Kudos to the LPGA Tour and The Golf Channel for injecting a little bit of life into this week’s LPGA Championship held at Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace, Maryland, which began Thursday.
In what has become a normal pre-tournament routine for the ladies’ Tour this season, early week chatter centered on the Tour’s shrinking schedule and resigning sponsors instead of the players to watch in the event.
In a shrewd move, the LPGA and its television partner mic’d up the bombastic and colorful Christina Kim, and then paired her with the Tour’s biggest draw, 19-year-old Michelle Wie. Wie recorded a 2-under-par 70, and Kim carried the conversation, creating an interesting dynamic that was probably enjoyable to even the casual sports fan.
I’ve always said the secret to drawing a bigger crowd to women’s sporting events is luring them in long enough to realize that watching women compete can be just as enjoyable as watching the men.
But, as is often the case, most sports fans just aren’t willing to give the girls a chance. Placing a microphone on one of your most outspoken players, and within earshot of your meal ticket is a good start.
I enjoyed this verbiage because it took place on the course, and if you’ve paid any type of attention to the LPGA Tour lately, that’s where it should stay, for the benefit of everyone involved.
Last year, LPGA Tour Commissioner Carolyn Bivens unveiled a plan to impose penalties upon Tour players who failed to achieve a certain level of English proficiency in certain tournament related functions including interviews and acceptance speeches. While poorly presented and ill-conceived, I agreed that this might be a necessary means in order to achieve an end that made the foreign contingent on Tour more accessible to U.S. media types and more fan friendly.
But the plan was immediately criticized, as was Bivens, and before the “English Proficiency Project” was even rolled out, it was rescinded.
All was quiet until a new media misstep recently embroiled Bivens in another controversy.
“I’d love it if players Twittered (don’t you mean tweeted) during the middle of a round,” Bivens told Bloomberg News. “The new media is very important to the growth of golf and we view it as a positive, and a tool to be used.”
Well, as you can imagine, this latest brain fart wasn’t warmly received by the media, golf purists and LPGA Tour players.
“I will not be twittering in my round,” tweeted Paula Creamer, one of the Tour’s most visible and popular players. “It should not happen in any sport. The players have already told the tour no way.”
In a very predictable backpedal, Bivens quickly clarified her statement, using the excuse that her comments had been taken out of context by Bloomberg's reporter.
"While the LPGA does not support, nor has it ever encouraged, any kind of interaction with social media during tournament play, we do believe social media is as important to golf as it is to all sports,” she said.
It’s about time that Bivens impose a gag order upon herself, at least for the next four weeks, two of which will be major championships for the LPGA Tour.
She is dangerously veering into the sphere of sports executives occupied by George Steinbrenner and Mark Cuban, who were cute at first, but eventually became overexposed, forcing us to ingest embarrassing moments like Cuban’s recent spat with Kenyon Martin’s mom. I dare say that Bivens could ascend to Vince McMahon territory with a few more mistaken declarations.
In the coming weeks, the LPGA Tour should let its athletes do the talking. I’d much rather watch Suzann Pettersen, Paula Creamer or Yani Tseng go on a birdie run down the stretch to take control of a tournament than I would listen to Bivens boast about the great strides the Tour is currently making.
And if someone has to speak, leave that to insightful and engaging ladies like Lorena Ochoa, or even Michelle Wie, who is at least beginning to displaying some personality despite sounding like Alicia Silverstone in Clueless during her well-attended media sessions.