Commissioner Dog

At Waggle Room yesterday, Ryan asked his readers what they would change if they were Commissioner of the LPGA.  Naturally I have to jump on that topic.

The very first thing I would do is work to build exposure to the Tour by aggressively encouraging any and all media to attend events free-of-charge with full credentials.  I would also insist that the players make themselves accessible to all media regardless of their official organization or lack thereof.  Credentials are already made available to most media but as Bill Jempty has documented, the process for a blogger to receive one is all but blocked.  This policy would not create a bloggy stampede at tournament sites - for economic and logistic reasons, I can assure you that the vast majority of bloggers would only be able to attend a handful of events per year.  The hoped-for result would be an increase in LPGA blog start-ups by novices (like yours truly 2.5 years ago) and increased exposure by regional media when the Tour comes around.  In exchange, a blogger would be required to publish a minimum number of posts for every day they are on-site at the event with NO restrictions on content.  Part of growing a media presence is withstanding negative press - more mainstream sports leagues deal with it (and take advantage of it) every day on a huge scale.  The blogger situation aside - I would aggressively seek out regional media coverage and make it worth their while, not just hope that Channel 5's sports department decides to drop by on Friday afternoon.  And while I'm encouraging this media infusion, I would constantly point out the dozens of interesting people playing this game whose last names are NOT Creamer, Ochoa, Wie, Gulbis or Pressel.

The second thing I would do - hire a couple more people and delegate more tournament volunteers to flesh out the holes in the statistics department.  A selfish move, I admit - but if you're going to appoint me Commissioner, I'm going to get some spoils from it!  I would primarily target gathering more detail on putting and reaching the green in regulation from various distances.  I would also want to make available more "negative" stats such as Holes-Over-Par Percentage (they count Birdies, why not Bogeys?), the dreaded "Others" category and the "on the clock" stats.  I'll bet if the slow-pokes got some publicity, any pace-of-play problems the Tour had left would fade even more.  Stats like these would help give the media I'm trying to build up more topics to discuss.

Lastly, I would try to lighten things up.  Sure - the economy sucks, the Tour has lost a couple of tournaments and a lot of people's livelihoods rest on the LPGA staying successful.  But it's ENTERTAINMENT, first and foremost.  Treat it with the level of respect it deserves, but the Commish should have a little fun with it too.  The only humorous thing I can remember Ms. Bivens saying (and it wasn't anything a lot of us weren't thinking already) was "so much for Anna Kournakova" when Natalie Gulbis won her first tournament.  Crack a real joke or make a blatantly ironic statement once in a while, will ya?