Bivens Takes Control of Championship

By Ron Sirak June 6, 2008

HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. -- Two years ago at the McDonald's LPGA Championship, Carolyn Bivens was an embattled rookie commissioner whose job appeared to be dangling by a thread. Just months after a media boycott sparked by her effort to have the tour own the rights to photographs taken during competition, three of Bivens' senior executives quit on the eve of this tournament, saying they had lost confidence in the commissioner.

In a situation that had as much to do with style as it did substance -- some saw Bivens as combative and aloof while others said she was aggressive and visionary -- the commissioner became increasingly alienated from tournament owners, sponsors, the media and a vocal minority of her players.

Still, she pushed on. Bivens was rewarded with a recent three-year contract extension. Today Bivens took another bold step toward an evolving and potentially lucrative business plan -- though one not without significant risks -- by announcing significant changes involving the tour's signature event, the LPGA Championship. The most important is that the tour will become the owner of the tournament, which will become simply, succinctly and accurately known as "The LPGA Championship" in 2010 after next year's swan song at Bulle Rock GC.

The LPGA Championship will join the ADT Championship as the only events owned by the tour. And it joins the U.S. Women's Open as a major championship not having a title sponsor, helping to restore an identity as the "players championship" undermined when McDonald's pressured the tour to change its "LPGA member-only" rule to allow Michelle Wie into the 2005 tournament as an amateur.

"The LPGA has been surviving for 58 years," Bivens told Golf World. "Now is the time to move into the world of major sports." She said that while the tournament will have no title sponsor (other than the LPGA), it will seek presenting sponsors to help with the cost of running the event -- and hope to be part of a television package that will generate revenue.

The LPGA Championship will also be moved to August (making it the last of the four majors), will have a purse of $3 million (second only to the $3.1 million paid out this year by the U.S. Women's Open), be played at a yet-to-be-determined course in the northeastern United States and be on network television. Currently, it is on the Golf Channel which, because of its 15-year deal with the PGA Tour, has limited flexibility in its broadcast window for the LPGA.

The LPGA Championship is the tour's second-oldest major, beginning in 1955, five years after the U.S. Women's Open. McDonald's has been the title sponsor since 1994, replacing Mazda, which came on board in 1987.

Among the northeast venues whispered to be on the radar screen for the LPGA Championship is The Carnegie Abbey Club, an exclusive development on Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island designed by Donald Steel. A plan to rotate the tournament among three courses, including frequent USGA host site Baltusrol GC, was dismissed as unwieldy and inefficient. DuPont, which hosted the championship from 1994-2004 and has undergone an impressive course renovation, may also be back in the mix.

With the Ricoh Women's British Open ending the first weekend in August, the LPGA Championship will have to be contested late in the month to give enough time between majors. "The contract with the new venue will be a minimum of five years and the LPGA is open to longer," Bivens told Golf World.

No money exchanged hands in the deal putting the tournament in LPGA ownership -- the contract with Bulle Rock is up after the 2009 tournament and McDonald's is on a rolling contract that may be extended in some form. Tournament co-founder Herb Lotman will remain as honorary chairman of the event. Bivens hopes LPGA ownership of its players' championship could make a reality of one of her dreams -- a meaningful pension plan for tour members.

"Could the proceeds from the LPGA Championship be the beginning of a real retirement fund?" Bivens asked rhetorically. "Could it grow into an LPGA version of the Masters? Could it contribute two, three, four, five million dollars a year to the pension fund? The business plan we have for 2010 can take this tour to a new level of financial stability."

Right now the contribution by the tour to the pension plan is about $450,000 a year, with players getting as little as $150 a month upon retirement and no more than $800 a month, with the majority on the low end. That pales in comparison to the deferred-income plan the PGA Tour has, which promises payouts in the tens of millions of dollars to some individual players. Bivens said the ADT Championship, in the first year of LPGA ownership, "had a high six-figure turnaround" on the investment made by the tour, adding to her hopes the LPGA Championship can become a significant money maker.