"The penalty wasn’t something that was decided overnight. There was lots of feedback and lots of reasons."

You have to give Carolyn Bivens big points for sitting down with Beth Ann Baldry since it was Baldry who broke the LPGA's learn-corporatespeak-or-else provision. And credit Baldry for asking tough questions.

GW: Looking back on the way everything developed, is there anything you would do differently? Is there anything the LPGA has learned from this?

CB: We learn from everything.

GW: Would you care to expand on that?

CB: The only thing I would expand on there is that this was not an announcement and it was not a policy. Unfortunately that is the way that it was portrayed.

In her defense, the media did blow that. Check out this L.A. Times front page story.  But isn't this kind of overblown reporting typically a consequence when word gets out about a boneheaded, insensitive policy?

GW: But it was a rule. There was a very strict penalty.

CB: I said it wasn’t a policy. It was a small part of a program. There was feedback from lots of different groups, just as Rae Evans told you. . . . On Sunday I was in Albany, and we have 10 new members of the LPGA. Half of those are international players. The list for Qualifying School was released this morning; we have almost 70 international players. That provides both challenges and opportunities for us. . . . What we were doing is looking down the pipeline and saying this is the perfect time of year to be looking at what’s coming to the LPGA over the next couple years and make sure we’ve got the resources and support to be able to handle that.

GW: So it wasn’t so much the current players on tour as it was looking ahead.

CB: Correct.

Are we now putting lipstick on a pig? Wait, don't accuse me of calling the Commissioner a pig!

GW: Looking at it now, do you realize or recognize that the penalty portion was a mistake?

CB: The penalty wasn’t something that was decided overnight. There was lots of feedback and lots of reasons.

Would that last sentence be allowed on the LPGA's English exam?

GW: Looking back on it now, do you wish you have discussed the penalty portion with more sponsors or...

CB: Sponsors never want to be part of these decisions.

Huh, she told Tommy Hicks the same day that "we were addressing sponsors' needs and requirements."

GW: Whom will you consult now, going forward? Will you include more people on this?

CB: What do they say . . . a camel is a horse built by a committee?

Good animal metaphor, much better than lipstick on a pig. I have a lot to learn.

What we need to be able to do is include enough for a cross-cultural group and to be able to control and announce. And not have something play in primetime way before it was ready. It was never intended as an announcement.

Got that Beth Ann. It's all your fault!

Speaking of fault, Ron Sirak says that the LPGA's triple-bogey could impact the Olympic golf push.

Fathers are angrier than their daughters at a perceived cultural insult, and the jury is still out on the mood of Korean companies who pour millions into the LPGA and have great national pride. The issue also may impact next year's vote on whether to add golf to the 2016 Olympics. It's the kind of insult the IOC remembers, such as when the Atlanta games proposed Augusta National as the golf venue.