Player power has ousted LPGA

commissioner Carolyn Bivens

By BETH ANN BALDRY
GolfWeek Senior Writer
Carolyn Bivens’ fate has been sealed with the LPGA.
A source with knowledge of the tour’s internal workings told Golfweek on July 9 that Bivens will not be retained for the final two years on her contract as commissioner.
Bivens, whose stormy four-year tenure as LPGA commissioner was capped by a player revolt last week, has not resigned, a tour spokesman told Golfweek.
However, Golfweek has learned that the LPGA’s Board of Directors, which has been meeting behind closed doors all week regarding the player uprising against Bivens, has moved on and is focusing on the tour’s future and resolving its leadership issue.
Bivens, 56, did not attend the U.S. Women’s Open, the flagship event of the season, this week at Saucon Valley Country Club.
Sources told Golfweek that she is not working out of the LPGA’s headquarters in Daytona Beach, Fla., either.
“Carolyn has not resigned,’’ David Higdon, the LPGA’s chief of communications, wrote in an e-mail to Golfweek, without elaborating.
So, where is Bivens, and what is she doing?
Sports Business Daily, citing anonymous sources, reported on its website today that Bivens is agreeable to a buy-out for the remaining two years of her contract, reportedly at about $500,000 per year. The publication added that the LPGA has authorized a golf-industry executive to contact potential candidates to replace Bivens.
The LPGA has lost seven tournaments since 2007, including three staged in Hawaii. Six more events are sponsorless, including this year’s China LPGA. Tournament owners are increasingly complaining that Bivens has made what they describe as excessive and unreasonable financial demands.
They say higher tournament sanctioning fees, for example, combined with declining sponsorship revenue make it virtually impossible to host events. Bivens insisted the tour can’t subsidize tournament operations and needs events to become more financially accountable.
Discontent with the shrinking sphere of the LPGA bubbled over last week in Sylvania, Ohio, during the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic when key members of the tour drafted a letter calling for Bivens’ resignation.
“All we are doing is standing up for our tour,” said Suzann Pettersen, who told Golfweek that she had signed the letter. “Now it’s up to our leadership and our board to find a solution.”
Paula Creamer also said that she had signed the letter. LPGA stars Lorena Ochoa, Morgan Pressel, Natalie Gulbis, Cristie Kerr, Yani Tseng and Michelle Wie attended the dinner, but it is uncertain whether they also called for Bivens’ resignation.
The letter was delivered to the LPGA’s Board of Directors, which includes 13 voting members.
Dawn Hudson, the LPGA’s board chairman, declined repeated requests from Golfweek for comment.