Bruce Evancho, the general manager of the DuPont Country Club, said it is time to move forward after the McDonald's LPGA Championship announced that it is leaving DuPont for the Bulle Rock Golf Course in Havre de Grace, Md.
That's why Evancho said it doesn't matter if DuPont officials may have been caught off-guard by the decision Sunday. Evancho, for one, was returning from vacation Sunday night and didn't know about the move until informed by a reporter that night.
But rather than express anger or surprise, Evancho said Monday he would rather look at the move as a happy ending "to a great 18-year run" with the LPGA.
Now, he said, the club will turn its focus to the 16,000 members, the renovations to the golf course that have it shut down until next spring, and the possibility of getting another tournament in the future.
"We were very pleased with what we accomplished, and we've been basking in that for the past month," Evancho said. "The McDonald's tournament people had to do what was best for them and they've done that. That's their choice and we wish them well. We've had a great relationship with the LPGA.
"Both sides came out with one of the most successful events on the LPGA Tour."
Evancho said the only notice he had about anything involving the tournament was a memo telling him upon his return that he had a meeting at 8 a.m. Monday with tournament director Alice Miller, which took place two hours before the official announcement at Bulle Rock.
The tournament had 30 days upon completion of the LPGA Championship to inform DuPont officials about its intention to return. Today would have been the 30th day.
DuPont will continue to thrive and will have no trouble attracting another tournament, said former DuPont clubhouse manager Joe Ciccone, who's now the general manager at Hartefeld National in Avondale, Pa.
"I feel for the community there, but the people are great, and they'll do the right thing for their members and the golf course," Ciccone said. "It's important for a club to operate with the mind-set that, if you have a repeat tournament, one year you might not have it, and that you need a contingency plan in case it leaves."
This happened to Hartefeld after the Senior PGA Bell Atlantic Classic ended its two-year run there in 1999. The decision left Hartefeld owner Davis Sezna admittedly stunned and disappointed, especially after the event drew 130,000 fans in 1998 and 120,000 the next year.
But in 2003, Hartefeld attracted the Exelon Invitational, a one-day charity skins game organized by PGA Tour star Jim Furyk. This year, Phil Mickelson was one of the participants, two months after he won the Masters.
This came while Hartefeld is making the transition from a public club to a private one. Ciccone said the Exelon has been beneficial to attracting new members and that it expects to have a waiting list for membership by the end of 2005.
"The Exelon has been a great marketing tool for us," Ciccone said. "Our timing was excellent with Phil Mickelson coming. In a way, we caught a huge break."
DuPont's circumstances are somewhat different.
The club has had a solid membership base for nearly a century, and there won't be massive defections now that the LPGA Championship has left.
Still, Evancho said he knows all about the prestige and attention the club gets with a professional golf tournament.
"There's nothing on our agenda right now," Evancho said. "But as a country club, we're always open to something, if its mission meets with ours. It's not anything that we've talked about yet, but we would certainly look into it."
Chances are that, if DuPont were to get another tournament, it won't be an LPGA event because of the course's proximity to Bulle Rock. LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw said the LPGA generally doesn't schedule events within 50 miles of each other.
"I would never say never," he said, "but a lot of things would have to come into play."
But there is the potential for a Senior Tour event, or even a Nationwide Tour event, which is a step below the PGA.
Any one of them would be a suitable alternative, according to Judy McKinney-Cherry, the director of the Delaware Economic Development Office.
"This opens an opportunity to consider another tournament," she said. "We would look for something of significant value that is going to give us national exposure and has some overarching benefit to the state and local community."
In other words, something like the McDonald's LPGA Championship.
Source: The News Journal (Wilmington, Del.)