US LPGA officials and players want to concentrate on this week’s US Women’s Open instead of reports that some of the tour’s top players want commissioner Carolyn Bivens to resign.
US LPGA spokesman David Higdon declined to comment on Tuesday on reports that more than a dozen players sent a letter to the tour’s board urging Bivens to step down, telling reporters in an e-mail he couldn’t comment on internal matters.
Higdon said the tour was focused “first and foremost” this week on the Open at Saucon Valley Country Club, but added the tour and its board took any topic raised by the players seriously.
Former US Women’s Open champion Cristie Kerr read a statement asking the media to restrict its questions to the event, golf — and her wine making.
Defending champion Inbee Park sidestepped the issue of US LPGA infighting, citing respect for the event.
On Monday, Golfweek Magazine reported that key players said in the letter that the tour’s woes cannot be blamed on a poor economy and that the US LPGA needs a new leader to rebuild relationships with sponsors.
The tour has lost seven tournaments since 2007.
“There are always differences of opinion on business matters, and as they arise, we resolve them as best we can in order to further the business of the LPGA,” Higdon said.
Because Kerr doesn’t hold an official position with the players’ organization, she said she couldn’t speak on US LPGA operations.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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