"It's a way of cross generation to introduce current and future members of the LPGA to a very important part of the world."

LPGA Brand Lady Carolyn Bivens is interviewed by the "Toy Department" blog at the Baltimore Sun site. Some nice MBAisms for those of you collecting jargon at home.

Bivens: The fact that a sports league or association would own one of its own championships and be able to illustrate and display their best of class of their brand, to set the eligibilty criteria and own all the revenue streams for that event is huge. Yes, it is high risk and high reward, but the opportunities for that to make a difference from a brand standpoint ... over the next 50 years is very big.

And...

How many years into the future are you looking? You talk about a focus of five to seven years, but you also talk about 50 years. Where, as an executive, is your focal point?

Bivens: For the long term, dealing with the base of the platform, you look out 10 years. Most of the rest of the planning you do for five years out.

Isn't that redundant, the base of the platform? Or is there a layer I don't know about?

So your deal with J Golf, South Korean television, that's looking 10 years out, maybe more?

Bivens: The deal is a five-year deal and the big news about that ... is that it's multi-platform. It's not just cable television rights for South Korea. They own multiple magazines, they have a partnership deal with CNN, they have multiple digital platforms. It's a way of cross generation to introduce current and future members of the LPGA to a very important part of the world.

Cross generation! That's a new one for me. Anyone care to define?

"It can be pretty overwhelming thinking about it.”

Beth Ann Baldry on the uncertain future of the LPGA Championship:

“To be an LPGA member and play your championship, you want that to be the best tournament on your schedule,” Angela Stanford said. “That’s the way it should be.”

LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens plans to run the event much like the PGA Tour’s Players Championship – without a title sponsor. To do that, she needs several presenting sponsors, and to this point, none has come forward. No sponsors, no site.

“I think there’s definitely a level of concern for everyone,” said Cristie Kerr, the LPGA’s 2009 money leader. “Whether it’s your mortgage that you’re looking at or your stock portfolio or your bank account or how many tournaments are up for renewal. . . . It can be pretty overwhelming thinking about it.”

Christina Kim To Be Mic'd; Golf Channel Goes On 45-Second Delay

I figured it was just wishful thinking when Shipnuck and Herre pondered this in the weekly "Confidential" book:

Shipnuck: For the first round Christina Kim has agreed to wear a microphone for ESPN. It has a chance to be the most entertaining day of golf for all of 2009, if not ever.

Herre: I will definitely tune in for that. We've talked about this before, but miking the players adds a lot IMO.

Sure enough, Golf Channel confirms:

LPGA professional Christina Kim will be mic’d up Thursday during GOLF CHANNEL’s opening round coverage of the McDonald’s LPGA Championship presented by Coca-Cola. Kim will be paired with Michelle Wie and Shanshan Feng. Live coverage will begin Thursday at 12:30 p.m. ET, with a prime-time re-air at 7 p.m. ET. This will be the second LPGA event in 2009 GOLF CHANNEL will mic a player during live tournament coverage. Kristy McPherson was wired for sound during the opening round of the LPGA Corning Classic, where she also played alongside Michelle Wie.

Considering her Tweets of late, this could be good.

"Taking the temperature of the LPGA Championship provides a fairly accurate gauge of the state of the tour."

Ron Sirak tries to figure out the LPGA's goals and mindset as they prepare to say goodbye to Bulle Rock and move their major to a site TBD.

The modest goal for the LPGA seems to be to put together a 2010 schedule in which there are not more off weeks than on weeks, and right now the break-even number of 26 appears to be a stretch. With Corning gone, Ginn gone, Phoenix and Kingsmill in doubt and others up for negotiation, where the LPGA Championship is played next year and by what name is a key to what the future of the tour holds.

Steve DiMeglio reports that a wet spring has left the course playing super long, wet and nasty.

Memorial Ratings Success; LPGA Not So Hot

Tod Leonard on the weekend ratings:

Tiger Woods is back in the winner's circle, just in time for the U.S. Open and for golf's stagnant TV ratings.

With Woods winning in comeback fashion Sunday at the Memorial, the overnight numbers for CBS were a 3.8 rating and a 9 share. That is double what the Colonial received (1.8/4) the week before when Steve Stricker own a three-man playoff. Anything doubled is huge for the networks.

The golf also doubled up the French Open final, with Roger Federer winning his 14 major title.

The LPGA Tour made a rare appearance on network television on NBC, and though the finish was bunched, it didn't have big names, and the ratings were low. In-Kyung Kim's win Sunday drew an 0.6, or half of what the Prefontaine track event did for NBC, also on Sunday. Not a promising sign for women's golf

"Comments that I made in a conversation with a writer last week regarding the importance of social media and tweeting have been taken out of context"

Randell Mell reports that the Brand Lady is in full retreat mode saying her "I'd love it if players Twittered during the middle of a round" remarks were taken out of context by Bloomberg's Michael Buteau and Mason Levinson.

Apparently the context was another value-engineered module not called the LPGA Tour. Happens all the time.

LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens released a statement saying she isn't advocating players use Twitter to communicate during rounds.

"Comments that I made in a conversation with a writer last week regarding the importance of social media and tweeting have been taken out of context," Bivens said. "We have not discussed tweeting or the use of handheld devices during tournament rounds with the USGA, or even within the LPGA, nor do we intend to. Our players will not be tweeting during the rounds of LPGA events.”

The statement created a stir amid questions about whether tweeting during rounds would violate the Rules of Golf.

"The players have already told the tour no way."

We have our first festering wound in the LPGA player-Carolyn Bivens relationship. The most amazing thing? That it took this long.

Michael Buteau reports that Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel have suggested they will not be Tweeting from the course.

“I will not be twittering in my round,” [Paula] Creamer, who’s ranked third in the world, wrote on her Twitter page this morning. “It should not happen in any sport. The players have already told the tour no way.”
Shortly before her anti-Twittering tweet, Creamer told her followers that she was “Eating some pancakes for breakfast with my dad before we go out to the course.”

Morgan Pressel shared Creamer’s sentiments moments before beginning her first round at Panther Creek Country Club in Springfield, Illinois.

“Thanks for the luck and NO I will not be tweeting when I play,” she wrote.

"Tweet during rounds?"

Jeff Rude raises another fine point about the absurdity of on-course tweeting.

LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens wants her players to be able to “tweet” their thoughts during rounds on Twitter.com. I’m not sure I’ve heard anything that nuts since I watched the Cuckoo’s Nest movie.

Tweet during rounds?

The competition must be held sacred. And concentration and focus are at the heart of the competition.

And isn’t the pace of play already slow enough?

"I’d love it if players Twittered during the middle of a round"

Naturally I had to be traveling when Bloomberg's Michael Buteau and Mason Levinson revealed that LPGA Commish Carolyn Bivens blabbed that she'd like to...oh I can't type, it's too funny even though it's not really a surprise.

“I’d love it if players Twittered during the middle of a round,” Bivens said in an interview today in New York.

“The new media is very important to the growth of golf and we view it as a positive, and a tool to be used.”

Uh, the problem.

Bivens said the LPGA was awaiting word from the U.S. Golf Association on whether the use of handheld devices for Tweeting during competitive play is within the rules. The USGA oversees the sport in the U.S. and Mexico, with the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrew’s, Scotland, governing the rest of the world.

An e-mail to the USGA seeking comment about using smart phones, such as Research in Motion Ltd.’s Blackberry and Apple Inc.’s iPhone, for social-media purposes during a round wasn’t immediately returned.

The USGA’s 2008 Rules of Golf make no mention of the use of handheld devices such as mobile telephones.

Rule 14-3 -- “Artificial Devices, Unusual Equipment and Unusual Use of Equipment” -- states that a player may not use any equipment “that might assist him in making a stroke or in his play; or for the purpose of gauging or measuring distance or conditions that might affect his play.” The penalty for violation of Rule 14-3 is disqualification.

Not mentioned here is that on Twitter, followers can respond to posts. And do it immediately.

So say player L had had trouble all week on 17 with club selection, she could send out a Tweet asking what the followers think of her outfit today, which could actually be code for, what are the others using on 17? Or her instructor could be watching on television and notice a swing fault and Tweet the player.

Actually, the list of potential pitfalls is quite long and I'm sure the person in LPGA headquarters who suggested this was either ignored, or was fired already. You know, those golfy people.

"With the passing of the Corning Classic the tour was losing a massive block in its foundation, a vertebra in its backbone."

Ron Sirak covered the final Corning Classic (won by Yani Tseng) and had this to say:

The Corning Classic truly captures the spirit of the LPGA, an organization that throughout its 59-year history had relied on the love and support of small-town America. And there is no market smaller or more supportive than Corning, a town of fewer than 11,000 people that managed every year to turn out 850 volunteers and upwards of 50,000 spectators.

While the community was losing the Memorial Day event that kicked off the summer tourist season in the Finger Lakes region of New York, it felt like the LPGA was losing much more than Corning. With the passing of the Corning Classic the tour was losing a massive block in its foundation, a vertebra in its backbone.

For as long as this tour has existed, places like Corning and Rochester and Toledo have been its heart and soul. And there is a sense now that is going away as the LPGA tries for bigger-market events with a more international accent.

Nancy Lopez Plotting Comeback; Still Undecided About Twittering Her Every Move

A lot has changed since Nancy Lopez dominated the women's game, but it sure would be fun to have her back.

“I do feel like a part-time golfer"

Karen Crouse looks at the LPGA's dwindling schedule in a story that is probably most noteworthy because the New York Times put it on the front page during Sybase Classic week. The Brand Lady only conducting interviews via email is also an interesting development. Can't say I think it's a bad idea.