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Let me note two things before getting to the topic-
1- This is my first time to write on this controversial subject. On August 13th I had heart valve surgery and only came home from the hospital on August 29th. In addition I have suffered from numbness in one hand since being operated on. While I started blogging again earlier this week, I didn’t comment on the LPGA policy. Complicated and long posts are difficult for me to do at this time.
2- My wife is Asian, Leonita born in the Philippines. I’ve lived in the Philippines, and have visited Japan, South Korea, Macau, China(Hong Kong) and Singapore at some time in my life. You may want to weigh this when considering what I write below.
The policy reversal comes after a week of heated criticism from the media, elected officials, and tournament sponsors. From LPGA.com-
The LPGA has received valuable feedback from a variety of constituents regarding the recently announced penalties attached to our effective communications policy. We have decided to rescind those penalty provisions.
After hearing the concerns, we believe there are other ways to achieve our shared objective of supporting and enhancing the business opportunities for every Tour player. In that spirit, we will continue communicating with our diverse Tour players to develop a better alternative. The LPGA will announce a revised approach, absent playing penalties, by the end of 2008.
The policy the LPGA is revising was broken by Golfweek a little over a week ago.
PORTLAND, Ore. – For the past several years, the LPGA has impressed upon its membership the importance of communicating effectively in English. As the game’s dominance shifts to the East, the LPGA has strengthened its stance. Learning English no longer is a tour suggestion; it’s a requirement.
At a mandatory South Korean player meeting Aug. 20 at the Safeway Classic, the tour informed its largest international contingent that beginning in 2009, all players who have been on tour for two years must pass an oral evaluation of their English skills. Failure would result in a suspended membership.
When I first read this, I was deeply troubled. Did the LPGA Tour realize the PR and legal nightmare they were possibly stepping into? The moment a player was suspended, a discrimination lawsuit was likely to follow. One that even if the tour won, would be financially costly in addition to be destructive on a public relations level. Asia based companies are sponsors of LPGA tournaments, plus the tour gets large broadcast fees from South Korea and Japan. The LPGA seemed to be self-inflicting a wound on itself.
Also when Hall of Famer Se Ri Pak joined the LPGA, her English skills were very poor and she was shy to do interviews. If such a policy was in state in 1998, would the tour have been graced by one of its greatest players ever?
Pak’s English has improved greatly. As could be seen after her 2006 LPGA Championship win. Pak remains shy to some extent, but not because she has trouble communicating in English.
There are non-golf gestures by Asian players that have been appreciated by the public. Like when Mi Hyun Kim donated $100,000 US dollars to Kansas tornado victims in 2007.
Ron Sirak at Golf World wrote that the final straw as to non-English speaking players came when Eun Hi Ji did her winner’s acceptance speech at Rochester in June only through a translator. How true this was is open to conjecture.
Ji explained herself and took some blame in this article-
“At the time, I spoke Korean in the interview. I experienced pricks of conscience as I felt if the latest decision targets me. I’ll pay more attention to improving my English.”
There have been rumblings about the Asian players for some time. Dating back at least to Jan Stephenson’s magazine interview in 2003 where the Australian born golfer said Asians were ruining the US based tour. A golf writer Craig Dolch who I highly respect also seemed overwhelmed by the amount of Asian players qualifying for this year’s ADT Championship.(I’d supply a link, but Craig’s golf blog was taken down after he stopped working for the Palm Beach Post in August.) If the field was set today, over half the field will have been born in Asia(Mostly South Korea, but one player from Japan and Taiwan also) compared to only 4 native born Americans making the field. I haven’t scrutunized the list thoroughly, American born Jane Park and Brazilian born but naturalized US citizen Angela Park may be getting counted in these lists. Both players are of South Korean heritage.
Also note 2008 saw Asian born golfers win three of the LPGA’s four major championships. In fact all the majors were won by players whose first language isn’t English. Lorena Ochoa taking home the Nabisco in addition to Inbee Park winning at the US Open, Yani Tseng at the LPGA Championship, and Ji-Yai Shin at the British Open. This and the lack of success of US players has caused a lot of grumbling from the media and some fans.
Is it nationalism or thinly veiled racism? I’m both a fan of the LPGA, and been a credentialed member of the media who covers the tournaments. While doing the later, I’ve seen one or two members of the media mocking the English proficiency of some tour players. So honestly I think a little bit of racism is at play.
Back to the LPGA’s policy. As recently as Monday, LPGA Tour Commissioner Carolyn Bivens defended the new policy to both Golfweek and Golf World magazines. Saying players being fluent in English was needed as part of the Tour’s business model. Lisa Mickey explaining-
Sponsors and pro-am participants pay money for personal encounters with professionals on the golf course. For sponsors, golf tournaments are an advertising tool and a corporate entertainment tool. The LPGA’s Kraft Nabisco Championship, for example, is a well-established way for food and grocery vendors to network against the backdrop of a professional golf tournament alongside top women golf pros.
Plenty of corporate sponsors align themselves with the NBA and NFL, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they will go one-on-one with Kobe or run downfield for a bomb from Brett Favre. Golf is unique and personal and when people are spending money in this environment, they do it for the chance to spend five or so hours on a golf course with a real playing professional. At the end of the day, if that pro hasn’t been able to utter a single “Nice shot,” then the odds are pretty high that the amateur spending substantial dollars won’t be back next year. Too much of that hurts the tournament. Enough of that hurts the tour.
The LPGA certainly has embraced its global membership and its global membership has made it a much more interesting tour, but while professional golf may be fun and games to the public, it is still, at the end of the day, a business. And, as mentioned before, this business depends solely on the personal satisfaction of check writers based on their experiences with the pros. If the pros can’t communicate, the experience is not a valid return on investment for those individuals sponsoring events and playing in pro-ams. Pro-ams and sponsorships secure tournament purses. Without the purses, there are no tournaments. And without tournaments, there are no tours.
While I don’t agree with some of what Ms. Mickey writes, I still recomend you read all of her column.
Pro-Am day is arguably my favorite day to attend a tournament when I’m not covering one. Players are more laid back, and the atmosphere is more fun than serious in nature.
Players communicating with their playing partners is important, no doubt about it. These people are paying money to spend time with LPGA pros. But is English proficiency needed for it? Helping an amateur golfer with their swing, putting stroke, or other golf course techniques whether done verbally in English or non-verbally in English but by other means of communication would seem equally valuable.
I attended the 2005 ADT Pro-Am where West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel played with South Korea’s Soo Young Kang. Kang’s English ability is fair at best, but her playing partners enjoyed playing with ‘The Fashion Model of the Fairways’. So much so, Frankel came back to watch Kang play on Saturday and Sunday.
After the new policy was reported in the news, criticism was fast in coming. The New York Times, golf writers, newspaper columnists of both the generic and golf variety chiming in saying this was a bad idea or saying the policy was clumsily announced or both. The list is long, and I will give a brief sampling.
The New York Times-
Here is a thought-experiment for the executives at the Ladies Professional Golf Association. What would American sports look like if all the major sports associations required athletes prove that they are conversant in English? That is essentially what the L.P.G.A. has mandated with a new rule that will require all golfers who have been on tour for two years to pass a test of their spoken English, beginning in 2009.
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Women have been fighting against discrimination in golf for decades, as Augusta National Golf Club — home of the Masters Tournament and still lacking a single female member — shamefully demonstrates. For the L.P.G.A. to impose discriminatory rules on its own members is not only offensive, it’s self-destructive.
The LPGA blogger known as Hound Dog said-
My opinion? I am sad that America’s isolationist (or is it elitist?) tendencies have backed the LPGA into this corner. The Tour is stuck between its home society which insists that the other 90% of the world conform to its words and rules, and a remote one which delivers a large portion of its product and revenue. I am a little surprised that the Tour sided with the former in this case – what happened to “money talks”?
Randall Mell of the Sun-Sentinel wrote-
LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens makes it harder on herself, I think.
Her heart is often in the right place, in being a champion for her players, in fighting hard to get them a better position in the sports marketplace and a more secure future, but her tactics so often confuse, baffle and stream roll.
For a former newspaper executive, she doesn’t really seem to understand the value of PR, or communicating her goals effectively.
There’s no massage in her messages, which hit us too often like blindside hammers. That’s been a staple in her three-year reign. We get focused on the wrong things when clumsiness overwhelms direction. We get caught up debating her tactics so much that we fail to see the good that’s intended.
This new mandate to force foreign players to speak proficient English or face suspension from the tour is another example. It promises to mostly affect Koreans, with 45 of them on the LPGA Tour.
Really, it’s a good idea that Koreans become proficient at English. It’s good for them and the tour.
I agree with Randall that the way the policy was made public was very badly handled. Ryan at GNN agrees. I think the threat of suspensions was discriminatory, but felt the Asian players do need to learn better English. A well thought out plan by the LPGA to facilitate this would have been far wiser, and would have avoided the PR nightmare of the last ten days.
Some people did defend the policy, and I feel none were being racist in doing so. Christine Brennan at USA Today, like Lisa Mickey, defending Carolyn Bivens and the policy-
Lawyers weighed in. PGA Tour players, who rarely if ever give the LPGA the time of day, added their two cents. It can safely be said that nearly everyone was aghast.
If only all those people had taken a moment to think — had stepped away from their shot, to use a golf analogy — they might have decided to go after this news with their pitching wedge rather than a sledgehammer.
If they had done that, it would have been noted that the LPGA and the PGA Tour have almost nothing in common, except for the word golf. While the PGA Tour is swimming in cash, most LPGA events live and die by selling the opportunity to play with the pros in weekly pro-ams. It’s an experience unique to golf, akin to an NBA star having to play a basketball game every week with sponsors in different cities or a major league baseball player having to spend hours helping the owner learn the basics of playing shortstop.
This is not an idle exercise for an LPGA player. She is expected to interact, offer advice and tell stories with her foursome, which is filled with sponsors or their customers paying anywhere from $4,000 to $12,000 per person for the experience. If those sponsors can’t converse with the player (65% of LPGA events are in the USA), the tournament often hears about it. And if the tournament doesn’t do something about it, the sponsor might decide not to come back next year, especially in these tough economic times.
Overall reaction was negative. Lawyers saying the policy was discriminatory and even some legislators in California voicing their objections. Truthfully I think politicians who worry about sports have better things to do with their time.
#1 Player in the world, Lorena Ochoa, called the policy ‘drastic’.
The LPGA probably rethought this policy after protests from two prominent tour sponsors became public. Michael Bush at Adage reporting-
Saying it was “flabbergasted” by the Ladies Professional Golf Association’s new policy requiring “effective communication in English on the part of all of our Tour members,” State Farm is urging the group to reconsider — or the insurer may reconsider its sponsorship.
State Farm is both a general sponsor of the LPGA as well as the sponsor of the State Farm Classic Tournament.
“It’s something we are dumfounded by,” said Kip Diggs, media-relations specialist at the insurer, which is a general sponsor of the league as well as of the State Farm Classic Tournament in Springfield, Ill. “We don’t understand this and don’t know why they have done it, and we have strongly encouraged them to take another look at this.”
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Mr. Diggs, however, said State Farm was unaware that the LPGA was contemplating any such policy. While he would not disclose the value of State Farm’s LPGA sponsorship, which runs through next year, he said the policy was something that the company would take into consideration when deciding whether to continue its relationship with the league when its contract expires.
What Mr. Diggs said contradicts the claims from LPGA headquarters that sponsors were consulted before the new policy was made. State Farm is one of the tour’s biggest sponsors.
State Farm isn’t the only sponsor taking note. David Peikin, senior director-corporate communications at Choice Hotels International, said, “We have a great deal of interest in the intentions of the LPGA on this subject. Based on our understanding, this policy is currently under review by the LPGA, and a final decision and any related details will be determined over the next four months. Until that time, we will be closely monitoring LPGA news and announcements.”
It comes as no surprise that the LPGA reversed itself only a short time after these protests were made. The Tour can’t afford to antagonize sponsors they have now when the tour is in danger of losing tournaments, or lost ones already.
Ron Sirak wrote today-
Given that all the Europeans on tour speak English, as well as the handful of players from Latin America, the policy clearly was aimed at the Koreans. And to offend the Korean community was not only wrong, it was bad business. The tour’s single biggest revenue stream is Korean TV money. What is to be gained by offending that community?
The ultimate silliness about this entire situation is the small number of players it really affected. A well-placed source within the LPGA hierarchy said there were “perhaps a dozen” Korean players on tour who did not possess the English skills the LPGA desired. A caddie who works for a Korean player placed the number at “about five to seven.”
Then what the hell was this all about?
Lost in the entire issue has been one that strikes at the heart of the matter, and at the heart of women’s golf — if not at golf itself. The large contingent of Asian players — primarily Korean — on the LPGA Tour would be absorbed more easily if the Americans just played better. The language situation was not as much of an issue last year when Americans were winning.
In 2007, nine Americans won LPGA events, and, for the most part, they were the right nine: Morgan Pressel, Cristie Kerr, Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis, Brittany Lincicome, Stacy Prammanasudh, Meaghan Francella, Nicole Castrale and Sherri Steinhauer.
This year, the only Americans to win are Creamer (twice) and Leta Lindley. The majors were won by Lorena Ochoa (Mexico), Yani Tseng (Taiwan), Inbee Park (Korea) and Ji-Yai Shin (Korea). Of those four, only Shin struggles with English. It is no coincidence, I’m guessing, that this policy was imposed in a down year for American players.
Ouch and I thought I was critical of LPGA HQ. Sirak concludes by saying- “This was a black eye that could have been avoided. The LPGA was hit by a sucker punch — and it was the sucker.”
We’ll have to wait some time before knowing if the wrong headed policy will cause damage to the LPGA Tour. What has happened in the last ten days reinforces what I been loudly saying for over two years. Commissioner Carolyn Bivens has to go before she ruins the LPGA Tour. That said, it is time to rest those three numb fingers of mine.
In only a few days two women’s professional golf tournaments in the USA have bit the dust. First, The Fields Open.
The Fields Corporation, title sponsor of the Fields Open in Hawaii, has announced it will not renew its title sponsorship for the LPGA tournament for 2009, leaving an early-season hole on the tour’s schedule for next year.
Fields officials said the Japanese entertainment company will concentrate its future marketing efforts primarily in Japan.
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“I hate to see our tournaments go,†veteran player Juli Inkster told Golfweek. “What’s going on with the economy, it’s tough. We’re just going to have to fight through it.â€
Inkster, a member of the LPGA Player Executive Committee, said although the tour is worldwide, it’s still primarily American-based and needs more strong events in this country.
“I think our No. 1 objective is to get more U.S. tournaments (with) full fields,†Inkster said.
Ryan at GNN writes- “That seems to fly in the face of international expansion of the LPGA Tour.” That’s true, the LPGA appears to be pay little attention to shoring up its US based schedule. I have no problems with the LPGA playing events around the world, but understand where those tour players are coming from, when they say the increasing amount field of limited events isn’t necessarily a good thing.
If one plumetting sandbag aimed at Carolyn Bivens head wasn’t enough, then this news broke on Friday.
The organizers of the LPGA’s Ginn Tribute hosted by Annika Sorenstam announced Friday they couldn’t obtain the sponsorships needed to keep the tournament through 2010.
Ginn Companies chairman Bobby Ginn blamed a faltering economy and less corporate funds for the demise of the tournament at RiverTowne Country Club.
“The golf tournament business is primarily fueled by economic support,” Ginn said in a statement. “We did everything in our power to generate the sponsorship necessary to continue with the Ginn Tribute, but given the current market and corresponding cuts in corporate spending, it was an uphill battle.”
The Ginn Tribute’s demise was written about in this post almost two weeks ago. There were even rumors that Ginn tried to pull out of the 2008 event. I wonder how Seon Hwa Lee feels at this moment. Her first three tour victories coming in tournaments that went belly up immediately afterwards.
One of those wins was the Shoprite Classic. Let me remind my readers, why that tournament is not on the LPGA schedule anymore.
There is more turbulence on the LPGA Tour between its administration and tournament sponsors. This week’s dilemma: Will a new sponsor with deep pockets double its presence on the tour? Will the rookie commissioner turn her back on an event that has been loyal to women’s golf for 21 years and give its spot on the schedule to the rich new kid on the block? And will the spurned event strike back by taking legal action against the LPGA, further complicating what has already been an awkward transition in leadership? The answers, mostly, are “yes.”
According to sources familiar with the situation, the LPGA will announce next week a new event in South Carolina and sponsored by Ginn Clubs & Resorts, which debuted as a sponsor this year with a $2.5 million stop in Orlando. That’s the good news. The problem is the date discussed with the new tournament is the week before the McDonald’s LPGA Championship–a spot currently occupied by the ShopRite LPGA Classic, won this year by Seon Hwa Lee. Larry Harrison, general chairman of the Atlantic City event since its inception in 1986, says he’ll sue if his date is given away.
No lawsuit was filed. Carolyn Bivens gave the Ginn Tribute the Shoprite’s dates on the LPGA tournament schedule, and not long afterward that particular sponsor ended its association with the LPGA.
Now the Ginn Tribute is dead in addition to the Shoprite. I was highly critical of this maneuver by Bivens when it took place.
This is suicidal for a tour with money problems, decaying tournament scheduling and sponsor retention problems.
I don’t hit the bullseye too often but was I ever right about the Shoprite fiasco.
With the Ginn Tribute gone plus the Shoprite, LPGA players would be more than justified to begin calling for Carolyn Bivens head because of the outright managerial incompetence she has more than shown herself able to do. What I said two years ago, still applies today.
Carolyn Bivens has to go or the LPGA is sunk.
Further posts about Ms. Bivens blunders can be read here and here.
Commissioner Bivens looks more than ever like the fool considering she sacrificed the Atlantic City LPGA tour stop by giving their dates on the schedule to the Ginn Tribute. From Golf World-
EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France — The Ginn Tribute which, along with the Ginn Open, has a $2.6 million purse, the richest of any U.S.-based LPGA event except the U.S. Women’s Open, will not return in 2009, multiple sources told Golf World. While neither the LPGA nor Ginn would confirm the demise of the Tribute, which is played at RiverTowne CC near Charleston, S.C., neither expressed optimism about its future.
“The [Ginn sur Mer] Classic [on the PGA Tour], the [Ginn] Championship [on the Champions Tour] and the Ginn Open are happening this year and next,” said Ginn spokesman Ryan Julison. “After we get past the Ginn Open we don’t know what the future holds.”
The Ginn Open is played in April and the Ginn Tribute comes after it, in May. Sources involved in broadcasting, tournament ownership and the LPGA said Ginn has pulled the plug on the Charleston event. The uncertainty expressed about the future after the Ginn Open also raises questions about the existence of all the Ginn tournaments after 2009.
“We have all those tournaments and no sponsors and in this economy it’s like a perfect storm,” Julison said. Ginn, which does its business in real estate, the hardest-hit sector in the downturn of the American economy, is said by insiders familiar with the cost of running tournaments to be on the hook for $25 million annually for the four events, one of the most ambitious investments by any company in tournament sponsorship. Late last summer, Robert Gidel, an expert operations man, was brought by investors to run the day-to-day business of the Ginn Company with Bobby Ginn remaining chairman and CEO.
“If I had to handicap the situation right now I would say that it is less than 50-50 that the Ginn Tribute will happen in 2009,” LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens told Golf World at the Evian Masters. “That said, we will have a tournament to replace it.”
Ginn has contractual obligations both to the LPGA and to NBC, which broadcasts the Ginn Tribute, for two more years. “We’re having ongoing conversations with the Ginn organization and we hope to work things out amicably,” Bivens said. “We also hope our broadcast partners, in this case NBC, are respected.”
Annika Sorenstam, who runs her Annika Golf Academy out of the Ginn Reunion Resort near Orlando, where the Ginn Open is played, hosts the Ginn Tribute. One possibility is the Ginn Open would become the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika. Sorenstam said she was unaware of the future of the Ginn Tribute.
The news is unconfirmed, and Sirak has serious limitations as a LPGA commentator, but he is usually dead on target when reporting straight news. Like his reporting a new LPGA tour stop in China months before it was officially announced.
There were rumors in April that Ginn tried to buy their way out of the 2008 event. I’m betting the rumors were true.
Update- Just thought of this. Seon Hwa Lee won the last Shoprite in 2006 and in 2008 she also won what appears to be the last Ginn, the tournament that replaced the Shoprite. Seon Hwa is quite a tournament wrecker, the HSBC Matchplay is also defunct. Will the NW Arkansas tournament be around in 2009?
The same thing used to be said about Lou Graham over 30 years ago. His first two wins on the PGA Tour were defunct already when Lou took home the 1975 US Open.
Golf World magazine has come out with their top 25 list.
1- Tiger Woods. No argument there.
2- Phil Mickelson. I’ve always felt GW’s editors have a secret homosexual crush on Phil. No other reason could account for all the covers he gets even when he wasn’t the biggest golf story of the week. Karrie Webb wins a major, Phil is on the cover. Geoff Ogilvy wins the US Open but Phil is again the subject of GW’s cover.
Mickelson is an excellent choice, but I’d rank a few other golf stories ahead of him.
3- The 72nd hole at Winged Foot. No argument.
4- Fedex Cup I’m no fan of this gimmick but yes its newsworthy.
5- LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens
Excellent choice but not necessarily top 5 material. I strongly disagree with GW’s assertion that she performed better as the year progressed. Bivens’ blunders were spread out the length of 2006. This being the most recent example.
6- Euphoric Euros
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7- Damned Yanks
The Ryder Cup gets no argument from me other than I would have made it one newsmaker not two.
8- Michelle Wie
The sad derailment and exploitation of this young lady is definitely newsworthy.
9- Underwhelming Teens.
Here’s where GW starts to lose it. The story of the LPGA’s youth movement was one of the most overdone golf stories of the last few years. It was hyped so much that a let down had to be expected.
An instantly iconic photo from 2005 had 5-foot-5 Morgan Pressel alongside Michelle Wie, who towered seven inches above her. Their eyes were locked and their expressions indicated an exchange of chummy text messages was not likely. Pressel, 17 months older than Wie and possessing a 3-and-2 victory over the Hawaiian in the third round of the 2003 U.S. Girls’ Junior as well as the title from the 2005 U.S. Women’s Amateur, an event Wie skipped, openly resents that her taller adversary gets more attention. Throw in the stunning rookie year Paula Creamer had in 2005 — two LPGA victories and four total — and the anticipation for the three-teen rivalry made the 2006 season the tour’s most eagerly awaited in recent memory.
Reality, however, never matched the hype. While the talented teens (Creamer turned 20 in August) had what most their age would consider successful seasons, none won or even went head-to-head with a tournament on the line. Throw in Natalie Gulbis, 23, whose winless streak in LPGA events ran to 132 in 2006, and the tour clearly failed to deliver the young American star power needed to capture fans. The reality is that a sensational year by Lorena Ochoa and a stirring comeback season by Karrie Webb could not compensate for the fact the top two rookies on tour were Seon-Hwa Lee and Julieta Granada, 20-year-old international 
players who entered the season without the accolades afforded Pressel or Japanese star Ai Miyazato.
1- These same golf writing hacks who hyped Wie, Pressel and Miyazato are still blind to Seon Hwa Lee. Lee didn’t come out of nowhere, she finished first on the the Futures Tour money list in 2005. Its what I call a case of having golf blinders on.
2- Natalie Gulbis is an example of golf writers being driven by their male egos rather than the facts. Ms. Gulbis is a talented golfer, and certainly not the 2000′s version of Jill McGill, but she will never be one of the tour’s top 5 players. Top 10 maybe, but with Annika Sorenstam, Se Ri Pak, Karrie Webb, Paula Creamer, Michelle Wie when she gets her game back together, Christie Kerr to beat, I never see Gulbis as a top 5. That doesn’t even include other South Korean stalwarts like Jeong Jang, Hee Won Han, Mi Hyun Kim and Grace Park if she returns from her back and injury woes. Jang, Han and Grace will always outshine Ms. Gulbis when all of them, Ms. Gulbis included, are playing their best. As for Kim, aka Peanut vs Gulbis, I think her win at the Jamie Farr over Gulbis in a playoff says all that needs being said.
The Golf MSM mistakes physical attractiveness for golfing ability. That’s actually one of the least of its many problems.
c- GW said about Creamer-
“Creamer played solidly, never missing a cut, but may still be adjusting to tour life. She has more than a half dozen endorsement deals — all of which require time commitments — and played three non-LPGA events in Japan, where her Pink Panther persona is enormously popular. Cashing in on her impressive rookie season in 2005 may have created time and travel demands off the course that (coupled with a lingering wrist injury) impacted her performance. The drop-off, however, was not enough to be a concern.”
I think Paula will be better but she needs to take control of her schedule. Travelling halfway around the world to play golf can lead to burnout. Look what happened to Bill Rogers. This isn’t adjusting to tour life as GW says but managing one’s career instead of letting others do it for you.
10- The Bomb n Gouge Squad. Huh? Bubba Watson, J.B. Holmes and Camilo Villegas were all golf stories for a week or two each early in the year. Top 25 newsmaker maybe, but certainly not a top 10.
The rest of GW’s top 25 with a little added commentary.
11- Camilo Villegas. See my #10 comments. Why does this player rank two listings?
12- Defense mechanisms- Overrated
13- Lorena Ochoa- She should be in the top 5 newsmakers for 2006.
14- The new TV pact. Good pick.
15- Nick Faldo. I don’t understand this pick either. Faldo’s playing days are over and he only makes the news through his work as a broadcaster.
As for his selection to be Ryder Cup Captain, that doesn’t pass the muster for a top 25 pick.
16- Byron Nelson. His passing away should have ranked much higher.
17- Dearly departed aka the passing away of Heather Clarke, Earl Woods and Norma DiMarco. An iffy choice for the top 25.
18- John Daly. So what? Daly had a horrendous year on tour, so did about 200-300 other professional golfers. Again a very overrated story.
19- Geoff Ogilvy. His win in the US Open should rank higher than this.
Of the rest of GW’s top 25, only #23 Drug testing, #22 Super Seniors, and maybe #25 China’s growing presence, should be listed among golf’s missing newsmakers.
What dope was GW smoking when they missed these stories?
* The return of Karrie Webb, in particular her win at the Kraft Nabisco
* The return of Se Ri Pak from oblivion with her win at the LPGA Championship. Also the back 9 of that tournament on Sunday may have been the most dramatic of any tournament all year. With Pak, Karrie Webb, Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa, Michelle Wie, Pat Hurst, Mi Hyun Kim, Ai Miyazato and a few others all having legitimate chances to win the event.
* The passing away of LPGA great Patty Berg
* Arnold Palmer retiring from competitive golf.
* The recordbook rounds of Loren Roberts at the Senior Open and Corey Pavin at the US Bank in Milwaukee.
* The off year had by Annika Sorenstam. Plus her trouble with both ignoring and or breaking of LPGA rules a and therules of golf.
* The off year had by Vijay Singh.
Omitting Webb, Pak, Sorenstam and Palmer just shows you how dumb this golf publication is. Then it shouldn’t have surprised me, GW passed up Webb and Pak for the magazine’s cover the week after their victories. Annika missing the cut one week was noteworthy enough to make the magazine’s cover. Enough said, right?
My choices
1- Tiger
2- The 72nd hole of the US Open
3- Lorena Ochoa
4- Phil Mickelson
5- Carolyn Bivens
6- Fedex Cup
7- Michelle Wie
8- The 2006 Ryder Cup
9- Byron Nelson RIP
10- The return of Karrie Webb
11- Arnold Palmer retires
12- Drug testing
13- The return of Se Ri Pak and the dramatic 2006 LPGA Championship
14- The struggles and rule breaking of Annika Sorenstam
15- Geoff Ogilvy win at the US Open and the the Aussies big year on the PGA Tour
16- The new television deal
17- Patty Berg RIP
18- Record rounds by Corey Pavin and Loren Roberts
19- Where is Vijay?
20- Super Seniors
21- The overrating of youth on the LPGA tour
22- Giving new meaning to the term ‘golf hazard’
23- Dearly departed
24- The growth of golf in China
25- Can anyone in golf do 5th grade math?
From Golf World-
The ShopRite Classic, a fixture on the LPGA schedule for 21 years, has ended its ties with the tour in a dispute over when the tournament would be played. In a strongly worded statement released Wednesday that never mentioned LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens by name, tournament chairman Larry Harrison accused the tour of ignoring a commitment ShopRite Classic organizers say they had from previous tour leadership guaranteeing its date through 2008. The decision apparently ends an event that was one of the most popular among players because of its proximity to the Jersey Shore and the casinos of Atlantic City.
The standoff turned nasty in July when the tour slotted a new tournament in South Carolina — the Ginn Tribute — for June 1-3, one week before the McDonald’s LPGA Championship for 2007. Harrison says that week was promised to him. The tour disputes that claim and offered several other dates, none of which were acceptable to the ShopRite organizers. Last month, the LPGA discussed the 2007 schedule at a players’ meeting at the Long Drugs Challenge. On that draft schedule was an event listed only as “Atlantic City” slated for Labor Day weekend.
“In effect, there has been no true negotiation with the Tour, and no direct communication with the Tour commissioner or her staff throughout this process,” Harrison said in his statement. “Rather, the tour, through its outside legal counsel, has simply offered a few undesirable and/or unworkable dates, of which only one was even remotely acceptable.”
In a tersely worded statement Wednesday night, the LPGA challenged the accuracy of Harrison’s version of events and hinted at legal action. “Harrison’s statement is full of falsehoods and incorrect accounts,” the LPGA statement said. “We’ve directed our legal counsel to contact Mr. Harrison’s attorney and have him rescind the statement.”
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“We went up against the men’s Open once before and it was a total disaster,” he said. “No gallery, no press.” July 4th weekend on the Jersey shore would be impossible because of the lack of reasonable hotel room rates for the players and the lack of availability of casinos for the two parties during the event. “And what kind of field would I get if we were between stops in California and Mexico?” Harrison asked.
The ShopRite Clasic is the second LPGA event to break its ties with the tour in a dispute over scheduling dates. The Wendy’s Championship for Children near Columbus, Ohio, an event since 1999, pulled out when its late-August date was given to the Safeway Classic in Portland, Ore. The tour has also lost stops in Atlanta and Las Vegas this year, while adding the South Carolina event as well as stops in Alabama, Arkansas and Thailand.
“Putting together a schedule is like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube, when you think you have one side solved you turn it over and see that another piece is out of place,” LPGA chief operating officer Chris Higgs told Golf World when Wendy’s left the tour. “We have to consider what’s best for the tour overall and those decisions are not always going to make everyone happy. We don’t want to lose events, but we do need a certain level of cooperation.”
This is an utter fiasco but I wasn’t surprised by this news. It is just the latest in a long series of incidents involving tournament sponsors and LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens since she took over running the tour in 2005. The LPGA players need to see to Ms Bivens firing and soon. If not, there may not be a US Ladies pro golf tour in 5 or 10 years.
See Previously-
17-year old Kiran Matharu denied trip to LPGA Qualifying School
LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens has to go
LPGA + McDonald’s + The Golf Channel= A ‘Major’ Disaster
From cybergolf.com
Carolyn Bivens, the new commissioner of the LPGA Tour, continues to generate controversy. Her most recent questionable action came when she denied a request by 17-year-old Kiran Matharu to attend the LPGA’s Q School, which starts on the 19th.
In her letter of denial, sent to Matharu via email on September 9th, Bivens wrote: “I do not believe your record in professional golf competitions demonstrates you can compete at the highest level of women’s professional golf at this time . . . I recommend you apply to qualify for the Duramed Futures Tour, ‘The Official Developmental Tour of the LPGA.’ “
 Of all the Q School applicants this year, Matharu might actually be among the most qualified, and perhaps as importantly, the one with the most world-wide potential. She’s the reigning Ladies English Amateur champion, was a member of Great Britain and Ireland’s Curtis Cup team that competed last month at Bandon Dunes, and placed 15th in her first professional event. In addition, the young Englishwoman is a two-time Faldo Series Girls champion.
Yorkshire-born Matharu started golf at the age of 11 and has been an outstanding player ever since. She’s the only British Asian female golfer, has an engaging personality and been named twice as Leeds Sports Performer of the Year – in 2003 and 2004. Earlier this year she was named “Female Junior Sports Personality of the Year†at the Sony Entertainment Television Sports Personality of the Year awards for British Asians.
Of Matharu’s future, Nick Faldo said, “I’ve worked with Kiran for nearly three years now and in that time she has certainly proved that she has the potential to succeed on the big stage. Kiran combines a great game with a steady nerve and I’m confident that, with a little more experience, she will be in a position to challenge for the very highest honors that the ladies game has to offer.â€
After the Curtis Cup, Matharu turned professional with a plus-4 handicap, the lowest of any female golfer in the UK. She made the cut and finished 15th in The Wales Ladies Championship, her first professional tournament.
I don’t know what else Ms. Matharu has to prove that she is ready to play professionally. What is the difference between Matharu and Morgan Pressel who one year ago at age 17 applied to qualify for the tour? Both players were reigning amateur champs. That’s the argument a lawyer should make if Matharu were to legally challenge Bivens decision. The LPGA would have a tough and costly time defending it. To me Commissioner Bivens decision is both arbitrary and wrong.
Then Bivens has been making a series of blunders over the last few months.
Biven’s had a rocky time during her brief commissionership, which began a year ago this month. Here’s a list of some of her more controversial moves:
Requiring tournaments to pay for the electronic scoreboards that dot courses (currently, the Tour splits those costs – about $30,000 each – with the sites);
Dropping the popular LPGA-ShopRite Classic on the Jersey Shore for a more lucrative event (the ShopRite has generated $12 million in charitable donations, with more than $1.8 million going to charity last year – the highest of any LPGA event);
Creating chilly relations with many of the media that cover the LPGA, including Dottie Pepper, an early supporter;
Imposing a sanction fee of $500,000 on new tournaments that want to be added to the LPGA’s schedule;
Threatening to drop existing tournament sponsors, including McDonalds, a generous LPGA backer for 26 years, the last 13 as sponsor of the LPGA Championship, the Tour’s flagship event.
Even the LPGA’s unquestioned star player, Annika Sorenstam, has expressed dissatisfaction with the way the Tour’s new leader has performed. “I am quite concerned about some of the decisions and changes I have seen lately,†commented the usually stoic Swede. “I just wonder where we are headed.”
I’m with Annika. The above decisions by Bivens and some others show her complete incompetence at running a ladies’ professional golf tour. The LPGA needs to dump Bivens before she runs the tour into the ground.
The LPGA Commissioner is well on the way to destroying the tour she was appointed to run. Here is the latest news.
CHARLESTON, S.C. – A $2.6 million LPGA event will be staged here next year, a week following the Senior PGA Championship at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course.
The event, the Ginn Tribute hosted by Annika Sorenstam, will be held May 31-June 3 at the RiverTowne Country Club in nearby Mount Pleasant.
“It’s exciting news. It’s a great event coming up on our schedule,” Sorenstam told The (Charleston) Post and Courier. “We’ll try to attract the best players and really make it a special event.”
The purse for the tournament, which will be televised by NBC, is one of the richest payoffs of any LPGA event.
Isn’t this wonderful news? A new tournament with a big purse? Not if you read this.
New dates may have the ShopRite Classic and LPGA heading to court
By Ron Sirak
Golf World July 14, 2006
There is more turbulence on the LPGA Tour between its administration and tournament sponsors. This week’s dilemma: Will a new sponsor with deep pockets double its presence on the tour? Will the rookie commissioner turn her back on an event that has been loyal to women’s golf for 21 years and give its spot on the schedule to the rich new kid on the block? And will the spurned event strike back by taking legal action against the LPGA, further complicating what has already been an awkward transition in leadership? The answers, mostly, are “yes.”
According to sources familiar with the situation, the LPGA will announce next week a new event in South Carolina and sponsored by Ginn Clubs & Resorts, which debuted as a sponsor this year with a $2.5 million stop in Orlando. That’s the good news. The problem is the date discussed with the new tournament is the week before the McDonald’s LPGA Championship–a spot currently occupied by the ShopRite LPGA Classic, won this year by Seon Hwa Lee (pictured). Larry Harrison, general chairman of the Atlantic City event since its inception in 1986, says he’ll sue if his date is given away.
“We have a letter from the previous administration guaranteeing us that date in ’07 and ’08,” Harrison told Golf World. “Our lawyers think we have a very strong position. We told [the LPGA] if they announce this date we will pursue legal action.”
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Harrison says he was supposed to meet with LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens last week in Philadelphia, but she was unable to attend because of airline problems. The tour’s chief legal officer, Libba Galloway, and its VP for business affairs, Mike Nichols, did make the meeting. Asked how the get-together went, Harrison said: “Not very well.” Bivens also missed the HSBC Women’s World Match Play last week which, like the ShopRite, is held in New Jersey.
According to Harrison, the ShopRite has given $12 million to charity since 1986–$1.8 million last year–and was offered three alternative dates by the LPGA: The week opposite the men’s U.S. Open; the week of July 4th; and the week between tournaments in California and Mexico. None of those dates are acceptable to Harrison.
“We went up against the men’s Open once before and it was a total disaster,” he said. “No gallery, no press.” July 4th weekend on the Jersey shore would be impossible because of the lack of reasonable hotel room rates for the players or casinos for the two parties during the event. “And what kind of field would I get if we were between stops in California and Mexico?” Harrison asked.
So the LPGA has antagonized a long-time sponsor, gotten themselves in a potential lawsuit they can very well lose and probably scared other tournament sponsors. And what for? Bivens seems to be sending a message you’re only as good as your last tournament. This is suicidal for a tour with money problems, decaying tournament scheduling and sponsor retention problems.
Then throw in the media credentials debacle from last spring, staff turnover and dissent at the LPGA HQ, and the LPGA Championship television rights controversy, little good news is coming out of Daytona Beach and several disasters are looming.
Michelle Wie could do wonders for the tour once she becomes a member. But will there be an LPGA for Michelle to star on? The message is clear, Carolyn Bivens has to go or the LPGA is sunk.
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