The Jalisco state government has pulled its financial sponsorship of the nation’s flagship golf tournament, the LPGA Lorena Ochoa Invitational, held each November for the past five years at the Guadalajara Country Club.
The tournament, which draws the top 30 female golfers in the world, attracts large crowds and has helped introduce Guadalajara and Jalisco to a worldwide television audience thanks to extensive coverage on ESPN and the Golf Channel.
The Jalisco State Government has pumped around one million dollars into each of the last four tournaments, justifying its sponsorship as tourism and business promotion.
But priorities have changed since Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Governor Aristoteles Sandoval, who favors a populist approach to politics, took office in March. Unlike his predecessor Emilio Gonzalez, who was often criticized for dispensing public funds to far from needy causes, Sandoval is reluctant to be seen dishing out cash to elitist groups. While golf is gaining in popularity in Mexico, it is still considered a pastime for the upper middle-classes and the country has yet to open its first public or municipal course.
“We are very sad about this news, because we believe ours is the best sporting event in the country,” said former world number one Ochoa, who hosts the tournament at her hometown course.
Ochoa said the shortage in funding means that this year’s event would probably not be televised internationally. “That’s 380 million viewers that we have lost. I believe this will have a very strong negative impact for Jalisco and Mexico.”
Ochoa said she and her brother Ajejandro, the director of the event, would continue to lobby the government to change its mind before the tournament, which is scheduled from November 14 to 17. Alejandro Ochoa told reporters that the decision by the Jalisco governor could mean moving the tournament to another Mexican state in 2014.
The other major sponsor of the tournament, Banamex, has not indicated whether it will increase its contribution to make up the shortfall.
Last year, the tournament offered prize money of 1.5 million dollars.
Ochoa was the top-ranked female golfer in the world for over three years, from April 2007 to her retirement in May 2010. She won 27 LPGA events in her eight-year professional career, including two majors.
Highly regarded by other professionals on the LPGA Tour, Ochoa has spent much of her time since her retirement attending to her charitable foundation, which operates La Barranca, a primary school in Guadalajara for 250 underprivileged students. Ochoa was at the school on Tuesday when the state government announced its decision, handing out 300 pairs of new shoes to students at the start of the new academic year.