Carolyn Vesper Bivens has been at the helm of the LPGA Tour for less than one year, and I am hopeful that she won’t last long enough to blow out the candles on a second anniversary cake.
Bivens’ task was perhaps one of the easiest facing any sports commissioner to date: sell the LPGA Tour to the sponsors, the media, and the fans. She’s failed miserably on all accounts.
Her failure comes at a time when the LPGA Tour might not be easier to sell. Annika Sorenstam still dominates, but youthful, energetic, and attractive gals named Paula Creamer, Lorena Ochoa, Morgan Pressel, Michelle Wie, Cristie Kerr, Natalie Gulbis, and Christina Kim have suddenly come about. Se Ri Pak and Karrie Webb have even returned to form this year, taking the first two majors of the year.
Yet Bivens has done nothing to capitalize. Actually, that’s not quite true: she’s done plenty, but little of it has been good. Seven of the LPGA’s highest ranking officers – some of whom Bivens hired – have left the LPGA Tour since Bivens took over less than one year ago. The first, many will recall, was senior vice president of tournament operations Barb Trammell, who was forced to resign after failing to let a high-ranking player bend the rules on entry deadlines.
Then she went and pissed off the media over credentials to cover her tournaments. And all along, she’s failed to grant Michelle Wie an exemption to play full-time on the LPGA tour – official earnings and “membership” or not, despite the obvious exception Michelle Wie poses to the “18 and older” rule.
It’s not often a certain architect and I agree on something, but Bivens is so bad she’s brought us together in agreement. As a woman with a long history of marketing and promotion, selling attractive women with talent should be easy.
In a recent Q&A, Bivens appears so ignorant to the appeal of Michelle Wie, the marketing possibilities that lay before her, and the overwhelming stench emanating from LPGA headquarters that one has to wonder what reality she’s living in: her own, or one shared by the rest of us.
Even Annika Sorenstam has called Bivens management into question and was quoted as saying “I am quite concerned about some of the decisions and changes I have seen lately. I just wonder where we are headed.”
Hopefully, Annika, we’re headed towards a new LPGA commissioner, and quick!
I find your commentary timely. As the father of three girls, whom I hope will all maintain an interest in golf ( my eldest, age 9, does play ), I had hoped the LPGA would create a bigger national presence. Young people look to role models, often sports figures. It may not be fair to expect sports figures to be role models, but they are often cast in that role. I would rather my daughters have as a public figure they might wish to emulate someone such as Lorena Ochoa or Brittney Lang rather than Brittney Spears or Paris Hilton. But in order for the LPGA stars to compete with the coarser, broarder entertainment world, they have to be well marketed. Now maybe part of that responsibility falls to the athletes’ agents but, certainly, part of that responsibility is owned by the LPGA CEO. Besides, building the game in the next generation is easier if the soil is tilled when the kids are young. It seems the previous fellow, whose name eludes me, was more successful. In any event, I have been disapointed that, with the great depth of talent, oddball angles from time to time ( such as 14 year olds playing in pro events ), and some beauty thrown in, we haven’t seen the LPGA make a bigger splash. Does that mean the current CEO needs to be canned? I don’t know. What I do know is that the LPGA isn’t being heard over the screeching noises made by coarse, ill mannered, self absorbed denizans of teen girl culture. And I do think they have very marketable talent to attract a younger market in such stars as Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Lorena Ochoa, not to mention the three hundred yard knocker, Michelle Wie.
Another article on this topic can be found here.
Television coverage of the LPGA has hit an all-time low.
Consider this. Last Saturday the Russian Open was televised for 3 hours, the PGA Bridgeport Invitational was on for 5 hours, the Champions Tour was on for 2.5 hours, and the Women’s British Open (a MAJOR) was on for 1.5 hours!
It’s obvious that the LPGA is not living up to its potential. Painful to watch the meager coverage.
Concerned fan.
What do you think now?
DQ MICHELLE WIE……for not signing her card in the correct area??? Where was the Commissioner and her staff if not attending to such matters????
Bush League stuff that the LPGA can’t afford. There aren’t enough stars on this tour to sustain it so there should have been personnel designated to protect against such an event.
Bivens needs to take a step back and look at whats going on. I’m not a Wie fan but I am trying so hard to be an LPGA fan and I find it so boring to watch or annoying or both.
She can’t see that Wie makes it interesting?, the PGA exemptions should give her a slight clue.
I won’t be watching anymore LPGA events since the European and Nationwide and Champion tour have better golf and show the entire telecast.
I feel bad for all the great lady players
No big surprize — Bivens truly is a cancer. She has left a trail of bones in the LPGA just as she has elsewhere. Terminal myopia and all the charm of a rat in heat.
I applaud State Farm and others for speaking out against the LPGA’s outrageous proposal that all players on the LPGA tour speak English or face suspension by 2009. It truly disheartened me that in this day and age, something so preposterous and blatantly discriminatory could be advanced by a well-recognized organization such as the LPGA. It was even more troubling that it received scant media coverage or protest. This was not an off-the-cuff comment that could be excused as momentary bad judgment or misguided resentment expressing itself through a poor choice of words. It was a proposal that, one could only surmise, had been vetted and agreed to by the leadership of the LPGA as being appropriate. I am still dumbfounded by the fact that not only one errant person but an entire group could come to such a misguided conclusion.
To imply that the English requirement was necessary to promote fan interaction and sponsor interest is to mask the ugly truth and motivations of the short-lived rule, which I don’t need to spell out here. It is particularly appalling in the context of a sport, the hallmark of which should be the unbiased, even playing field of a scorecard. If the ability to interact positively with fans were the true goal of the LPGA, why not implement the strategy more fully? Forget Q-school. Let’s have a popularity contest where fans decide by text message vote which players are worthy of participating in the LPGA — an LPGA version of American Idol. It would be a huge ratings hit and sponsors would line up to get in on the action. Perhaps points can be apportioned for personality, looks, humor, fashionableness, etc. All of these factors could be justified as necessary to promote more positive fan interaction — after all, fans appreciate these qualities in their athletes. Why not? Because it is clearly so ridiculous.
Just to be clear — it is not wrong to root for your countrymen. In the Olympic games, I’m sure we all felt a measure of pride when Michael Phelps and other great American athletes mounted the podium for the playing of the national anthem. The issue here, however, is about race. I note that after the LPGA instituted its English requirement, it called together all of the South Korean players to make the announcement. That’s telling — not the Italian-speaking, Spanish-speaking, French-speaking European players, but the South Koreans. If this were merely a question of nationality, I would not have blinked an eye. Fine, convert the LPGA into a domestic tour, don’t hold any LPGA events in Europe, Asia or South America (hmm … would the speak English rules have applied there too? or would English speaking players be required to speak the local language — you know, to promote fan interaction?) and limit all players to Americans. I would have questioned the wisdom and logic of such a move, but at least there would have been some semblance of fairness in that proposal. Unfortunately, what the LPGA did propose was something quite different and uglier. The ultimate effect of the LPGA’s rules, as originally proposed, would have been to shut out most South Korean and other Asian players, leaving a much less competitive pool (except for Ochoa who appears to be the next Tiger Woods of women’s golf) of mostly Americans and Europeans. For the history buffs, I note the poll tax and its effects on the African-American vote. Granted, voting rights and golf are not an equal comparison, but the strategy and effects bear some resemblance.
Some have questioned the legality of the proposed LPGA rules. A few have smugly asserted that the LPGA can do whatever it likes and that English is the official language of the U.S. (which I completely agree with, but note that it inappropriately conflates two different issues). Frankly, the bottom line is not what is legal or illegal, or what the LPGA can or cannot do. The bottom line is that the LPGA should be better than this. The United States is better than this. When the Spanish basketball team produced the infamous (or perhaps not so infamous) “chinky eye” commercial, I was troubled. I was troubled by the fact that it happened, that hundreds of people involved in the making of that commercial failed to exercise good judgment and human decency, that the players seemed unapologetic about their actions, that the media paid very little attention to the incident and that those of Asian ethnicity (including myself) didn’t bother to speak out about it. Instead, I was content to watch with satisfaction as the U.S. redeem team smashed the Spanish team for the gold. I was content to tell myself that something like that wouldn’t be tolerated in the U.S. After all, look at what happened in the aftermath of Don Imus’ infamous comments regarding the Rutgers women’s basketball team. I mean, come on, the U.S. is the country where Bella Karoli provides sports commentary for NBC in his fluent English, Arnold Schwarzenegger gives speeches impacting the entire state of California, and professional ice hockey is dominated by Canadians. Thus, the LPGA’s matter-of-fact announcement was a real shock and disappointment to me. To be sure, the LPGA’s proposal was a bit more polished and ambiguous than the actions of the Spanish basketball team or Don Imus, but it still felt like the same leap backwards.
Instead of blaming others, Biven should start examining her own shortcomings to figure out why the LPGA is not capturing more fans and sponsors. Besides, not every sport has a Tiger Woods or Michael Phelps, who by the way are still sponsors’ dreams despite the fact that the former is known for being aloof with the media and the latter had a DUI. Biven’s arguments are pathetic.
Does Biven even play golf? None of the biographies of this woman even mention any sporting abilities. Why is she even running this organization?
The LPGA needs to be kept accountable.
I think it’s time to let the players pick a commish……and Ty Votah should nominate the candidates.
Ty Votah left the LPGA Tour, and since it’s a player organization, they picked Carolyn Bivens as their commissioner. Your comment implies otherwise.
Ty?
While he was commissioner he agreement to the worst tv revenue packages in the history of sports (which the LPGA is still working through), he dated a player (always a potential sexual harassment issue), later dated that player and apparently has stolen staff from the LPGA. Doesn’t seem like someone that cares about anyone but himself??
Aside from Bivens supposed shortcomings, what women’s golf needs even less is a journalist who refers to the best female golfers on the planet as ‘attractive gals’ and describes the job of the managing the LPGA as ‘selling attractive women”.
Here’s the message to girls: if you arn’t drop dead gorgeous, don’t bother taking up golf because you have no value unless you are ATTRACTIVE.
For boys – no problem – as long as you can golf you will be judged on that.
I absolutely love women’s golf… the LPGA. Hey Annika how about taking over…you would be great!
How disappointing, that some local newspapers, newcasters and even sportscastors do not even update us on the LPGA or
Women’s Golf at all.
We need to keep the LPGA alive and vibrant. The LPGA what a quality product. Get someone who can sell it!
Hopeful!