The LPGA announced Tuesday that the Houstonian Golf & Country Club will stage the season-ending 2009 LPGA Tour Championship, returning women's professional golf to Houston after a nearly six-year absence and putting to rest weeks of speculation that the event would not take place.
The tournament, which previously did not have a host site, originally was called the Stanford Financial Tour Championship, but in February a federal judge froze Stanford's assets after the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Stanford founder Allen Stanford and other executive of fraud. Since then, the company defaulted on sponsorship deals for professional events and player endorsements worth millions of dollars annually.
"There was a fair amount of speculation as the year has unfolded and the financial downturn has impacted sports entertainment and sponsors throughout the industry. It feels good to make the announcement," LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens said in the Houstonian clubhouse. "Houston is a premier sports city that will embrace a season finale featuring the game's greatest stars."
IMG, a worldwide sports, entertainment and media company, is responsible for the estimated $3 million annual payment or finding a new title sponsor for the Tour Championship. The tournament is one of three LPGA tour events owned by IMG, which also operates the Ricoh Women's British Open and represents LPGA stars Paula Creamer, Michelle Wie, Natalie Gulbis, Morgan Pressel and Yani Tseng.
"When the problems happened with the title sponsor, Carolyn and I got together and talked about how important this tournament was to the LPGA as an anchor to the season," said Mark Steinberg, who oversees golf operations for IMG and was in Houston for the news conference. "With its long-standing relationship with the LPGA, and considering how vested we are in the tour and women's golf, IMG agreed to make the commitment.
"We decided to put a stake in the ground and make it clear to everyone that the LPGA tour is coming back to a great market. It's a huge media market. This is a place where the LPGA should be playing."
The Nov. 19-22 tournament will be the first LPGA event in Houston since the 2003 Samsung World Championship at The Woodlands Country Club. The Tour Championship will feature a field of 120 players, a $1.5 million purse and a unique format that will see a cut after 36 holes to the low 70 professionals and an additional cut after 54 holes to the low 30 pros.
Texas and LPGA star Angela Stanford, who won the LPGA tour's season-opening tournament in Hawaii, said Tuesday's announcement was the latest leg in a season that's been "like a roller coaster," because of the global economic downturn." The LPGA tour has lost five tournaments this year, including last week's Corning Classic won by Tseng. After 31 years, Corning Inc. decided to end its sponsorship due to the economic difficulties.
But financial news hasn't been all bad on the LPGA tour front. This year the tour signed a 10-year agreement with Golf Channel that begins in 2010, the first time the LPGA will have an exclusive cable partner. The tour also signed a multi-year deal worth more than $4 million annually with JoongAng Broadcasting Corp. of Korea. J Golf, a division of JBC, will have exclusive broadcast rights within Korea for nearly all LPGA Tour events through 2014. As well, JBC will underwrite an event in the Los Angeles area for five years, with the location and tournament name to be announced later.
Further, the tour also secured a three-year deal with Mirassou Winery to be the title sponsor of the Phoenix LPGA International.
"Any type of announcement like today's is huge," said Stanford, who was at the Houstonian for the announcement. "It's been a tough year. But you have to take the bad news and keep moving forward. And when something good like this happens, you enjoy it and hope it creates a lot of attention."
