It's difficult to imagine how Carolyn Bivens must be feeling now. Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa had early exits, and to make matters worse, Sorenstam was randomly selected for a drug test after her farewell. Here's the rundown and a few notes from the last LPGA Tour event of the season, the ADT Championship:
* Paula Creamer produced a real gutsy effort this week. After going to the hospital Saturday night and fighting an ailment all week, no one would have questioned her withdrawal. But she fought it out, and finished in a tie for third, four shots behind winner Ji-Yai Shin. What a performance.
* Although she has already hinted at a return in the near future, let's say for argument's sake this was Sorenstam's last hoorah. Is there a worse way to go out--missing the cut and then having to give a urine sample? As Jay Busbee put it:
It was yet another in the long list of PR bullets that the LPGA has fired into its own feet in recent weeks, from the "Speak English or die" campaign to the "We're gonna weather this economic crisis just fine ... except for a few missing tournaments" proclamations.
* As for the format of the ADT, I have always been a fan. The PGA Tour execs. could learn a thing or two. But Brian Hewitt hits the nail on the head with this observation:
Finally, while we’re at the business of solving the LPGA’s problems, especially as they relate to ADT, the million-dollar first prize, as official money, has got to go. The amount is fine. But the fact that all of it counts as official money skews the money list. Give the winner the million bucks but make half of it official money and the other half a bonus.
The FedEx Cup first-place money doesn’t count as official money, nor will all the money earned by the winner of the first Race to Dubai. The LPGA needs to take a cue from the men, in the future, when large, season-ending sums are being doled out to its players.
