This weekend’s McDonald’s LPGA Championship at Bulle Rock Golf Course is set to be the last. One of the LPGA’s premier events is without a sponsor and a home for 2010.
I don’t know Donald Trump well, I did meet him and had some conversations with him back when we were both involved in the old USFL. But if ever there was a match made in sports heaven, it would be Trump and the LPGA Championship.
There are few people on the planet who are better promoters than Trump. He is a natural born salesman and a gifted match maker.
Landing the LPGA Championship for his new posh Lowes Island Club located on the Potomac River in Sterling, Va., would be a great win-win.
Trump could make the LPGA Championship an annual event at his club and use his vast resources to do a sports version of “The Apprentice” to find a title sponsor. He could take advantage of his relationship with NBC to make sure that the event got max coverage every year.
Meanwhile, the LPGA could benefit from having a strong relationship with a world class brand like Trump and the stability of having the tour championship played each year in the D.C. area — and would give the tour a much needed boost.
I am aware that this week LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens was confident that the future of the LPGA Championship would be fine and that now they could pick the venue that they want to hold the event at each year. But the cold hard fact is that the LPGA has a staggering 14 tournaments up for renewal this year and a tough economy makes Bivens’ optimism ring a bit hollow.
I hope — for the sake of the LPGA, Trump’s Lowes Island Club and area golf fans — that “The Donald’s” people will call Ms. Bivens’ people or vice versa. It would be sweet to have the LPGA Championship in the Washington area every year with Trump’s promotional force behind it.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on washingtonexaminer.com.
