LECOM to drop sponsorship of Web.com Tour event
THE Web.com Tour will return
week of July.
After that, the future of major professional golf competitions at the Findley Lake, New York, resort is now in doubt.
Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, the lead sponsor for the LECOM Health Challenge, has announced it won’t renew its contract after the 2019 event.
The decision was confirmed Monday by Pierre Bellicini, LECOM’s communications and marketing director for its Erie campus. The college has been the tournament’s primary sponsor since 2016.
“We have a four-year commitment that will be up this summer, but we decided to move some of
areas that we need to support right now,” Bellicini said.
Bellicini mentioned LECOM’s addition of a fourth campus as one the reasons for its decision. A campus is Elmira, New York, is projected to open by July 2020.
The school has active campuses in Greensburg and Bradenton, Florida, in addition to Erie.
LECOM was responsible for much of the $600,000 in prize money available in each of the
Peak. That remains the total for this year’s competition, according to the Web.com’s website.
Nelson Ledesma, a 27- year old from Tucuman, Argentina, received a winner’s check of $108,000 for his two-stroke victory this past July.
Should the tournament not return to the Peak beyond 2019, it would conclude the second such run of tour stops at Findley Lake.
The Web. com Tour, then known as the Nationwide Tour, held four- round events there from 2002- 07. The stop was dropped in part because of thenfinancial difficulties with the resort and its owners, who sold it to Scott Enterprises in 2011.
“It was exciting to be a part of the Web.com Tour,” Bellicini said. “We were glad to help reestablish the tournament and hope someone else can help them (after 2019.)”