NY-based Internet company Area Web.com has become title
sponsor of the LPGA Tour event in Sutton, MA, on August 2-8,
according to Susan Bickelhaupt of the BOSTON GLOBE. Area
Web.com Chair Dominic Caloia, on why the partnership fit:
"First, women in golf are fantastic role models. Further,
women make up 50 percent of on-line users, so it seemed a
natural we'd sponsor a tournament to reach that kind of
audience" (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/22). Also in Boston, Joe Gordon
reports that the event will be called the "Area Web.com
Challenge." Caloia said that the sponsorship is a one-year
deal, but the company's "intention is to sponsor it (on a
longer-term basis) and I think we might change the name from
Challenge to Classic after that" (BOSTON HERALD, 4/22).
Meanwhile, Subaru of America has signed two-year deal to
become the title sponsor of the LPGA Tour's Naples, FL,
January stop (LPGA). Subaru also signed endorsement deals
with LPGA golfers Juli Inkster and Meg Mallon (AP, 4/21).
HEY ST. JUDE: In Nashville, Joe Biddle reports that St.
Jude Children's Research Hospital of Memphis "has been
recruited as a charity sponsor in an attempt to keep"
Nashville's LPGA event in the city beyond '99. Sara Lee
will drop its title sponsorship this year. Mike Eller, co-
Owner of the Hermitage Golf Course, the event's site, on the
tie with St. Jude: "When we agreed to go in together on
this, they told me they had some corporate people interested
... and between the two of us we should be able to come up
with a corporate sponsor." Eller said that he has no more
"than two months" after this year's Sara Lee Classic to find
a title sponsor, and that if "he is unable to do so, there
will be no LPGA event in Nashville" (TENNESSEAN, 4/22).
THE TY THAT BINDS: In Chicago, Greg Couch examines the
ability of the LPGA to attract and keep sponsors and writes
that Tour Commissioner Ty Votaw "does understand ... the
tour's never-ending juggling act. Lose two sponsors, find
one. Find two, lose one. What is the LPGA's problem with
sponsors?" Couch floats continued speculation that sponsors
are wary of the LPGA over perceived lesbianism on the Tour.
Votaw: "Someone needs to point to me the evidence. Yes,
there are people who don't want to associate with that
issue; I can't deny that. But our number of televised
events is up. Our purses are up 50 percent over the last
three years. Our number of tournaments has gone from 36 to
43 over the past three years" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 4/22).
