The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Carolyn Bivens the commissioner of the LPGA tour. She gets today's award for her repeated mishandling of relations between the pro golf tour she runs and the sponsors of tournaments. The latest debacle being the Wendy's Championship for Children, a 8-year-old event and sponsor on tour which told the LPGA the tournament was history. The reason given- a dispute over changed dates for the tournament.

Read this post of mine from two months ago. Bivens is picking unnecessary fights with tournament sponsors. There's even a dispute I didn't blog about, when Bivens snubbed a meeting of tournament sponsors. The woman is a menace and the LPGA which is shaky condition to start with, could be on the road to extinction. The players on tour need to take the LPGA away from this woman. For if they don't, there may not be a tour in five years.

For mismanaging the organization she was hired to run, Carolyn Bivens is today's Knucklehead of the day.

Note- The Columbus Dispatch article misspells Bivens name. If you want to check who is right and wrong, click here.

Linked to- Basil's Blog, Bright & Early, Cao's Blog, Jo's Cafe, Mark my Words, Right Wing Nation,

The LPGA Tour is leaving central Ohio after an eight-year run, the past six as the Wendy’s Championship for Children at Tartan Fields Golf Club in Dublin.

Wendy’s International, whose future as sponsor of the event already was in doubt, pulled the plug this week when the LPGA Tour notified the tournament that it no longer could take place in late August.

"We spent years of work (with previous commissioner Ty Votaw) to get this weekend from the LPGA," Wendy’s spokesman Denny Lynch said. "Now we hear that a new commissioner has given away those dates to another sponsor, or perhaps a new sponsor.

"We weren’t given any courtesy, no advance notice at all."

LPGA commissioner Carolyn Blevins was traveling yesterday and unavailable to comment, a spokesman said. But she said in a statement that Wendy’s and tournament organizer HNS was made aware of the possibility months ago.

"We understood in early June that HNS couldn’t commit to a date or renewal for 2007," the statement said. "At that time, HNS knew their regular date was no longer an option."

Tournament director Kip Eriksen, who works for HNS, strongly denied Blevins’ statement.

"Until last week, nobody flat-out stated that our date was moving," Eriksen said. "This came out of nowhere. We were waiting to find out if Wendy’s would be back as a sponsor, that is true. But we felt all along that our date was set."

The late August date is important because it guarantees the tournament a spot on one of ESPN’s networks, rather than The Golf Channel. Also, every other year, it serves as the final tournament in the points race that determines the U.S. field in the Solheim Cup, the LPGA equivalent to the Ryder Cup.

The LPGA hasn’t said what tournament will take over the last week of August, but it’s likely a tournament that will guarantee a larger purse.

The Wendy’s purse was $1.1 million, putting it in the lower third of the LPGA events.

Lynch said the Tour offered three other weekends on which to hold the event in the future.

"The first was Labor Day weekend, which, of course, is when the Buckeyes start playing (football)," Lynch said. "The next was Fourth of July weekend. Boy, that’s a great time to host a golf tournament."

The other was the third weekend of July, when most of the top players already have departed the United States to prepare for the Women’s British Open. It’s currently an open date on the LPGA calendar.

"None of those dates work," Lynch said. "Let’s be serious here."

Wendy’s, which is trying to cut $100 million from its annual costs, was meeting this week to determine whether it wanted to continue as sponsor, Lynch said. They’ve raised $3 million for Children’s Hospital but do not profit from the event, Lynch said.

"We hadn’t made a decision yet," Lynch said. "But once our date was gone, it made it a moot point. Six years as the title sponsor and this is how it ends up. We’re disappointed on all fronts. There’s no good news here."