Regardless of my opinion of Carolyn Bivens I am not convinced her ousting will be the answer to fixing all that is broken with the LPGA. It’s a sorry state of affairs and will take a lot more than one person to fix. The LPGA is a mess; at last count 7 tournaments have shut down and several others are left without sponsors. And let’s face it, there isn’t a single big name winner to help bring in new sponsors. Forget the female equivalent of Tiger Woods, there isn’t a Phil or even David Duval. Since Annika Sorenstam’s retirement there hasn’t been a winner with the name recogniation to help draw fans, much less sponsors, to the LPGA and that’s a shame.

How about Catriona Matthew, Angela Stanford, Lorena Ochoa, Jiyai Shin, Pat Hurst? Do any of those names ring a bell? They are all LPGA tourney winners from last year. All are great golfers and well respected within golf circles but not one has any name recognition. Lorena Ochoa, Cristie Kerr, Ji Young Oh, Yani Tseng, In-Kyung Kim, Anna Nordqvist, Jiyai Shin, Eunjung Yi, Karrie Webb, and Brittany Lincicome round out the list of winners and I’m guessing I’m not alone in thinking there isn’t a household name in this bunch either.

So I’m not defending Carolyn Bivens, nor am I blaming her, but I am thinking that in addition to finding a new commissioner the LPGA might want to invest in some solid PR. There’s too much talent in women’s golf to have this level of apathy. After all, the PGA loses sponsors too but with names like Tiger and Phil there are always other sponsors waiting in the wings. And a tournament without sponsors is like a golfer without a putter…it just isn’t going to happen.

Post by Michele Minten