The Ladies European Tour (LET) announced today
that it had been forced to cancel the Cloud 9 New Zealand Women's
Golf Classic after a Wellington-based promoter had failed to provide
the
sufficient funds.
LET Chief Executive Tim Howland said that the LET had no option
but to call off the tournament after the promoter, Frank Burgess
of Symbiosis, had
informed the Tour that he did not have the necessary funding to
stage the event.
The Cloud 9 New Zealand Women's Golf Classic was scheduled to take
place at the Hutt GC in Wellington from February 22-25, 2001, and
was to feature as the opening leg of the 2001 Evian Tour.
"We are extremely disappointed to have to cancel it at this
late stage but we really did not have any choice," said Howland,
who added that the 2001
Tour will now begin with the Australian Ladies Masters on the Gold
Coast aweek later.
"We were led to believe that all the necessary funding was
in place, but it
became increasingly clear that this was not the case and we had
to make a
decision to protect our members.
"We have a signed contract with Symbiosis and we have asked
our lawyers to
look into the matter. We will take whatever legal action we feel
is
appropriate.
"A number of our members had already booked flights to Wellington,
we
announced the event on our schedule at a press conference earlier
this month
and we have also gone out of our way to assist Symbiosis in every
way we can
- at the Tour's expense."
Howland added that it was also a huge blow for the city of Wellington.
It
would have been the richest golf event ever staged in New Zealand
and former
world number one Laura Davies of England and several other players
from
Europe's victorious Solheim Cup team had already signed up to play.
"I feel very sorry for the people of Wellington because from
what I have
been told they have shown a great deal of support for the event,
as has the
New Zealand media," added Howland.
"I only hope we can negotiate an Evian Tour event in Wellington
on our 2002
schedule - I've no doubt the interest is there, and it might go
some way to
making up for this huge disappointment."
