Not All Bad LPGA News

The Atlanta Journal Constitution is reporting that the LPGA Tour may have an event coming to the ATL.

Atlanta is on the verge of being back in the golf business in a big way.

Big steps have been made to secure a Champions Tour event for Duluth's TPC Sugarloaf in 2009, and the initial push has started to bring an LPGA tournament back to Eagle's Landing Country Club in Stockbridge, possibly as early as spring.

To be fair, the buzz does seem to be more around having TPC Sugarloaf host a Champions Tour event next year. The PGA Tour did the same thing when it did away with the BC Open - they put a Champ Tour event there.

It isn't that easy for the LPGA, which disappeared from the local landscape after the 2006 event when it couldn't secure a title sponsor. Several local groups, including Eagle's Landing owner Club Corporation, have banded together to help with the push. But former tournament chairman J.T. Williams, who remains on the executive committee of Metro South Charities, said the tournament won't petition the LPGA for a spot on the schedule until it secures sponsorship.

"We're looking for a title sponsor, and you know those are hard to come back these days," said Williams.

A marketing group representing the LPGA tournament sent e-mails to former corporate sponsors, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, on Thursday, encouraging them to participate in the tournament's revival, which is optimistically scheduled as "Spring 2009."

Given the comments from Williams and the recent struggles with Safeway, Fields, SemGroup, and Ginn, I would take this lightly until we have better details.