Commissioner Takes On LPGA’s Changing Times

When Carolyn Bivens took over as commissioner of the LPGA in September, the women’s tour appeared primed to reach new heights.

A history-chasing superstar was joined by several bright, charismatic young stars who were being featured on magazine covers around the country. But a few early-season glitches have kept the 2006 season from picking up exactly where the 2005 campaign left off.

So as Annika Sorenstam begins her annual assault on the Grand Slam this week in the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Lakes Country Club in Rancho Mirage, there lingers the rancor over media regulations -- since changed -- that originally led some news organizations to pull their coverage of the Fields Open last month in Hawaii.

And as Michelle Wie and Morgan Pressel renew their budding rivalry by teeing up in a major championship for the first time as professionals, disagreement continues over the new women’s world rankings.

“Those things are getting overblown,” said Bivens, the first female commissioner in the tour’s 56-year history. “I’m not sure the casual fan even cares that much about them.

“We’re about to kick off the first major championship of the year, and that’s what the fans are interested in.”

In addition, some players have taken issue with Bivens’ decision to market the young, up-and-coming players such as Wie and Pressel, who have yet to win on tour.

“The future of the tour is impressive, no doubt,” said Hall of Fame member Amy Alcott. “But what happens if somebody wins three or four events in a row and she isn’t one of those ‘it’ girls? How is the tour going to play catch-up with something like that?

“Ultimately, it should be about marketing everyone and the tour as a brand.”

Most players questioned didn’t blame Bivens for the rocky start and have thus far reserved judgment on their new leader.

“I think right now you’ve got to give her a chance,” Juli Inkster said. “You can’t do this thing in two or three months. It’s a strategy she has mapped out, and you have to let her run her course.

“I think she is going to make some changes and a lot of people aren’t going to agree with them, but I think they’re changes the LPGA needs to make.”

Christina Kim, 22, sees no problem in including the young stars such as Paula Creamer, Lorena Ochoa, Pressel and Wie to sell the tour but agreed that the veterans should not be excluded.

“The young ones, we’re helping grab the different demographics, which is great,” Kim said. “But you can’t forget about the [veterans]. It doesn’t matter if you’re young, beautiful, this that. If you can ... beat everyone else out here, then you deserve recognition.”

The media dispute started when Bivens unveiled policies that restricted the use of stories and photos gathered at LPGA tournaments and granted the LPGA the rights to use such materials at no charge.

News organizations, including the Associated Press, refused to cover the first round of the season’s second tournament in Hawaii. The language of the document was changed, but the Golf Digest Cos., which includes Golf Digest, Golf World and Golf for Women, continued their boycott until they reached an agreement with the LPGA late last week.

Bivens said the regulations were designed to give the tour more control over how it is branded, much like other major sports leagues.

It was also an attempt to slow the proliferation of black-market photographs often taken by credentialed photographers under the guise of working for a news agency.

“The regulations were not directed at the mainstream media at all,” Bivens said. “Everything hinged on the commercial use of the images and stories. It was not an attempt to step on 1st Amendment rights.”

Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon, said the regulations were a good idea gone bad.

“Some would sort of scoff at some of those policies,” he said. “Too much control can work against you.”

The world ranking fiasco remains unsettled. The big issue is the minimum number of events a player needs to play in order to be ranked. Right now it’s 15 over two years, which happened to be the number of events Wie had played over the last two years.

“I think it favors somebody that doesn’t play as much,” Alcott said. “It’s good for someone like Michelle Wie.”

Wie, who is 16 and turned pro in October, showed up at No. 3 in the first rankings despite never having won a tournament on any major tour. Skeptics said Bivens had tweaked the rankings so she could use Wie as a marketing tool for the tour.

In reality, the minimum number came from an agreement by the six worldwide tours, and much of the development process took place under the watch of former LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw.

Votaw said the LPGA wanted a higher minimum, but the Korean and Australian tours, which have fewer than a dozen tournaments each year, lobbied for 15 and that ultimately became the number.

Wie rose to No. 2 in the world -- behind Sorenstam, a 67-time winner -- after finishing third at the Fields Open, but is unranked this week because she has played 14 events over the last two years. She plays a limited schedule, so she’ll pop in and out of the rankings all year.

“The number 15 came and people thought it was for Michelle,” said B.J. Wie, Michelle’s father. “But it’s the Rolex Rankings, and Michelle is with Omega.”

B.J. Wie said he thought the rankings were fair but added, “I think the system needs a little tweaking.”

Bivens said the system will remain intact for now, but that there will be continual review and that an overhaul could come if things haven’t settled by the British Open in August.

So now its back to focusing on golf for Bivens, who said her No. 1 goal is finding a way to get players exposure outside of the sports world and raise the profile of the tour.

Swangard, the sports marketing expert, said Bivens’ next moves are critical.

“The LPGA sits at an interesting transition point,” Swangard said. “It’s climbed one flight of stairs, but it’s still trying to find its place. The issue now is how to attack the next flight of stairs.”