Arizona-based C-Bons Int'l Golf Group Inc. has "agreed to buy the golf courses" at LPGA Int'l in Daytona Beach, but only if it can "ink a new licensing agreement with the LPGA that would require the association to make 'commercially reasonable efforts' to hold an LPGA Tour event" there each year, according to Clayton Park of the Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL. The event would have to feature "either 20 of the top 40 or five of the top 10 professional women golfers in the world." The pending $3.6M purchase by CBIGG, a U.S. subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate C-Bons Group, is "contingent on approval by the Daytona Beach City Commission" tomorrow. The proposed amendment "includes a promise by CBIGG ... to keep the two 18-hole courses at LPGA in 'tournament-ready condition.'" The LPGA currently holds its four-day Symetra Tour Championship each fall at LPGA Int'l, but that event "features developmental players." CBIGG VP/Operations Dale Folmar said that there is "no way to require the association to hold" an LPGA event in Daytona Beach, and that he "believes the terms of the deal have been approved by both CBIGG and the LPGA" (Daytona Beach NEWS-JOURNAL, 7/15).
