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Libba Galloway, the LPGA’s deputy commissioner, is one of several casualties of an LPGA downsizing that occurred Oct. 7.
In a staff meeting held shortly before noon at the tour’s Daytona Beach, Fla., headquarters, acting commissioner Marty Evans told employees that a shrinking tournament schedule in 2010 – and resulting revenue decline – forced the job cuts. In addition to the deputy commissioner, who will remain onboard through the end of the year, seven staff members lost their jobs, a source told Golfweek. It was not known if their terminations were effective immediately.
According to a source, Evans, who is serving as the tour’s chief only until a permanent replacement is found, told the staff that she made the cuts now because she didn’t want the incoming commissioner to inherit staffing concerns.
In addition, Evans said she was in a position to evaluate personnel needs more efficiently than her successor, freeing the new commissioner to tackle weightier issues facing the tour. She declined to release the names of the seven employees. The LPGA had a similar downsizing in January.
Former commissioner Carolyn Bivens brought back the position of deputy commissioner in 2007 and promoted Galloway to the post. Galloway, a member of the LPGA staff since ’00, will transition out of the association.
“Due to the changes in our tournament business and other effects of the worldwide recession, the LPGA has been forced to eliminate the position of deputy commissioner effective Dec. 31, 2009,” Evans said in a statement.
Galloway was thrust into the spotlight last year as the spokesperson for the LPGA during the English-language policy debacle. Before her job as deputy commissioner, Galloway was an LPGA executive vice president, where she guided the tour’s legal affairs, television distribution and tournament-operations staff.
The tour did not specify who would assume Galloway’s responsibilities.
The LPGA’s search for a commissioner begins another round of interviews this week. The tour hopes to have a new leader in place by the end of the month, sources said.
