But to the dismay of not only the fans of the LPGA Tour but the media itself, the announcement was really no announcement. Here is what usually happens at these affairs. You find a place to do the announcement and everyone likes to do these things in New York City because you get a lot of media folks to attend. Then you either get Golf Channel or ESPN to put your announcement on live, then get the media to participate in a conference call and ask questions for the new commissioner and Marty Evans, who is acting commissioner.

This is PR 101 and anyone involved with this should know this.
Except for the LPGA who didn't know of this.
Maybe it's because they fired their VP of communication Connie Wilson two weeks ago and maybe it was because one of their brightest PR gals Dana Gross-Rhode quit last week (out of disgust over what was happening to everyone at the LPGA?). Of course we will be able to see the conference tonight on Golf Central, but as far as the golfing media getting introduced to Whan, that never happened and won't happen until Whan is formally introduced at the Tour Championship in Houston next month.

A note to the new commissioner, congratulations for the appointment and as your first act can you find some new PR folks that know what they are doing? To give the PR machine the benefit of doubt, maybe this story leaked and they felt that they had to be the ones to announce it and didn't follow through properly. Still things were botched up and not handled right.

In doing some investigating and it's hard to find the truth here, it seems the LPGAs first mistake was going to New York and having it held at Madison Square Garden. Guess the people that concocted this up didn't know that tonight the New York Yankees are playing the first game of the World Series in New York. For the average New Yorker this is the only thing happening right now and for the local media and every satellite truck they are all at Yankee Stadium. I bet you that the LPGA also didn't realize that having a conference like this at Madison Square Garden costs of fortune, because the arena is a union shop and MSG people have to run everything associated with TV feeds and telecommunications. And the price for all of this is a kings ransom, probably higher than the LPGA wanted to pay.

I can bet you any amount of money that the PR folks never realized this until it was too late and that is the reason for no real announcement. If there were brighter heads involved someone in the early stages would of contacted either the Golf Channel or ESPN on where the best place would have been to do this announcement. When they announced Bivens firing, they did it at LPGA headquarters in Daytona Beach and got the Golf Channel to do it live.

As far as the new commissioner we are told by the LPGA Tour in the first paragraph of the announcement that Whan was the President and Chief Executive Officer of a company that made hockey helmets and that he does have a background in golf as the Executive VP and General Manager of Taylormade-Adidas Golf.

The only problem is that Whan hasn't been in golf for the last decade, his stints in golf at Wilson was between 1994 and '95 and he was at Taylormade-Adidas just after that, so it's been a while since he has been involved in Golf. So when he starts his job in January, his rolodex or shall we say Blackberry may not have in it the key players that get business done in golf.

Now we are told to believe that Whan is a marketing genius and has a lot of leadership experience, something that has sorely been missed at the LPGA. I also find it funny the words of Helen Alfredsson in the LPGA release:

“We interviewed a number of great candidates, but Mike really stood out as someone with integrity, honesty and a life-long passion for the sport,” Alfredsson said. “He will bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the LPGA at a critical time for our association.”

Guess that was an important aspect of picking someone, to have integrity, honesty and a life-long passion for the sport, things that many are saying was missing from Ms. Bivens. And speaking of Ms. Bivens, many have wondered what has happened to her? It's the classic story of what has happened in corporate America today, Ms. Bivens left the LPGA Tour with a big payout that was just at a million dollars which has left the LPGA scrambling for some money. It's funny how the heads of companies always seem to come out of messes smelling like a rose while others inside the company get the wrath for there mistakes. I have to wonder if Libba Galloway, Connie Wilson and the other six that were dismissed did as well as Ms. Bivens?

Now I don't want to paint a completely negative picture on this, many are saying that Whan could turn out to be a home run. Insiders are saying that Whan has the energy, ingenuity and talents to not only get the LPGA on the right track, but add some new ideas in marketing the LPGA better. Still he has a lot of negative things going for him like tournament sponsors ready to bail, a lack of Americans that win on the LPGA, Koreans that are not media savvy, plus a television contract that lasts for ten years that won't be bringing in the revenue to help the LPGA in years to come.

For the sake of golf we can only hope that Whan hits a grand slam. All of us in the business of golf have had nothing but bad news for over a year now. Without a healthy LPGA the world of golf will be incomplete and will be another segment lost. So for the sake of golf we should all welcome Mr. Whan and help him get started in fixing all of the problems with the LPGA Tour.