Lucrative event off LPGA Tour calendar after sponsor pulls out

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- One of the richest tournaments on the LPGA Tour has disappeared after a two-year run, a victim of the massive slowdown in the U.S. housing and real-estate sector.

The title sponsor of the Ginn Tribute hosted by Annika Sorenstam, which offered the third-biggest purse in women's golf, has negotiated its way out of a four-year deal, a company spokesman confirmed Friday.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ginn Resorts, a Celebration, Fla.-based developer that also sponsors the LPGA Ginn Open and events on the Champions and PGA tours, has been particularly hurt by the downturn in the Florida housing market, where many of its upscale communities are based.

The purses at the two LPGA stops sponsored by Ginn ranked only behind the U.S. Women's Open and France-based Evian Masters in payout. In other words, the co-richest domestic event run by the LPGA is done.

The status of the three surviving Ginn events is certain only over the short term. All three will be staged at least once more, spokesman Ryan Julison said, but no guarantees are being made beyond mid-2009.

"After that, we'll sit back and reevaluate where we are, where the market is going and proceed from there," Julison told CBSSports.com Friday morning.

The contract for the LPGA event outside Orlando, the Ginn Open, expires after the 2009 event. The PGA Tour event, the second-year Ginn sur Mer Classic set for the first week of October, will have two years remaining on its contract. The Champions Tour's popular Ginn Championship at Hammock Beach Resort is set for next spring and has two years remaining on its tour deal. All three events are staged in central Florida.

Ginn tried to find outside corporate support to keep the Charleston, S.C.,-based Ginn Tribute afloat, but couldn't identify any secondary sponsors.

"The golf tournament business is primarily fueled by economic support," said Bobby Ginn, the company founder.  "We did everything in our power to generate the sponsorship necessary to continue with the Ginn Tribute, but given the current market and corresponding cuts in corporate spending, it was an uphill battle."

The loss is a big one for the LPGA, which cleared an advantageous spot on the schedule for the Ginn by moving the ShopRite Classic into a different calendar spot. Rather than move, the ShopRite event folded.

Ginn made a fortune by developing high-end golf communities, but the real-estate slump has resulted in multiple lawsuits and fire sales by existing property owners who bought homes and lots before the bottom fell out.

The real-estate slowdown in Florida, where many of Ginn's developments are located, has been particularly brutal. At one of Ginn's newest resorts, The Conservatory in Palm Coast, lots purchased three years ago for $400,000 are being offered for one-quarter their original price on the resale market.

When the market was rolling, some of Ginn's free-spending ways in sports-related activities over the past three years drew plenty of attention. He bought a NASCAR team, then sold it a year later after realizing the costs involved, and also bought a company blimp with a state-of-the-art video screen affixed to the side.

LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens tipped her corporate cap to Ginn for helping spur interest in the tour and offered no other official comment.

"The popularity and interest of the LPGA is at an all-time high thanks in part to sponsors like Bobby Ginn," she said in a press statement issued through Ginn's spokesman. "We also appreciate all of the fan support that the LPGA received in Charleston and from throughout South Carolina, and look forward to returning to the South Carolina market in the future."