Stanford Financial Group sponsors the Stanford St. Jude Championship on the PGA Tour and the Stanford Financial Tour Championship on the LPGA Tour.With its assets frozen and its chairman accused of fraud, will Stanford Financial Group be able to follow through on those sponsorship obligations? Will either tour want the company to remain as title sponsor?PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem released a very brief statement today, saying, "We want to categorically state that the PGA TOUR event in Memphis will be played as scheduled this year."So the PGA Tour event in Memphis goes on, regardless of what happens with the title sponsor. The LPGA may be in a trickier spot. That tour's Stanford-sponsored tournament is the season-ending, showcase tour championship.A tour can't cancel it's "tour championship," can it? Yet the LPGA has much shallower pockets than the PGA Tour, and fewer options for finding new sponsorship (if necessary).
In a statement quoted by the Associated Press, spokesman David Higdon said, "The LPGA has been closely monitoring the developments regarding the situation with Allen Stanford and some of his companies. We remain in close contact with our tournament owner of the Houston event sponsored by Stanford Financial, and they will continue to update us on any new developments related to this matter."
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