The McDonald’s LPGA Tournament, one of the crown jewels of the women’s golf tour, will cease to exist following this week’s finale at Bulle Rock C. C. in Maryland.
It is not clear whether the tournament, which is one of the LPGA’s four major tournaments, will continue with different sponsorship, will remain a major tourney, will remain in the mid-Atlantic region, or will survive at all. What IS clear is that the event, which, in its heyday, was contested at the DuPont C. C. for 18 consecutive years through 2004, is struggling in this economy. From Joe Juliano’s article in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer:
What Lotman and Quinn founded as the LPGA McDonald’s Classic starting in 1981 at White Manor Country Club in Malvern became the gold standard on any pro golf tour for an annual tournament that raised money for charity.
It went through a few name changes and became a major, the McDonald’s LPGA Championship, in 1994. But through all its incarnations, the event under the direction of Lotman and Quinn netted more than $47 million over the last 28 years for Ronald McDonald House Charities.
This week’s tournament, however, will be the last under the McDonald’s sponsorship. The event became a victim of a struggling economy that saw a rise in costs and reduced sponsorship combining to produce a sizable cutback on what was given to the beneficiary.
Realizing there was no reversing a downward trend that began with their final seasons at DuPont Country Club in Wilmington and continued at Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace, Md., beginning in 2005, Lotman and Quinn notified LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens that they wanted to end their involvement with the second-oldest major on the women’s tour after 2009.
Lotman said this year’s charitable contribution “probably won’t be much.”
The way that the tournament left Wilmington and questions about whether the State (i. e. Ruth Ann Minner) were sufficiently engaged, remain in dispute:
Lotman said DuPont was solidly behind the tournament for much of its 18-year run in Wilmington. The pro-am, contested on two courses during the week of the event, was getting more than $10,000 each for some spots, and DuPont provided about 100 players. Ninety percent of the sponsors were McDonald’s suppliers, he said.
“They set the bar for a lot of other events,” said Dottie Pepper, a commentator for NBC and Golf Channel who competed in the tournament during her playing career. “They leveraged their ties within McDonald’s and the food industry to raise money. They were two guys that put a stamp on the way to run a successful charity championship.”
However, times started getting tough. DuPont reduced its involvement in the pro-am, and sponsorship in the Wilmington area was drying up. The golf course was at the center of increasing complaints by players.
“The management changed at DuPont and a couple of the other large local folks stopped supporting us,” Quinn said. “So we, in effect, had to take a look at what other options we had. When you think about it, had the support continued, we’d have been there [in Wilmington] forever.”
Delaware officials protested what they called hasty action to move the tournament before they could submit a counterproposal. Lotman, however, insisted that state and DuPont officials were kept informed of their plans.
El Somnambulo remembers taking his daughters to this event. It had a lot of local support. Many of the players stayed year after year at the homes of families in the area. Delaware really lost more than just a revenue-generating event when the LPGA left town. It lost a rallying point for the entire community. ‘Bulo, for one, is sad to see this noble event disappear from the scene.