HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. — Starting today, as they have for almost three decades, Herb Lotman and Frank Quinn will spend their days crisscrossing the fairways and rough of Bulle Rock in their carts, doing whatever they can to help the group they fondly call "The Kids."
What Lotman and Quinn founded as the LPGA McDonald's Classic starting in 1981 at White Manor Country Club in Malvern became the gold standard on any pro golf tour for an annual tournament that raised money for charity.
It went through a few name changes and became a major, the McDonald's LPGA Championship, in 1994. But through all its incarnations, the event under the direction of Lotman and Quinn netted more than $47 million over the last 28 years for Ronald McDonald House Charities.
This week's tournament, however, will be the last under the McDonald's sponsorship. The event became a victim of a struggling economy that saw a rise in costs and reduced sponsorship combining to produce a sizable cutback on what was given to the beneficiary.
Realizing there was no reversing a downward trend that began with their final seasons at DuPont Country Club in Wilmington and continued at Bulle Rock in Havre de Grace, Md., beginning in 2005, Lotman and Quinn notified LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens that they wanted to end their involvement with the second-oldest major on the women's tour after 2009.
"The amount of sponsorships was being reduced substantially," said Lotman, 76, of Haverford, chairman of Keystone Foods, a major McDonald's supplier. "I felt this was not going to get any better and would probably get worse.
"Remember, this was still the good times. The cost of putting on the tournament superseded the amount of money we could give to charity, and it didn't make sense for an event that's here strictly to raise money to continue."
Lotman said this year's charitable contribution "probably won't be much."
Initially, last year's announcement of the transfer was considered a good move for the LPGA, to own and control the championship for its players after 23 years of having a title sponsor's name attached to it. Bivens had announced a goal of a $3 million purse - $1 million more than what it is this year.
Again, however, the economy has provided obstacles to the LPGA plan. The tour said negotiations were under way with venues and corporate sponsors for the 2010 event, but no announcement is expected until November, when the tour announces the next year's schedule.
