LPGA Loses Another Sponsor With ADT Pulling Out Of Season Finale
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LPGA Players Reportedly Unhappy With News
Of ADT Pulling Sponsorship From Finale Event |
ADT Security Services Thursday said that it "won't renew its contract as sponsor of the LPGA Tour's season-ending ADT Championship" after next month's event at Trump Int'l Golf Club in West Palm Beach, according to Greg Stoda of the PALM BEACH POST. A source said that "considerations were being made for an ADT sponsorship of a skills challenge competition" at Trump Int'l Tournament host Donald Trump, when asked if the tournament may leave the course, said, "I'd think that would depend on if the LPGA Tour can find another sponsor" (PALM BEACH POST, 10/17). ADT did not "specifically state why it was not renewing its contract," but the company did indicate that its "strategy is investing in growth areas of its business more closely aligned with its customers" (AP, 10/16). LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens said of the future of the event, "We are having discussions with several groups for title sponsorship." But GOLFWEEK's Beth Ann Baldry cited sources who said the "news didn't go over well at the final player meeting of the season" on Tuesday. Sources also noted that Bivens "hopes to move ADT to the beginning of the schedule in 2010," but LPGA players "expressed concern about someone starting the season with $1[M] thanks to one good round, a huge advantage to start the annual money-title race." Bivens told the players that the Stanford Int'l tournament next year "will take ADT's place at the end of the schedule as a stroke-play tournament." Baldry noted ADT is the "latest in a growing list of defunct LPGA sponsorships," and this week's Kapalua LPGA Classic "carries on without a title sponsor" (GOLFWEEK.com, 10/16).
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS? GOLF WORLD's Ron Sirak reported the ADT Championship, the first event "fully owned by the LPGA," is expected to return in February 2010 and would "retain its current limited-field, multiple-cut format." However, it would be "played at a venue to be determined and hopefully with a new sponsor." Sirak noted with the ADT removed from the '09 LPGA schedule, and with the Fields Open and the Safeway Int'l "without sponsors, the LPGA appears as if it will fall short of the 33 tournaments it had this year." Bivens: "The best-case and worst-case scenarios are that we will be plus or minus two or three events next year" (GOLFDIGEST.com, 10/16).
ANOTHER ONE TO COME? In Virginia, Dave Fairbank reported the future of the LPGA Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia, is "uncertain due to market forces and the sale" of Anheuser-Busch to InBev. An LPGA exec said that the organization was "'reasonably confident' that the 2009 schedule and overall prize money would be 'similar' to this year." Fairbank wrote that is "not exactly a ringing endorsement," and it "hasn't been a good stretch for the LPGA" (DAILYPRESS.com, 10/16).
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