LPGA loses another tournament for 2010

[rwilli1]

LPGA loses another tournament for 2010



Tue Sep 22, 7:07 PM

WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia (AFP) - The LPGA tour will lose another established event in 2010 after Anheuser-Busch said Monday they would no longer be the title sponsors of the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill.


Dan McHugh, vice president of the brewing giant, said the company has decided to use its sponsorship dollars in a different way, and will still work with the women's tour via hospitality opportunities at many tournaments rather than as title sponsor of one.

"We're looking to give sort of a little bit more national scope," McHugh said.

Anheuser-Busch owns the Kingsmill Resort and Spa, where the PGA Tour had an event for 22 years before the LPGA tournament was launched seven years ago.

Michelob Ultra also hopes to continue as the official beer of the LPGA tour, he said.

"I think it's a little bit the realities of the sports sponsorship landscape," Eric Albrecht, vice president of marketing for the LPGA, said.

Albrecht added that 20 events have been confirmed for 2010, and the LPGA is in discussions with nine other events and working with several potentially new event partners.

"As we move closer and closer to the 2010 schedule, we're feeling better and better about that schedule," Albrecht said. "We feel good where we are in September. We're optimistic but we're also realistic knowing that our 2010 schedule may not be what it was a couple of years ago."

The LPGA calendar featured 34 events in 2007. This year there are just 27. The tour lost all three of its events in Hawaii as well as longtime sponsor Corning.

In July, Carolyn Bivens resigned as commissioner of the tour after several top players wrote a letter to the board of directors calling for her ouster.