So the “brand lady,” as fellow blogger Geoff Shackelford coined her, is done. That’s right — LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens is toast after failing to stop a revolt by some of her key stars. My only encounter with Bivens happened a few years back — when she made an exceptionally odd remark about Lorne Rubenstein. Other than that, I had few strong opinions on her time as the head of the LPGA. Of course her short tenure brought lots of controversy — from the language debate last summer, to her current issues with sponsors.
However, I did recently write about the problems sponsor CN Rail was having with the LPGA. In this column, Mark Wallace, who deals with public affairs for CN, complained the organization wasn’t being listened to, despite pumping millions into the CN Canadian Womens Open. Yesterday Wallace was being much more careful with the party line:
CN will not comment on the news regarding the resignation of Carolyn Bivens nor on the status of our current negotiations other than to say we look forward to continuing to work with the RCGA and with the LPGA Tour and its new Acting Commissioner in the weeks and months ahead.
Scott Simmons, executive director of the RCGA, was more forthcoming:
I don’t think this will effect our negotiations. Things are going in the right direction. It is not going to go off the rails.
I’d been hearing talk to the contrary, so Simmons confidence was intriguing. Interestingly, Simmons said he wasn’t sure what role Bivens would have played in the negotiations, though he said when CN and RCGA execs met with the LPGA Tour last month, Bivens was at the meeting.
A bestselling author and award-winning columnist, Robert Thompson has been writing about business and sports, and particularly golf, for almost two decades. His reporting and commentary on golf has appeared in 
The more sponsors drop off, the stronger the negotiation postion CN is going to be. Perhaps this could lead to elevating the CN CDN Open to major status soon.
Pretty sure Biven will be thrown under the bus for all the ills associated with the LPGA.
‘Not going to go off the rails”, hahaha, with CN and all.
While seeing the Canadian championship return to major status would be nice and is likely deserved, it doesn’t seem likely unless one of the existing majors goes under. It really wouldn’t make much sense for the tour to simply add another major to the schedule. What would be good is a secure date and great TV coverage, along with real support from the Canadian media for women’s golf in general and the LPGA.
RT, you are such a tease.
What was the exceptionally odd remark?