LPGA Gives Off Mixed Signs in 2006

Maybe she’s in her comfort zone, so that’s why Annika Sorenstam appeared so relaxed Wednesday afternoon.

Sorenstam was at Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert, where she can rescue an uncharacteristically uneven year, with a chance to win the Samsung World Championship for the sixth time.

“It’s been up and down,” Sorenstam described her year, marked by three victories.

The $875,000, 20-player Samsung field that begins play today is one of the last events of 2006 for the LPGA and its first-year commissioner, Carolyn Bivens, whose rookie campaign has been memorable on a number of fronts.

Said Sorenstam: “It’s been up and down for her too.”

And for the top women’s professional golf organization in the world, at the very least, we have learned that the LPGA cannot be ignored, which ought to account for something. But by most standards of measurement, it has been an odd year.

The LPGA’s most recognizable player, Michelle Wie, isn’t really a member of the LPGA Tour and doesn’t want to be.

The LPGA’s reigning heavyweight, Sorenstam, who just turned 36, is having her worst year, in terms of victories, since 1999.

The LPGA’s new wave of young talent, the highly touted trio of Morgan Pressel (18), Paula Creamer (20) and Natalie Gulbis (23), failed to win this year.

The title of the LPGA’s big winner has been claimed by Lorena Ochoa, 24, who despite four victories, remains relatively unknown by the general public.

Then there was Bivens, 53, a former president and chief operating officer of a media services group, who replaced Ty Votaw and immediately invoked a pro-active business style that was all about branding and not about shyness, as indicated in her biography in the LPGA media guide.

“Just three months into her role as commissioner, Bivens emerged as a leader in the world of sports . . .”

It took her three months? Before pushing for improved retirement and larger purses at majors, Bivens introduced herself to the media by reworking the credential requirements, specifically about rights to photographs, a move that drew instant protests, including from the Associated Press. The issue spiraled out of hand so quickly that Hawaiian reporters from Honolulu didn’t attend Wie’s news conference at the hometown Fields Open.

Staff defections and layoffs and tournament shake-ups sprinkled the first several months of Bivens’ tenure. Tournaments in Las Vegas, Columbus, Ohio., and Atlanta have disappeared, but three others have replaced them on the 2007 schedule.

“It’s a thankless job,” said Amy Alcott, a member of golf’s Hall of Fame. “You’ve got a lot of plates and a lot of balls up in the air and you’re juggling them all. If you sign five new tournaments, the players want to know why you didn’t sign six. If you play for $1.5 million in tournaments, they want to know why they’re not playing for $1.6 million.”

Alcott, who thought Votaw did a good job in his tenure as commissioner, said Bivens needs to be given time to move her programs forward. “If she were a man, nobody would be criticizing her at all,” Alcott said.

That’s the same opinion held by Beth Daniel, who was part of the search committee that picked Bivens to replace Votaw. “Anyone who came in as the first female commissioner of our tour was going to have a hard time. That was a given,” Daniel said.

Then there is the Wie issue. Because she’s not a member of the LPGA -- Wie turned 17 Wednesday -- she is not eligible to play the 32-player, limited-field, $1.55-million ADT Championship next month and neither does she have a place on the official LPGA money list.

The Samsung is Wie’s sixth LPGA event this year, all that she’s permitted, plus the women’s U.S. Open and British Open. She has earned $718,343, which would make her 14th on the official money list.

Wie could petition the LPGA for membership, despite her age, but has no plans to do so. Instead, she has become a globetrotting jet-setter. Since Wie turned professional here a year ago, she has played 14 events in six countries and five tours -- the LPGA Tour, the PGA Tour, the European PGA Tour, the Japan Tour and the Asian Tour.

But Wie as the face of the LPGA is an unusual situation, because she’s not a member of the LPGA and she doesn’t play at many LPGA tournaments.

Where you do see Wie, of course, are places such as the rue de la Paix in Paris, on a huge billboard inside the front window at the store for Omega, one of the sponsors that have helped make her a millionaire while still in high school.

Bivens said the LPGA would welcome Wie, but it’s not vital to the organization’s success. “The tour doesn’t need one member. Does the tour want Michelle Wie as a member? Absolutely. We love the tournaments Michelle plays.”

The LPGA is resilient, and for every unfavorable story, there are counterbalances, such as Karrie Webb’s sudden and unexpected return to prominence, Juli Inkster winning once and producing eight other top 10s at 46, Se Ri Pak finding her game again and winning the LPGA Championship in a playoff over Webb, and Christie Kerr cementing her status as the top U.S. player with three victories.

What’s more, Sherri Steinhauer, 41, won the British Open, further derailing the notion of a kid-powered LPGA. And with Pak, Sorenstam and Webb winning majors, it seemed more like 1999 than the 2006 that was forecast to be controlled by a much younger generation.

The star power in the women’s game is nevertheless controlled by Wie, despite the limitations on her playing on the LPGA Tour. She was consistent in the majors -- tied for third at the Kraft Nabisco, the LPGA Championship and the U.S. Open, and tied for 26th at the British Open.

Wie, who was disqualified in this tournament last year over an infraction that involved incorrectly marking her ball and signing an incorrect scorecard, is back again. Wie said she has no problem remembering what happened a year ago.

“Well, there are a lot of memories,” she said, “but obviously, let’s put it this way . . . I have been practicing my drops.”

Wie played against men in six tournaments this year and tied for 35th at the SK Telcom Open on the Asian Tour, but she missed the cut in the other five and was last in the final two -- the European Masters and the PGA Tour’s 84 Lumber Classic.

This is her last LPGA tournament this year -- she’s playing against the men on the Japan Tour at the Casio Open in Japan in November -- but at least she’s at home, sort of, this week. Wie and her parents, B.J. and Bo, bought a house at the Bighorn’s Mountain Course, across the street from the Canyons Course, where the Samsung starts.

Sorenstam, who still has a chance at her ninth player-of-the-year award, said she has been working with coach Henry Reiss to achieve more distance on her drives. Sorenstam thinks she’s on the right track. Off the course, she’s busy trying to convince Bivens that the LPGA should co-sanction Sorenstam’s tournament in Sweden.

Sorenstam hopes that will happen in 2008, but Bivens said scheduling remains a problem.

Maybe they can work it out, because if there’s anything the LPGA doesn’t need to end this year is another wrong turn, this one involving the tour’s best player and its commissioner.

As Sorenstam said, the commissioner matters, no matter who it is.

“Personally, I don’t think she got off to the greatest start, but I didn’t either,” she said. “Maybe we’ve both turned things around.”

thomas.bonk@latimes.com