Courtney alerted us to the interview between Golfweek's Beth Ann Baldry and the LPGA Tour Commissioner Carolyn Bivens.  It was conducted yesterday before the Bell Micro LPGA event in Alabama this week.

There is basically no useful information in this interview.  That is what makes it sad and simultaneously awesome.  Bivens is clearly peeved at Baldry for starting this whole situation - at least in her eyes - through the initial report.  I still contend that Baldry didn't get the facts wrong in her initial report.  After that, the media ran with it.  (If Baldry didn't do it, someone else would have.)

Baldry clearly thinks that Bivens is a goof for even trying this stunt and you can clearly read it in her line of questioning.

Put the two together and, after the jump, we have magic.

Where to begin?

How about the second question.

GW: If that’s the case, then why did you change the policy?
CB: It isn’t a policy. It’s a program. What we did was rescind the playing suspension.

But Bivens' response in the first question?

Golfweek: Can you take me through last week and how you went from Tuesday’s memo to Friday’s memo?
Carolyn Bivens: What we said in the policy was that we listened to the feedback.

So, which is it, Commish?  And why is that such a point of contention.  It's semantics.

That got things going on the wrong foot, though.  Which led into this gem.

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.

Again with the semantics!  Yes, the LPGA has had a language initiative with KOLON and Rosetta Stone, etc, for quite some time now.  But to announce pending suspensions for the inability to progress in the program as needed is a policy announcement.  I have a Public Policy degree; I should know a little something about what makes a policy.

More interesting, though, is what is missing from the "What I learned" response.  How about communicating better with the media and the sponsors?  How about not taking a vacation while announcing the most controversial policy of your three year tenure as Commissioner?  No?

Speaking of the sponsors...

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.

You might want to tell that to your friends at State Farm, Wegmans, and John Q Hammons.

For as little information as their actually is in the piece, it is worth the read.

Also, on the same day, Bivens spoke with Tommy Hicks of the Press-Register.  She contradicted herself in two interviews on the same day.

She said the meeting was meant to address those issues, as well as issues that would assist players in marketing, communication and competition, but what was highlighted "was about 10 percent" of what was discussed. "We were addressing sponsors' needs and requirements."

But, I gotta give Bivens props for being real with this:

"The average fan actually understands the actual intentions of the program better than others do. We get feedback from our players, our tournament directors and our sponsors.

"Some of the media misunderstood aspects of all this."

While I don't think a lot of fans knew about the language program (NOT A POLICY!), I definitely agree that a lot of the media missed the mark on this.  Bivens is definitely at fault for leaving it up to the media, though, to share the information that she says wasn't even supposed to be made known yet.