CA's departure another blow for WGC events

It has been a difficult month for the World Golf Championships, which on Tuesday lost CA as the sponsor of the WGC-CA Championship played at Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami last week.

"Going forward, CA will be executing a new corporate marketing program focused on delivering more regional events and customer relationship programs around the world," the company said in a news release. "As a result, we will no longer sponsor the World Golf Championships beyond 2010."

It was not wholly unexpected. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said last week that one way or another the tournament would continue in 2011 and beyond, a point he reiterated on PGATour.com.

"There is a tremendous amount of interest in the World Golf Championships -- the great fields, global exposure, incredible venues -- and we will move forward in securing a new title sponsor for the CA Championship. We are confident we will be at TPC Blue Monster at Doral next year," he said.

Less than a month earlier, Tiger Woods made his first public appearance in the midst of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, leading to widespread conjecture that he had done so in part as retaliation for Accenture ending its association with Woods. All parties denied it, but suffice it to say that Woods' statement detracted from the Match Play Championship.

-- John Strege