exception for Casey Martin would change championship golf.
VOICE ONE:
Casey Martin brought legal action against the P-G-A Tour inNineteen-Ninety-Seven. He argued that a federal law that protectsthe rights of people with disabilities gives him the right to use agolf cart during championship events. The P-G-A Tour appealed thecase to the United States Supreme Court. Last month, the Court ruledin support of Casey Martin. It ruled that he has a legal right toride in a golf cart at P-G-A Tour championships.
The Supreme Court ruled that the federal disability law requiresthe P-G-A Tour to suspend its requirement that players walk thecourse during tournaments. The Court said that allowing Martin touse a golf cart would not change the tournaments.
VOICE TWO:
Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act inNineteen-Ninety. The law bans unfair treatment of people withdisabilities. It requires reasonable actions by businesses andpublic events to help disabled people unless such actions wouldseriously change the place or event.
One of Casey Martin’s lawyers said the decision means thatprofessional golf tournaments will be governed by the same rules asall other businesses. She called the ruling important to all peoplein sports because their disabilities will have to be considered.
Many other people praised the Supreme Court ruling. They hope itwill give disabled people in the United States the right to playgolf and all other sports.
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Shelley Gollust. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for anotherreport about life in the United States on the VOA Special Englishprogram This is America.