MCDONALD'S LPGA CHAMPIONSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT

July 12, 2004

David Craig

Robert Ehrlich, Jr.

Herb Lotman

Alice Miller

Bill Paterakis

Frank Quinn

Rick Rounsaville

Ty Votaw

GOVERNOR ROBERT EHRLICH, JR.: "Head Coach," I like that. I want to first thank everybody for coming out today. Terrific day for Maryland. That's why I'm here. I particularly want to thank members of the legislature, Senator Curry, all the way from Prince Georges County, thank you very much. Senator Jacobs around the corner, thank you very much. Senator Hooper, Bobby. Mayor, David, you cannot get that smile off your face today. Congratulations. David and I are former colleagues of the Maryland General Assembly. Terrific day. As I said, great day for Maryland. I want to officially welcome the LPGA back to the state of Maryland. That's why I'm here this morning. Bulle Rock is a terrific venue. It's a cliche, but I'm a golfer, married to a golfer, as someone who loves to play golf, promote golf. I've played Bulle Rock a few times; it's cut me up more than a few times, cannot think of a more wonderful venue for this championship. I also as governor am marketer and chief. I love to sell everything about Maryland. We have a lot of to sell, a lot to market around the country, around the world. One thing obviously being a former jock and someone who loves athletics, we obviously, as you know, have some very high-profile athletic teams, pro and college. University of Maryland is a Top 20 organization both in basketball, football, women's sports. It's a terrific university. We have a lot to brag about, as well. The college lacrosse finals were here this year, the Army/Navy game is coming, the US Senior Open a few years ago, the (inaudible) Valley, the Volvo Ocean Race in 2004, 2005, World Weight Lifting Championships, the Cal Ripken World Series, and of course our Super Bowl, the Preakness, something that is a terrific day when you're Governor of Maryland to run around the Preakness. We have a lot to be proud of in this state and now the latest jewel in our crown, this terrific championship. Real quickly, the bottom line to a lot of these tournaments, which is often lost, as someone who obviously follows both tours, is charity and the obligation to give back to those less fortunate. The Ronald McDonald House operation is an incredible charity. I've personally given to this charity over many years. It is something that is near and dear to the hearts of many of us. Coca-Cola, McDonald's, the other corporate sponsors are always there. To congratulate the corporate sponsors, the money goes to an incredibly important cause. It is something that should not be lost as we run around a world class venue, play a sport we love and welcome the best women players in the world back to Maryland. We should not lose sight of the bottom line, which is dollars in the pocket of an incredibly important charity for our state and country. Herb, congratulations. Congratulations to everyone involved in this wonderful championship. I'm very proud. It has not been extended to me as yet, but I am proud to accept the offer that will be coming to play in the ProAm (laughter). The First Lady, as well. The First Lady is a golfer, the First Lady loves the sport, and the First Lady will be glad to do anything to promote this event. Her words, not mine. On behalf of the Ehrlichs, state of Maryland, to LPGA, to McDonald's, to everyone who is contributing to this incredible golf tournament, world class sports event, welcome to Maryland, thank you.

HERB LOTMAN: Thank you, good morning, everybody. Welcome to Maryland. 24 years ago when Frank and I were walking down the fairway at Pine Valley, we talked about, "Let's have a golf event and raise money for some kids." I was involved in juvenile diabetes and Ronald House, Frank was involved in Ronald House, so we decided to have a tournament. When we started to talk about the tournament, we said, "We want to put the efforts into a tournament, not just a Monday event, let's do a real professional tournament." Thus the last 24 years have been a labor of love. We're different than any other tournament on the tour. There's no entertaining of customers here. No one plays the ProAm free, for you and me. Everybody pays because all the money goes to the kids. And that's why we were able in the last 24 years to make a total of $41.6 million given to Ronald McDonald House Charities. Next year is our 25th year. We'll be celebrating our silver anniversary here at Bulle Rock, here in Maryland. We're on CBS on Saturday and Sunday, and we're on The Golf Channel Thursday and Friday. We have all international rights, goes all around the world. Havre de Grace and the state of Maryland will be shown throughout the world, as Dupont has before. Speaking of Dupont, this morning I spoke to Chad Halliday, the chairman of Dupont, he heard about it before I got to the phone, unfortunately, but he said, "Was there any problem with our people?" I said, "Chad, your people were 110%. Dupont were great, the people were great, the community was great. The only reason why we moved away, it's time to change the venue and also we have an opportunity that we have these state of Maryland and all the communities involved supporting us, and we feel we can make a lot more money for kids who aren't as fortunate as others. That's the only reason why we moved from Delaware." I'd like to say to you on behalf of the board of the LPGA Championship, I want to thank the Governor, Bob Ehrlich, all the other senators, I don't know the names yet, but I'll get to know you, also David Craig, the mayor, he's our neighbor, for the support and looking forward to getting involved in the business community here because we need your help. When you bring people out and entertain them, keep in mind one thing: All this money goes to no corporations, it goes to Ronald McDonald House Charities. And McDonald's picks up all the overhead related to Ronald McDonald House Charities. All the money raised goes to the children, as well as we leave money locally. We take a lot of money out of the community and we do leave money here in the community. So I'm looking forward to packing our bags and moving in. I guess we're already packed. John, you need a contractor to get some electricity on or something? We could bring one down from Pennsylvania. Seriously, we're very excited. As I said, this is our silver anniversary, our 25th year, and we're looking forward to a great marriage between our tournament, the community, the state, the businesses, and the people, and also the finest professional golfers in the world who will come here to show you how it works. Thank you very much and God bless.

FRANK QUINN: Thank you very much. It was tough to leave Dupont. We had a wonderful relationship with the staff. We had a wonderful relationship with the Dupont Corporation. Roy Thomas is here, our chairman of the volunteers, chairman of the tournament operations. Have I got it right yet? I keep trying. But there's 2500 volunteers at the Dupont Country Club that help us, not all from Dupont Country Club, but we're helping that a lot of them, and Roy will be back with us next year in Bulle Rock. It's not in Delaware, but we're hoping it's close enough we'll get you over here. This really isn't about Dupont. It's not about Delaware. It's really about the chance to raise more money for children, as Herb mentioned. But I would like to thank those folks because we raised an awful lot of money there in 18 years, and we wouldn't have done it without the volunteers' help and the help of our wonderful staff, most of which have been here all 18 years. We're not moving our office. We hope to remain part of that scene up there. I thought I'd talk to you about the LPGA. We couldn't have come here without their help. I understand, Ty, you're listening. Without Ty Votaw's help, the terrific Commissioner of the LPGA, we wouldn't have been able to come here. When Herb and I first got going, the chairman of the IBB called us up and said, We can't do the IBB tournament in Philadelphia any more, how would you like to be a PGA event? We had decided to become an LPGA event. Herb and I talked about it, felt that we could do better with the LPGA because of the people that we had already met with the LPGA, commissioner, a number of the players. At the first tournament, I remember seeing one of our ProAm sponsors, a fellow who couldn't play golf very well, but gave us a whole lot of money, on the same ProAm team with Nancy Lopez. He made a putt, Nancy ran over and gave him a kiss. I said to myself, "I know I wouldn't see that on the PGA TOUR, hopefully." You never do know. They are a very special breed of athlete who is committed to the tournaments and to raising money for charity and have a completely different attitude about how they should conduct themselves. In all our years, we've only had three people that ever said they didn't have a great time with the LPGA players. That's 18 years in Delaware, 400 players each year, so you had an awful lot of chances. Two of those were pretty much the ProAm player not doing what they should have been doing. Herb mentioned we leave funds locally. We do. We're involved with Scouts. We're involved with the Ronald McDonald House. We've involved with a number of different local charities. We do that instead of hiring different companies to do some of the work that needs to be done around the tournament, we try to get charities involved. So we look forward to getting involved with the local folks here. Speaking of the local folks here, if Johnny Paterakis hadn't bought Bulle Rock, I don't know that we'd be here. Johnny, thank you so much for having us. Mark and Richard, we really appreciate the hospitality we've seen so far. We know you have two tremendous people in Rick Rounsaville, who I've heard about, just got a chance to meet, and Bill Lewis. You can see just all of you, when you go outside, what a real treasure we're coming to. Bulle Rock is in the Wilmington News Journal this morning, there are 16 five-star golf courses, and this is one of them. It is a real treasure. LPGA players are going to have a test of golf, which is what we're all hoping for. Rick, I'm sure that Bill will try to make it at least interesting for them out there. Herb alluded to the fact it's on TV around the world. I'm going to finish by just telling one quick story. I have two Korean partners. When Se Ri Pak won her tournament, which is the first one she won, her father was in Seoul. You can imagine the surprise on his face when he saw me put the check to Se Ri. They carried the whole presentation conference. Right now I understand the biggest revenues outside the United States revenues that come to the LPGA come from Korea. When he left the bar or restaurant that he was in, a fellow came up to him and offered him $150 in won - anybody know how many that is? That's a lot - for the hat and golf shirt he was wearing. He was really thrilled to see me, surprised to see me. I mentioned to Senator Jacobs that we had over 330 press credentials we gave out last year. I think it's really going to be interesting and it's really going to be fun working with the wonderful folks at Bulle Rock. Anxious to see just what we can build on here. Thank you very much.

ALICE MILLER: Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you all for being here. This is a great response. Apologize for the electricity. Mr. Paterakis will take care of that for us. I'm Alice Miller, Executive Director for the championship. I help organize the chaos, so to speak. Have a wonderful staff sitting over to my left that you'll all get to meet at some point. Having played on the tour for 20 years and seen this tournament grow as a player, and then working for the LPGA for a couple of seasons, tournament official, now being part of the staff, I've really seen the tournament grow. All I can tell you is how excited I am with the opportunity that we have here at Bulle Rock to grow this championship and take it to another level. As a player, I won't be surprised, I'm a little premature, but I won't be surprised if this becomes possibly the best course they play on tour in their minds. The players will be the judges of that. But it will easily be in the Top 3. So we are thrilled. Thanks for the opportunity. Looking forward to working with Rick and his staff and Bill Lewis, the superintendent, who has done a great job. I think we could hold the championship right now. They wouldn't need to make many changes, Rick, to host the tournament on this golf course. I hope you're all as thrilled as we are, and we look forward to a wonderful relationship. Thank you.

RICK ROUNSAVILLE: Good morning. We'd like to welcome you all to Bulle Rock, the 2005 site of the ladies McDonald's Championship. Before I continue, I'd just like to take one second and acknowledge the other two of our owners, I think Mr. (Inaudible) and Mr. Turner, they may want to come up for one second and introduce themselves to you and keep going. I'd also like to introduce Bill Lewis, the superintendent. Bill, where are you? Come up and stand alongside of me for a few minutes. We're both very fortunate, we have a lot of great people here. We couldn't do it without everybody else, the rest of the staff. The operation runs -- the clubhouse operations runs with Charles Lions, our executive chef, Heather Bowman, our restaurant manager, and Peter Bowman, runs the shop on a daily basis, and everyone else that assists us to get Bulle Rock where it is. Our recognition is not only for the quality of the golf course, but the service we provide to everybody. Our play comes from all over the country at this point and hopefully now all over the world. As many of you know, Pete Dye, you know that name, he's one of the foremost architects of this day, and very fortunate to have him as our designer. He could not be here today, but he did ask me to read a few words that he sent up yesterday. "I'm elated the new owners have accepted a major, the McDonald's LPGA Championship, to be played at one of my favorite golf courses, Bulle Rock." Plans began for Bulle Rock in 1985. It was a vision of our former owner, Ed Abel, and from day one it was his plan to build a world class golf course that anyone could play and, of course, that would someday host a major championship. With that in mind, he chose world-renowned Pete Dye as the course architect and the journey began. Opening in 1998 with very little fanfare, and I mean very little fanfare, we basically opened the gates and said, "We're open." We did very little advertising or anything else. It was at a very early press conference that we had many of the sports writers and golf writers from Baltimore and the Philadelphia region here. When they were here, the day that they came, they realized and we realized that maybe Bulle Rock was going to be what we expected it to be. It has been touted by almost every major and local publication as a course worthy of hosting a major golf championship. With the continued effort and support of our new ownership, we now have accomplished one of our major goals. We are extremely excited and looking forward to having the championship, the LPGA McDonald's Championship, and putting Bulle Rock and the state and our local area on the worldwide golfing spotlight. It is a great venue, there's 18 very good different terrific holes out there, great green complexes, and it should be a real challenge for the tournament and something I think that we can -- the golf course is going to make the state of Maryland proud and help continue McDonald's goal and the charity's goal to continue to raise money. Thank you.

TY VOTAW: Thank you very much. I hope you can hear me. I apologize for not being able to be there. A family commitment has prevented me from being with you folks. It sounds like you have, with the exception of the electricity, a great day there. I'm sorry I couldn't be with you. I just want to echo what everybody else has said and express our appreciation. Governor and Mrs. Ehrlich, we appreciate your support of this event moving forward. We're thrilled to be bringing the LPGA back to Maryland, and the LPGA Championship back to Maryland. We had the LPGA Championship at Bethesda for many years before we went to Wilmington. It was a very successful championship, different part of the state. But we have fond memories of playing in Maryland, the LPGA, and we're looking forward to coming back here, to the great state of Maryland. You can't have any discussion about the McDonald's LPGA Championship without expressing appreciation for McDonald's and the 25 years of support that it will be giving the LPGA in association with this event. But more importantly than McDonald's support, it's the results of the tournament and what we've been able to do with Herb and Frank and the board of directors and the staff of the McDonald's LPGA Championship in raising over $41 million in charities for Ronald McDonald House Charities. That's what this event is all about from a bottom line perspective, and we are very proud to be associated with that amount of charitable giving. We express our thanks to McDonald's, Ronald McDonald House Charities. We also express an enormous debt of gratitude to Herb Lotman, Frank Quinn, as cofounders, Chris Gabriel, the board chairman, and all the board members of the McDonald's LPGA Championship for their tireless and countless hours of work in making this event the LPGA Championships. It's one of the best group of people we deal with on the LPGA Tour. No finer group of people do we deal with. We are very much appreciative of all their hard work. I have not had had the privilege of coming to Bulle Rock, yet I'm looking forward to that. My staff has seen the facility and have confirmed for me what everybody has said today, that it will be a wonderful test for the LPGA Championship, worthy of a major championship, and something that I know our players will be looking forward to trying out next June for the McDonald's LPGA Championship. I also want to express, as we open one door, we admittedly close another, and certainly the Dupont Country Club has been a wonderful host of the McDonald's LPGA Championship for the past several years. I know a lot of wonderful memories have been created. I know Juli Inkster has a lot of great memories from that golf course. Annika Sorenstam the past two years has had great memories. We're looking forward to creating new memories at Bulle Rock, but we want to make sure we acknowledge and express our appreciation for all the wonderful people at Dupont Country Club and all of the great volunteers, hopefully which we will see more of or as much of down at Bulle Rock. But we can't say good by to Dupont without thanking them for everything they've done for the LPGA. I hope you've been able to hear everything I've said. One thing I can attest to, Governor Ehrlich, from what Herb's remarks were, I can attest that everyone does pay to play in the ProAm (laughter). As you get to know Herb, you can certainly understand, it's always for the kids. When I play in the LPGA Championship ProAm, even the LPGA Commissioner pays. Looking forward to doing that, making it a great new chapter in the 51st year of the LPGA Championship, next year, 2005 at Bulle Rock. Thank you very much.

BILL PATERAKIS: My entire family joins me in welcoming everyone here today. Next year marks our 40th anniversary in a partnership with McDonald's. We started with them in 1965 right here in Baltimore. So it's kind of special to have also this tournament come, as well. Over the last 20 years, 20 plus years, we've been privileged as well to be part of the Ronald McDonald House Charities. I personally am involved in the golf committee here. It just so happens that our local ProAm is here at Bulle Rock every August for those who want to attend. We do a great job raising money for the house. I can personally attest to the experience superb service that we get with Rick's group. They are one of the best. Recently my family with partners Clark Turner and Richard (inaudible) acquired with golf course and the surrounding properties. I have to tell you, for my dad to come home and tell me, "We bought a golf course," was kind of a shock to me. When I was growing up, we had about 30 bakeries in Baltimore. Every time one went bankrupt and closed up, he reminded me they wore three-piece suits and they played golf all the time. I personally didn't have a golf club in my hand until I was 37, because I couldn't get over that preaching. So here we are. As has been said, the Golf Digest has rated this course one of the 16 five-star golf courses in North America and the Caribbean, it ranks third best in Maryland, including the private courses. The only two that outranked them were the Congressional and the Baltimore Country Cub. Zagat's rated it the third best public course in the country in 2004. It's also ranked among the best in Golf Week and in Golf Magazine. As mentioned, the architect is Pete Dye, and who along with Rick Rounsaville and Bill Lewis do a great job to bring a great experience to the players. I'd like to thank the attendance of Governor Ehrlich. Hartford County executive Jim Harkins couldn't be here, but I understand he has a representative here. David Craig, the mayor, Senator Jacobs, Senator Hooper and Senator Curry. Also members of the LPGA committee, the players. Also I'd like to acknowledge some of the home builders who also are our partners in this development, NVR, Ryan (inaudible), DR Horton, Clark Turner. We have plans not on this golf site, but we have plans to build 2000 homes in the area, in the community. We look forward to working with the community, to work with this event. The economic benefits to the city, to the county and the state are enormous. We feel honored to have the LPGA committee choose this course. Most important is to bring the continued success to the Ronald McDonald House. As we know, as Herb has always said, it's a motto of our own local house, "It's always about the kids, supporting their effort in times of need." Thank you.

MAYOR DAVID CRAIG: Good morning and welcome to Havre de Grace, which is Maryland's second oldest and 20th largest municipality. We were affectionately known to you before today as Exit 89, last exit before paying a toll. I want to thank the Governor for coming up, taking time from his busy schedule. Actually, the official pronunciation is Havre de Grace. We used to have a fireworks plant here that blew up. That was the last time we had international fame. The City Council voted an official pronunciation. I want to thank the members of my council who are here, Barney Mills, Ernie Anderson (inaudible), Barbara Ferguson. We pledge our support to the Ronald McDonald House, to the LPGA event. This will be a perfect marriage I believe between Havre de Grace, the LPGA, the McDonald's house and Bulle Rock. Anybody who can stand out on the deck and see the view, my family has lived in this area since the 1680s. I tell people, When you're born in paradise, there's no need to leave. I tell the LPGA, When you play here, there'll be no need to leave here either. So welcome to everyone.

TY VOTAW: That's a good question. I'm not sure I'm the one to answer it because we didn't have a relationship with Bulle Rock. It was initiated by the committee or the board of directors of the McDonald's LPGA Championship. I can't really tell you when the first discussions took place. That's a better question to address to those folks. Clearly the McDonald's LPGA Championship board felt that this was the best thing for their organization to meet the objectives of the organization, which is to raise money for the charities. We support that decision.

TY VOTAW: Clearly the test of golf has to be major like. That's what our officials and what our staff looked at first and foremost when looking at Bulle Rock. The reports that we received back were that it clearly would stand the test of a major championship with respect to the LPGA, the quality of the venue, the quality of the golf course was not in question whatsoever. So when that came through after we were told by Herb and the board of directors that they were looking at Bulle Rock, then once we got confirmation it would stand the test of time as a major championship venue, then that's when our full support came to the fore.

TY VOTAW: Again, that might be better left to the board or Herb or Frank. But our sense was there was never any question that the repairs or the renovations to Wilmington would get done in time for next year's event. That wasn't necessarily or at all the consideration that was involved here. We wouldn't have moved the LPGA Championship to the Dupont Country Club if we didn't feel it was worthy of a major test. And certainly it stood up to that major test over the past several years. The quality of the winners over the past several years have borne that out. But in terms of the decision to move to Bulle Rock, it was not a question of Wilmington or the Dupont Country Club being an inferior major test in comparison. That's not he question at all. It's just that Bulle Rock gave the organization and the championship I think a much bigger runway to improve the revenue side of the equation for the charity.

HERB LOTMAN: There was nothing wrong with the Dupont course that we couldn't play there next year, year after. We were fine this year. It was strictly, again, that we have an opportunity to raise more money for kids. Whenever we have an opportunity, we took it. The only reason why we're here. Dupont was a fantastic partner. The Wilmington community was a fantastic partner. Right now I'm sitting here looking at the faces of our brand-new fantastic partners. Don't sell Dupont short. They've done a great job for us. I spoke to Chad Halliday this morning. He was sorry to see us go, but he understood. Nothing is here forever. It's all about the kids.

HERB LOTMAN: We have a very big association with the business community. My partner John Paterakis, I call him my partner now, he makes the buns, I make the hamburgers and the nuggets. Putting it bluntly, I put my burgers between his buns. Do you think if I asked John to help me in the business community in Maryland, he won't? I'm also a member of K Valley. I know a lot of members there. I know a lot of the business community here. Between the government, the local government and the state government, the business government, we feel that we should be able to do a lot better for the children. Also one other thing. We have 448 amateurs coming here ever year. The hotels are great. The buildings are great. The course is great. It's like same old, same old after 20 years. It was time for a change. Two years ago a lunch with at chairman of the Dupont, I said, "In two years we're probably be going, we need to have a new (inaudible)." We have a new (inaudible) here.

TY VOTAW: I wasn't presented with another alternative. That's really hypotheticals. I don't usually get into hypotheticals. Clearly when it was presented to us that you had this wonderful gem of a golf course only 40 miles away from Wilmington, we don't often live in perfect worlds, but the fact that it was only 40 miles away from some of the best support in terms of volunteers and galleries that we have had, clearly that made it a challenge for us to leave. But the fact that we are so close to Wilmington gave us a lot of comfort when combined with the great test of golf that this golf course is going to provide our players. That proximity to that market where we have had such success was clearly something that made us feel that we were if not completely in a perfect world, not a horribly imperfect one.

FRANK QUINN: No, there weren't any discussions. I should be pointed out that we were there for 18 years and we asked for support from everybody for 18 years. Everybody had the chances to create the revenue stream that would have kept us there.

FRANK QUINN: I'd rather not phrase it that way because over the years we've gotten tremendous support from both communities. If you take a look at what we've raised, you can see it has been diminishing.