Northern Virginia Club Working to Lure LPGA Event

A Northern Virginia golf club is in the process of trying to attract a commitment from the LPGA Tour to stage a full field, 72-hole tournament for its Tom Fazio-designed championship course.

The Piedmont Club in Haymarket, which opened in 2001, is working with Professional Sports Marketing (PSM), a Falls Church-based company in an effort to line up a corporate title sponsor for a possible LPGA event. The women's tour has not held a tournament in the Washington area since 1993.

The LPGA Championship, one of four major championship tournaments on the schedule, was held at Bethesda Country Club from 1990 to '93, but moved to the DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, Del., when Mazda dropped its corporate support and McDonald's became the title sponsor.

"Nothing has been approved yet by the LPGA, but we're working on it," said Bert Cabotaje, PSM's chief executive officer. "We've been in touch with them. They've told us what we have to do, and when we get a sponsor, we will go back to them with our proposal. They would do a site inspection to see if the course could handle an event, and then make a final decision."

Cabotaje said he has been in contact with Mike Nichols, the tour's vice president of tournament business affairs, about the possibility of holding the tournament at Piedmont, a private club with about 400 golf members.

Nichols said in a recent telephone interview that the LPGA Tour has been interested in finding a suitable site and date for a tournament in the Washington area for a number of years.

"But anything I would have to say on this right now would be very preliminary," he said.

Cabotaje said he has been in discussions with several potential corporate title sponsors he declined to name and expects to announce a deal within the next four weeks. An LPGA title sponsor generally puts up between $2.5 million and $3 million for a tournament with a minimum purse of $1.5 million.

He also said he has been working with Tim McNeely, who runs a $1 million Nationwide Tour event in Bridgeport, W. Va., about the possibility of operating an LPGA tournament in Haymarket. McNeely has visited Piedmont several times and has told club officials he believes the course and clubhouse could accommodate an LPGA tournament.

"McNeely put his stamp of approval on it," said John Montgomery, the head golf professional at Piedmont. "It's certainly not a done deal, but if we can get a letter of intent from a title sponsor, we've been led to believe that we can get a tournament here."

The club is located off Route 15, less than a mile from the Haymarket exit off Interstate 66.

The par-72 course can be stretched to about 7,000 yards, Montgomery said. The LPGA usually plays courses in the 6,600- to 6,800-yard range.

"We're very excited about the opportunity," he said.