LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens, in Mobile, Ala., for this week’s Bell Micro Classic, sat with Golfweek’s Beth Ann Baldry to discuss the tour’s developing communication policy for its international players. Bivens had briefed South Korean players on the mandate before the Safeway Classic in Portland, Ore., last month. After Baldry broke the story on Golfweek.com, a public outcry prompted the tour to rescind the suspension penalty that would have been levied.
Below are excerpts of Wednesday’s question-and-answer session with Baldry.
Golfweek: Can you take me through last week and how you went from Tuesday’s memo to Friday’s memo?Carolyn Bivens: What we said in the policy was that we listened to the feedback. More than that, there was so much misinformation that focused on a very small part of the program, which was the penalty, and there was no conversation and no reporting on the overall program, 90 percent of which had to deal with resources and services that were provided and the overall objectives of the organization and the program. So we said let’s calm down the level of rhetoric, because we were having one-on-one conversations and they were going very well. Once groups that thought they were upset about the policy understood the overall program was what we’ve been doing, what we’ve been providing, there was a whole different level of understanding and perception.
GW: If that’s the case, then why did you change the policy?CB: It isn’t a policy. It’s a program. What we did was rescind the playing suspension.
GW: If everyone was starting to understand where you were coming from when you had these conversations ...CB: We didn’t get to everybody fast enough.
GW: Looking back on the way everything developed, is there anything you would do differently? Is there anything the LPGA has learned from this?CB: We learn from everything.
GW: Would you care to expand on that?CB: The only thing I would expand on there is that this was not an announcement and it was not a policy. Unfortunately that is the way that it was portrayed.
GW: But it was a rule. There was a very strict penalty.CB: I said it wasn’t a policy. It was a small part of a program. There was feedback from lots of different groups, just as Rae Evans told you. . . . On Sunday I was in Albany, and we have 10 new members of the LPGA. Half of those are international players. The list for Qualifying School was released this morning; we have almost 70 international players. That provides both challenges and opportunities for us. . . . What we were doing is looking down the pipeline and saying this is the perfect time of year to be looking at what’s coming to the LPGA over the next couple years and make sure we’ve got the resources and support to be able to handle that.
GW: So it wasn’t so much the current players on tour as it was looking ahead.CB: Correct.
GW: Looking at it now, do you realize or recognize that the penalty portion was a mistake?CB: The penalty wasn’t something that was decided overnight. There was lots of feedback and lots of reasons. The players have done a very good job of availing themselves of the resources. There are challenges that have to do with the young players who come to us who can’t avail themselves of those services because they’re not making their own decisions as to where their time is spent. We had some advice. We didn’t, in a vacuum, sit and decide that this penalty was one that needed to be assessed. There were lots of different options discussed. And we will go back and re-look at various option. It’s way beyond the staff; it’s beyond just the Board of Directors, just the Executive Committee. We had feedback from international players. And we’ll make sure they’re a formal part of the process. But they were very much included in what was done and what was designed.
GW: How many Korean players did you ask about the penalty portion?CB: I wouldn’t want to say.
GW: Looking back on it now, do you wish you have discussed the penalty portion with more sponsors or . . .CB: Sponsors never want to be part of these decisions.
GW: What about the TOA (Tournament Owners Association)?CB: The tournament owners are different than title sponsors. Title sponsors don’t want to be part of this. They give us feedback on a regular basis, as do the tournament owners. The title sponsors don’t want us to survey them and to come out and say they are part of any program that is in the least bit controversial. They’ll decide based on what league or an association or event does and how they operate, whether or not they support it. But they don’t want to be part of the decision-making process. That’s one of the other fallacies. That doesn’t mean they won’t react positively or negatively.
GW: Did you realize this penalty could possibly cause so much controversy?CB: We knew that it could be controversial. But we felt we had enough feedback over the last few years and enough conversations over the last six months, that it was something the organization needed to do.
GW: Looking ahead, will you add any kind of fines or any kind of non-playing penalties?CB: That’s all in plans and discussions.
GW: Whom will you consult now, going forward? Will you include more people on this?
CB: What do they say . . . a camel is a horse built by a committee? What we need to be able to do is include enough for a cross-cultural group and to be able to control and announce. And not have something play in primetime way before it was ready. It was never intended as an announcement.
GW: Do you maybe, in retrospect, wish you had it more buttoned-up before you presented it to the players?CB: No, because I have conversations with the players all the time. You come up with these kinds of things in two-way conversations. We do the same thing with the moms and, we do the same thing with the rookies. Yes, it is a business; also operates as a family. We have to be able to discuss these things. We wouldn’t be able to support sponsors, nor would be responsive to members.
GW: Did you tell them loss of card in Portland or suspension?CB: We said suspension.
GW: What do you say to the Korean, well, Asian organizations in general, that want a public apology?CB: We are talking to anyone who wanted to talk to us and having those one-on-ones.
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For more on this topic, visit www.golfweek.com/lpgaenglish
Posted: 9/10/2008
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