Next year's LPGA Championship will likely be the last at Bulle Rock Golf Course in Havre de Grace.
In an announcement that came as a surprise not only to Bulle Rock officials but also to the golfers themselves, LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens said yesterday that the tour will take ownership of the event starting in 2010 at a site to be determined.
Because of problems getting corporate involvement in the Baltimore area, the tournament will likely move from Bulle Rock when its five-year contract with the tour ends after the 2009 event.
"This is truly a momentous day for the LPGA as it marks the first time in our history that we'll own one our majors, and I would say our most important major," Bivens said. "This is a seminal moment for the LPGA."
The LPGA owns the Solheim Cup, the biennial event that pits the U.S. against Europe in a format similar to that of the men's Ryder Cup; the tour also has part-ownership of its season-ending ADT Championship.
Bivens said the future site will likely be in the Northeast and the prize money will increase from $2.5 million to $3 million.
It is also possible that the event will go back to network television after tournament co-founder Herb Lotman moved it to the Golf Channel two years ago.
The new arrangement will mark the end of a 29-year relationship between McDonald's and the LPGA Tour. Lotman, who has helped run the tournament since its inception as a regular tour stop before becoming a major in 1994, will remain as honorary chairman.
Lotman said it wouldn't move back to Wilmington, Del., despite the renovations that have been made to DuPont Country Club.
"The Wilmington area, we lost a lot of business support financially so that's why we moved to Bulle Rock," Lotman said. "We were there for 23 years, and it was the same old, same old for the amateurs, and that's all you heard all the time."
Rick Rounsaville, Bulle Rock's director of golf, said Lotman's decision to give the tournament back to the LPGA was the biggest surprise, given his long-standing business relationship with John Paterakis, whose family owns Bulle Rock. The H&S bakery owned by Paterakis has made buns for McDonald's for years.
"If Herb would have stayed involved, it could have been here indefinitely," said Rounsaville, who heard the news only minutes before Bivens and Lotman appeared together at a news conference.
