Bivens Resignation Official: Evans Interim Commissioner

The LPGA announced this afternoon that Carolyn Bivens had resigned and that Board of Directors member Marsha Evans would become Interim Commissioner, both effective immediately.

Evans has been a Board member since the beginning of this year and was a member of the Commissioner's Advisory Council for two years prior to that.  She is a retired Admiral in the U.S. Navy, having spent 30 years in the service.  Evans made it clear at today's press conference that she is not interested in taking the position full-time, and a four-member panel (which includes Juli Inkster and Helen Alfredsson) has been appointed to conduct the search for that full-time replacement.

Two things about today's announcement give me slight concern for the interim future.  First, Evans being on the Advisory Council since early 2007.  That means she was presumably involved in making many of the decisions that Bivens took heat for.  Hopefully she was a dissenter in some of those decisions.  Secondly, the only member of the Board in attendance at today's press conference other than Chairman Dawn Hudson was Christina Kim, who was quoted last week as supporting Bivens and not understanding why other players were unsatisfied with the Commissioner.  It is surprising to me that none of the dissenting players (or Directors) were in the room.  These two items may mean nothing but since they jumped out at me, I felt them worth mentioning.

I wish the Executive Search Committee good luck in their work.  The LPGA needs a strong but flexible personality to guide it through the tough road ahead and I'm not sure many worthy candidates will be interested.  One thing is for sure - that person won't have much difficulty surpassing the legacy of his predecessor.