"Ultimately, if the LPGA didn't seek to set a standard for English literacy it would be furthering the alienation and isolation that minority and immigrant groups have historically felt in the United States."

As with any issue dealing with race, the viewpoints are getting wilder and whackier each day with regard to the proposed LPGA English-only concept. Which, by the way is at day five and not a peep from the Commissioner! Anyway...

Beth Ann Baldry follows up on her exclusive by talking to several Koreans. Included was this observation that the LPGA's full-time English instructor might actually be making the problem worse.

Hae-Won Kang takes it a step further, saying that first-generation Koreans on the LPGA (i.e. Se Ri Pak, Hee-Won Han, Mi Hyun Kim) learned English quicker because they had little help. Since the LPGA hired a full-time staffer who is fluent in Korean and can help with interviews, Kang thinks many players have become complacent.

Brian Hewitt responds to reader emails, many of which support the LPGA Tour's position.

And SI's Farrell Evans writes that "if you want to succeed in corporate America, you may have to abandon part of your cultural identity."

Ah, that makes it so right! He also writes:

Many writers and bloggers are enjoying the opportunity to throw self-righteous grenades at the LPGA, but that's because they don't understand that being a touring pro means more than putting a ball in a hole. Public relations, sponsor seduction and fan interaction are all part of the job.

Sponsor seduction? Wow, he's right. I didn't realize that pro-am work went beyond saying "I like three inches outside the left edge."

Lamar Alexander, a Republican Senator from Tennessee, has been the most vocal proponent of an amendment that would make English mandatory in the workplace. "This is America, and in America we speak English," said Sen. Alexander, a former Secretary of Education. "Since 1906, no immigrant has been able to become an American citizen without learning English."

Why shouldn't the LPGA tour adhere to this inalienable right to mutual progress? Ultimately, if the LPGA didn't seek to set a standard for English literacy it would be furthering the alienation and isolation that minority and immigrant groups have historically felt in the United States.

Yeah, but they play a whole bunch of events outside the United States now. And the way things are going, more and more in the future.

When I finish writing this essay, I will hail a cab on St. Nicholas Ave. in Upper Manhattan. Chances are, my driver will speak almost anything but English. He will only recognize the address that I give him. We won't talk about our kids or the weather. We won't talk about why we can't talk to each other. I'll pay him and wave goodbye as I leave his car. I'll probably never see him again.

Sounds about like how most player's would like their pro-am rounds to go!

The stakes are too high for the LPGA to continue these types of casual lost-in-translation encounters. For its business to thrive in a tough economy in a sport that struggles even during the best of times, it needs more. It needs to make a statement, loud and clear.

Life isn't fair. 

Hey, at least he didn't also write that golf is a metaphor for life.

"How good is Carolyn Bivens' grasp of the game and business she is charged with running?"

An unbylined commentary from The Golf Wire became the first to focus on the role of Commissioner Carolyn Bivens in the LPGA's speak English brouhaha:

After all, this is a woman with an allegedly strong media background who managed to achieve near media blackout of the first event under her care in 2006, the Fields Open, because she thought it was a good idea to flout a century of accepted media business practice and attempt to appropriate ownership of stories and photos produced by media outlets at LPGA events. Despite the presence of Michelle Wie, who was still a media darling back then, both Honolulu newspapers, The Associated Press, Sports Illustrated and Golf World magazine were among those who did not cover the first round on Oahu.

Eventually, she had to relent. You know how testy people can get when they take on all the expense and risk, and then someone else wants to reap the benefits.

Clearly, she's gearing up next for a government job.

Her latest brainstorm attempts to nullify talent and hard work - also known as "merit" - in exchange for a better marketing and communications platform. And here we thought a commissioner's job was to create MORE opportunities for her constituents - you know, the players - and not fewer.

Speaking of the Commissioner, Doug Ferguson notes:

Strangely absent during this debate is LPGA Tour commissioner Carolyn Bivens. According to Golfweek, Bivens held a meeting with only the South Koreans last week in Portland, which led some to believe they were being singled out.

Galloway said Bivens was returning from the West Coast on Monday and Tuesday, and “I drew the long straw” to handle media inquiries.

The New York Times editorial board even weighed in, calling the new policy offensive and self-destructive.

"The LPGA wants Koreans to speak passable English but the Tour's own leadership can't communicate that fact to the players with anything approaching clarity. How's that for irony?"

Impressive coverage and diverse views continue to dominate the LPGA's English-only rule coverage, which appears widespread and mostly not positive: Dan Barnes writes:

It should be noted that the message from commissioner Carolyn Bivens was delivered to the Korean players in spoken English. There was nothing presented to them on paper or, heaven forbid, in their own language. How much got lost in translation? Plenty. Some Korean players told Golfweek, the website that broke the story, they believe they will lose their cards permanently if they can't pass the test.

And...

It's all about sponsorship, something Korean golfer Jeong Jang figured out a while ago. She told Golfweek about Cristie Kerr's acceptance speech after she won the 2005 Michelob Ultra Open.

"First thing she said to the camera was, 'I need a beer.' I still remember that. Sponsors must be proud."

Oh yeah, that was a proud Kodak moment, all right. And there could be so many more, if the LPGA's dialectal directive has its desired effect on the international membership. When Soo-Yun Kang wins the McDonald's LPGA Championship in 2009, provided she has taken all her English lessons, she can step in front of the camera and say, "I need a massive influx of fat and calories, so hand me a Big Mac.''

Now that would be a mouthful in any language.The LPGA wants Koreans to speak passable English but the Tour's own leadership can't communicate that fact to the players with anything approaching clarity. How's that for irony?

Leonard Shapiro calls the English-only rule "draconian, xenophobic and seemingly discriminatory." He also writes:

What if the tables were turned and you were sent to a foreign country to conduct your own business, only to be told that unless you learned Korean, or Japanese or Spanish you'd be out of a job? Could you do it in two years, while also putting in 50-hour or longer work weeks? Five years? Ever?

There is more than a little irony here as well. Women golfers around the globe, and particularly in the U.S., have been discriminated against for years. They've been unable to join certain clubs as full members, prohibited from teeing off on weekends until 1 p.m., told that the men's grill was truly boys only and totally off limits and totally excluded from any membership at all in places like Augusta National, Pine Valley and Burning Tree.

And now one of the most powerful women's sports organizations in the world is actually going to discriminate against some of its very own international female members because they're not proficient in English? It's absurd, it's dead wrong and clearly contrary to the Olympic ideal that rewards only the fastest and the strongest, not the athlete who gives the best press conference for the American media.

Ron Sirak shares this from an LPGA player agent:

"Next year there will be LPGA events in Thailand, Singapore, China, Korea and Japan and the tour has said it has its eye on India and the Middle East as well," notes another agent who also asked that his name not be used. "Will Americans who win in those countries be expected to give their speech in the local language?"

Jay Coffin says "good idea, poor execution" but also writes that "Suspension is too harsh a penalty. An LPGA card is earned from talent, now that status can be taken away for a reason other than talent. There’s something fundamentally wrong with this concept."

Alan Shipnuck considers the legality of the rule.

So-called English-only rules in the workplace are an emerging body of law; the Supreme Court has yet to weigh in. One high-profile recent case, still pending, centered on a Connecticut sheet-metal factory that made English compulsory. The attorney for the workers, Steven D. Jacobs, tells GOLF.com: "Over the last 10 years, there have been a number of decisions in this area, and the courts have consistently decreed that it is permissible for an employer to mandate English-only for two narrow reasons: safety" — air-traffic control being an obvious example — "and efficiency" — such as telephone customer service.

"And that's it," Jacobs continued. "With regards to the LPGA, safety is obviously a non-factor. So the issue becomes, is the language a player speaks fundamental to the competition? I would not want to be the one who has to make that case."

Jon Show at Sports Business Daily counters with this:

LPGA Deputy Commissioner Libba Galloway said the policy was vetted with attorneys familiar with workplace laws. “Legal businesses and membership organizations have the right to make certain requirements that are fundamental to their businesses,” Galloway said. A formal copy of the policy was not available, said Galloway, because it will not be finalized until the end of this year.

Can't wait for the day that's leaked!

Larry Dorman says the "policy has touched an international nerve" and writes:

Because of the manner in which the information seeped out, and because the L.P.G.A. tour has not finished drafting a written version of the policy, the organization has been both pilloried and praised around the globe.

If the L.P.G.A. hoped to use this as a trial balloon, it has plenty of material to wade through before a final document is forged. Harrington, for example, raised many questions those in the L.P.G.A.’s headquarters in Daytona Beach, Fla., might want to consider.

“Do you have to pass an exam?” said Harrington, an Irishman who has won three of the last six major championships. “Surely if you can say hello, that’s English. Is that good enough? Who draws the line about how many words you’ve got to know in English?

“Obviously some people are natural talkers and some people aren’t. What if you have a person who genuinely struggles with learning new language, they have a learning disability? That’s tough to ask somebody with a learning disability who might have found golf as the saving grace in their life, to ask them to learn a different language or else you can’t play.”

And it didn't take long for the satirical columns to start. Bill Nichols in the Dallas Morning News:

As a public service, here are five more requirements for LPGA consideration:
•Minimum score of 1,350 on the SAT or 31 on the ACT
•2,000-word essay on character construction in Finnegan's Wake
•Minimum height of 5-3, maximum height of 5-10
•Change a flat tire in 20 minutes (using an American car, of course)
•Look like Natalie Gulbis

"The LPGA could lose some tremendous players if it's not careful."

As expected the initial reactions to Beth Ann Baldry's exclusive on the LPGA's new English-speaking requirement were not positive and raised several major questions. We'll get to those in a moment, but having 24 hours to sit on this it strikes me that the hypocrisy here is truly breathtaking. As the LPGA struggles to get sponsors and takes more and more events to Asia, they are instituted a racist policy that could ultimately weed out the number of South Korean players.

In the AP story (Doug Ferguson?), Angela Park says:

...born in Brazil of South Korean heritage and raised in the United States -- said the policy is fair and good for the tour and its international players.

"A lot of Korean players think they are being targeted, but it's just because there are so many of them," Park said.

Seon-Hwa Lee, the only Asian with multiple victories this year, said she works with an English tutor in the winter. Her ability to answer questions without the help of a translator has improved in her short time on tour.

"The economy is bad, and we are losing sponsors," Lee said. "Everybody understands."

Somehow I doubt that.

The USA Today's Steve DiMeglio talks to several folks and gets a variety of reactions. Ms. Chokinfreakindogs likes the policy.

"That's why I don't think this is an overall bad thing," Dottie Pepper, the former LPGA star and current golf analyst, said of the LPGA tour's new policy requiring its member golfers to speak English or face suspension. "And I think it also can really help the players become more comfortable in the environment they play."

The LPGA policy says players who have been on the tour for two years can be suspended if they fail an oral evaluation of their English proficiency starting at the end of the 2009 season.

The tour provides tutoring and language-learning software to its players and will work with those who fail the test.

"It's something that has been coming about gradually," said LPGA deputy commissioner Libba Galloway, who added that only a few of the organization's members can't speak English. "We're more of an international tour now, but we're an American-based tour and the players need the tools to interact with fans and sponsors. One of those tools is to speak English."

We're more of an international tour now but we're an American based tour. You sure that wasn't Yogi? DiMeglio also offers this:

No major U.S. sports leagues, however, require players to speak English. Nor do the PGA Tour or ATP.

"We are proud to have tournaments in 30 countries and players from over 100 competing in them and have no plans to impose a common language on them," ATP spokesman Kris Dent said.

Eunsook Lee, executive director of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium in Los Angeles, finds the new policy ironic coming on the heels of the Olympics, which she said were about fostering understanding. "It sounds like a step backward for golf," she said.

Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida, said a language requirement could be in violation of state law.

"Florida law prohibits discrimination in public accommodations," he said. "They may well violate Florida discrimination laws because language is a key element of person's national origin. People should be judged on their ability to perform a job. English fluency has no more to do with the ability to play 18 holes of golf than whether you walk 18 holes or ride 18 holes."

Galloway, however, said the LPGA can stand its legal ground. "Organizations and businesses in general have the right to make requirements on skill sets necessary for their employers," she said. "We as a membership organization have the right to establish obligations that our members must adhere to in order to do the things fundamental to conduct our business."

Ah the skill sets...wonder when we'd get some corporatespeak in there. Are LPGA players employees? Who knew?

Garry Smits brings up this credibility killer for the LPGA Board:

The rule wouldn’t be in effect if the Executive Committee wasn’t on board. The LPGA Board of Directors has 18 members, 12 of them who are players. The PGA Tour, on the other hand, has a nine-member board, and only four are players. As a result, the LPGA board, by sheer numbers, speaks more to the will of the overall membership.

However, it should be noted that every one of the 12 players on the board is American. Despite having the second-largest demographic group on the LPGA (behind Americans), there are no South Koreans on the board.

Lorne Rubenstein writes:

It makes sense that players who don't speak English should try to learn the language. Most players do try, and the LPGA makes the Rosetta Stone language-training program available to its members. But it can take a long time to get comfortable in a foreign language. My wife taught college English for nearly 30 years, often to people for whom English was a second or third language. A certain percentage of these students never became fluent in English, no matter how hard they worked. Canada and the United States are full of immigrants who can't speak English after years of taking lessons.

Smacking a two-year time period on golfers to learn English, then, smacks of xenophobia in the extreme. The idea is offensive, and its implementation is sure to generate hostility and anxiety.

The LPGA could lose some tremendous players if it's not careful. Imagine a scenario where a player who can't speak English to LPGA standards wins a major championship in her rookie year. She has two years to learn English or face suspension. She doesn't learn it, and she's suspended. The LPGA says it will provide tutoring and then do another evaluation, but there are no guarantees the lessons will take.

Ouch. Oh he's not done.

It's an American tour? The LPGA is in Canada, Singapore, Mexico, France, England, South Korea and Japan. Should Paula Creamer have to speak Korean if she plays in South Korea? Should Natalie Gulbis have to speak Spanish if she plays the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Mexico come November?

The fault isn't with players who can't speak English. They are who they are. The LPGA is running scared. It needs to embrace golf as a global game and welcome foreign players, including those who don't speak English.

Instead, the LPGA Tour is threatening those players. When it comes to players who don't speak English "properly," it appears LPGA should stand for "Ladies, Please Go Away." Just watch the blowback from this one.

The OC Register's Mark Whicker adds...

But Fernando Valenzuela hardly ever did an organized interview in English. Vladimir Guerrero doesn't do them now, and neither does Bartolo Colon or Ichiro Suzuki. Neither do K.J. Choi or Shigeki Maruyama on the PGA Tour.

It's not that they can't speak English. Most of them can at least fake it. They just don't want to be ridiculed because they can't speak smoothly in the American vernacular. They also fear saying something impolitic or inaccurate. As we all can. Hey, even Joe Biden sprains his tongue.

The American players are fully behind the English rule. They figure that if the Koreans are learning proper verb conjugation, they won't be practicing as much and, therefore, beating American brains out every week.

And Lori Kane becomes one of the first players to question the policy:

 "I am of a strong belief that, yes, we need to learn to communicate," Kane, a 12-year tour veteran, told The Canadian Press on Tuesday. "But whether or not you can communicate shouldn't determine whether or not you have a card on the LPGA Tour."

Brand Lady: Learn English Or It's Sayonara!

This story has the potential to explode into one of those Jimmy The Greek, Ben Wright-style clashes where the PC police take on the perpetrator, in this case, the LPGA Tour. Frankly, I might actually not blame the PC police on this one. Beth Ann Baldry reports:

At a mandatory South Korean player meeting Aug. 20 at the Safeway Classic, the tour informed its largest international contingent that beginning in 2009, all players who have been on tour for two years must pass an oral evaluation of their English skills. Failure would result in a suspended membership.

“Hopefully what we’re talking about is something that will not happen,” said Libba Galloway, the tour’s deputy commissioner, of possible suspensions. “If it does, we wouldn’t just say, ‘Come back next year.’ What we would do is work with them on where they fell short, provide them the resources they need, the tutoring . . . and when we feel like they need to be evaluated again, we would evaluate.”

Galloway said the policy takes effect immediately, but the “measurement time will be at the end of 2009.” There are 121 international players from 26 countries on tour; 45 are South Koreans.

Hilary Lunke, president of the Player Executive Committee, said much of this initiative stems from the importance of being able to entertain pro-am partners. Players already are fined if the LPGA receives complaints from their pro-am partners. Now the tour is taking it one step further.

“The bottom line is, we don’t have a job if we don’t entertain,” Lunke said. “In my mind, that’s as big a part of the job as shooting under par.”

Okay, so they learn some rudimentary English, which actually gives them a leg up on the Commissioner.

Is the pro-am conversation really going to get beyond "good shot" and "left edge" and "nice meeting you"? Unbelievable.

This, is going to get ugly.

"It's a travesty that the LPGA would allow this happen"

Thanks to reader Jim for this Michael McGarry story where he gets in touch with the former ShopRite Classic folks to see if they'll be getting the band back together now that the Ginn event has folded.

"It's a travesty that the LPGA would allow this happen," former Classic executive director Ruth Harrison said Friday. "We were there for 21 years, and (the LPGA) trashes our event for one with no track record."

At the time the decision was made, Classic officials questioned how long the Ginn Tribute would last.

"I would never wish for the LPGA to be unsuccessful," former Classic director of communications Rodger Gottlieb said Friday. "That wouldn't give us any degree of satisfaction. But this (the demise of the Ginn Tribute) validates a view we've had all along."

Bivens issued a written statement about Ginn on Friday. It did not mention the Classic.

Brand Lady: Can You Spare $4 Million?

Jon Show reports that the LPGA is seeking a $4 million sponsor to oversee an 8-event run in the vein of the FedEx deal the PGA Tour inked, but as he buries in the last sentence:

Also complicating matters is the roughly $20 million in event sponsorships the LPGA already has on the market.

Another complication that also puts the, gulp, value of the LPGA sponsorships in perspective comes in this story (also by Show) on the PGA of America's attempts to lock up two more partners at a pretty hefty figure.

The PGA of America, one year after announcing American Express and RBS as its first official patron-level sponsors, is still trying to complete the final two remaining deals. The first two companies were signed to four-year agreements at an average of $7 million to $9 million annually,

“To be honest, I don’t think to this day I will ever in my life do an interview with her"

And you think the men are overly-sensitive when it comes to Johnny Miller's comments, check out the Laura Diaz-Dottie Pepper spat over the "chokin freakin dogs" comment from nearly a year ago. Beth Ann Baldry reports:

The row between Pepper, Diaz and the rest of Team USA started during last year’s Solheim Cup when Pepper referred to U.S. players as “chokin’ freakin’ dogs” on air Saturday afternoon when she thought the broadcast had gone to commercial break.

“To be honest, I don’t think to this day I will ever in my life do an interview with her,” said Diaz, who sits two shots off the lead midway through the second round. “It really affected me, and Solheim wasn’t a time to talk about it.”

Oy...

“The way Laura has chosen to handle the situation publicly is really disappointing,” Pepper said via e-mail Aug. 1. “I hope her heart will at some point recognize the comment was not personal, highly emotional and certainly never meant to be heard over the air. I have made myself available to her, but she has chosen not to talk, scream at me or whatever else she feels she needs to do for her peace of mind.”

Diaz said Pepper bruised her heart more than anything else. Pepper dated Diaz’s older brother, Ron, for two years in college. This was personal.

“Dottie was a family member to me,” Diaz said, “and I don’t even see her as a friend anymore.”

Double oy...get over it Laura.

"Last year there were at least six such DQs."

In the July 25th Golf World, Ron Sirak pens "The View" titled "Defending the Rules" (not posted online). In it he notes this item related to the Michelle Wie scorecard signing incident:

In truth, the LPGA went out of its way to be fair. Tour officials did not find [out] about the Friday incident until after Wie teed off Saturday. After clarifying the rule with the USGA, the tour decided to let Wie finish her round uncluttered by the issue and then allow her to respond to the accusation. To her credit she verified the account.

To think this is some vendetta against Wie is simply wrong. According to the LPGA, her's was the fourth DQ this year for failing to sign, one of which occurred after the player in question had taken only a step outside the scoring area. Last year there were at least six such DQs.

I don't believe anyone sees this as an LPGA vendetta, do they? Seems more like LPGA incompetence or budget restrictions. Incompetence gets the nod here because, really, ten DQs in the last year or so?

In the interest of players, fans or sponsors, at what point do you (A) put an official in the scoring room (B) get local LPGA or PGA members to man the scoring tent or (C) put up an enormous sign on the back of the door saying, SIGN YOUR CARD, LADIES!

I contacted the PGA Tour to find out how many times a player was DQ'd for not signing their card in the last year.

Zero.

How many times this century?

Zero.

The last time that a PGA Tour player did not sign his card was 1997. 2005 (see JohnV's link below).

"The AP did neither, it contends, but that's not the main thrust here."

In last week's "message from headquarters," LPGA Commish Carolyn Bivens made a big fuss about the AP running a corrected story, when, as was pointed out here, there wasn't much to correct.

Seems, the AP did not correct the story, as Thomas Bonk writes in his LATimes.com column:

Four days later, in a two-page memo from Commissioner Carolyn Bivens to LPGA members (but leaked to news agencies all over the place), Bivens explains the incident, defends the rules official and says the Associated Press misquoted the official and ran a correction.

The AP did neither, it contends, but that's not the main thrust here. Why such a memo was necessary in the first place is an issue, but then so is a potentially greater after-effect, such as, why give the impression that you're picking on Wie again when the thing is already done?

"The LGU had an open mind about Scottish venues and did not rule out the possibility of also utilising more modern links..."

An unbylined Scotsman story says the Women's British Open has been locked into Scotland five times between 2011 and 2020. I share this not because you need to mark your calendar, but because this caught my eye:

In a break with past practice which prevented the LGU from staging its flagship event at a men only club, Shona Malcolm, the chief executive of the LGU, indicated it would now be happy to hold discussions with either Muirfield or Royal Troon, the two Scottish links on the Open rota where the clubs don't have women members, about staging the Women's British Open.

Malcolm also revealed that the championship would not necessarily be held on a links and they would look at outstanding parkland courses on a par with Gleneagles and Loch Lomond. She said the LGU had an open mind about Scottish venues and did not rule out the possibility of also utilising more modern links such as Kingsbarns, near St Andrews, Archerfield in East Lothian and Dundonald in Ayrshire.

"The rules are the rules."

Thanks to the reader who forwarded this letter from the Brand Lady regarding the most recent Michelle Wie incident, which went out to friends of the LPGA Tour and LPGA members. Bloggers were not included.

While Commish Bivens clarifies several key points related to timing and the circumstances, I'm surprised she had to clarify the comments of Sue Winters as not being a put down of Michelle Wie (must have been a big part of the fan email?).

The fundamental question still has not been answered: why does the LPGA lack an official in the scoring tent like other
major tours?

Here's the letter, minus the fully branded e-stationary announcing a "A Message From Headquarters."

Carolyn F. Bivens
LPGA Commissioner 

July 23, 2008

Dear LPGA members:

Since the LPGA disqualified Michelle Wie from last weekend’s LPGA State Farm Classic for not signing her second-round scorecard, the LPGA has been the subject of countless feedback e-mails, blogs and phone calls to LPGA headquarters.  Many of these have had varying and inaccurate accounts of what happened and why the various steps were taken when.  All of this has confused and angered individuals, when in fact we enforced a very clear-cut rules infraction.  I also understand that many of you have experienced first-hand the emotion that this decision has created.

 With this in mind, I would like to share with you the details and timeline of the events relating to the rules decision so you will have all of the information relating to the events at the LPGA State Farm Classic, and be as informed as possible to share the information with anyone you may come across.

Timeline/details

Friday, July 18

-          After the second round, Michelle turned in her score card and left the roped scoring area without signing her card. A scoring volunteer noticed that the card was missing Michelle’s signature and caught up with her approximately 40 yards from the tent. The volunteer asked her to sign the card, which she did.

-          When LPGA Officials were verifying cards and scores on Friday evening, they had a fully signed card. They did not know that Michelle left the scoring area without signing her score card.  They had a signed card – for all players – and proceeded with the daily round verification.

Saturday, July 19

-          While the third round was underway – and all players were on the course -- an LPGA staff member overheard volunteers discussing the events from Friday re: Michelle’s card and the staff member asked the volunteers to recount the situation.  Realizing there was an issue, the staff member alerted an LPGA Official.  The LPGA Officials gathered the facts and interviewed various individuals – some of whom were onsite and some who were not working the event that day -- and all repo rted the same story.  LPGA Officials decided not to disrupt the pairing and determined they would speak with Michelle when she completed her round.  It was important to get Michelle’s side of the story, but interrupting the round would have impacted Michelle’s fellow competitors as well.  When the round was complete and she was advised of the situation, Michelle confirmed the details and the LPGA imposed the disqualification effective with the end of the second round.

-          LPGA Officials were in contact with the USGA as soon as the incident was reported. The on-site officials proceeded cautiously and correctly.

 Rules infraction

-          Rule 6-6b. – Signing and Returning Score Card governed the situation:  After completion of the round, the competitor should check his score for each hole and settle any doubtful points with the Committee.  He must ensure that the marker or markers have signed the score card, sign the score card himself a nd return it to the Committee as soon as possible.

-          The 2008 LPGA Rules of Play define the scoring area as the roped area defining the boundary of the scoring tent.  Supplementary rules of play stipulate that the scoring area boundary may instead be defined by a white line, which has the effect of decreasing the size of the scoring area.  The white line was not deemed necessary this week and was not put in place, and as a result the boundary is the scoring tent.  Prior to signing her card, Michelle left the defined scoring area.

I addition, there has been some misunderstanding about comments made by Sue Witters, LPGA director of tournament operations and the lead official in this situation.  The initial AP story that ran misquoted Sue. Acknowledging the error, the AP ran a corrected story.  However, for those who only viewed the original story, it is important to know Sue’s comments in the press conference were referencing her own emotion when she had to notify Michelle; the comments were not directed at or describing Michelle.  In fact, Sue represented the LPGA in a way that we can all be proud of. She handled the situation with the utmost care and attention.

In the end, we should all hold our head up high knowing that our organization upheld the rules of golf and administered them with Michelle the same way they have been applied to every player since the LPGA’s founding in 1950.  The rules are the rules.

Should you have any questions about this or need additional clarification, please let me know.


Best regards,

Carolyn F. Bivens

Let's not pat ourselves on the back too much here CB. This would not have happened on the PGA Tour. Where, incidentally Michelle will be teeing it up soon.

Wie Allowed To Finish Round Before Being DQ'd

This just looks awful for the LPGA more than Michelle Wie or the Rules of Golf.

How do not have an official from the Tour doing scorecards and preventing this?

Sue Witters, the LPGA's director of tournament competitions, disqualified Wie in a small office in an LPGA trailer at the golf course after asking her what had happened.

"She was like a little kid after you tell them there's no Santa Claus," Witters said.

Wie said that after she finished her round on Friday, she left the tent where players sign their scorecards and was chased down by some of the tournament volunteers working in the tent who pointed out she hadn't signed.

Wie returned to the tent and signed the card.

"I thought it would be OK," she said.

But Wie, according to Witters, had already walked outside the roped-off area around the tent. At that point, the mistake was final.

Are you kidding me? No...

According to the LPGA statement, LPGA rules dictate that the scoring area is the roped area defining the boundary of the scoring tent.

The area may also be marked by a white line, which has the effect of decreasing the size of the scoring area. At the State Farm Classic, the white line wasn't deemed necessary and as a result, the scoring area was the tent.

Witters said she and other tour officials didn't learn about the error from volunteers until well after Wie teed off Saturday. They let her finish the round, then took her to the office where she and her caddy, Tim Vickers, were informed of the ruling.

Wie, who is playing a part-time schedule while attending Stanford, opened with a 5-under 67 and followed with rounds of 65 and 67 -- though the last two won't count.