Previous Coverage: Double duty for 84 Lumber Classic planners (04/09/06) 84 Lumber closes seven area locations (04/05/06)

After a three-year meteoric rise on the PGA Tour, 84 Lumber surprisingly pulled the plug on its $4.6 million golf tournament, announcing it will withdraw its sponsorship after the tournament is played for the final time in September at the Nemacolin Woodlands Resort & Spa in Farmington.

The decision came as a surprise to just about everyone because the tournament recently reached a new six-year agreement with the PGA Tour to move the event to mid-June, beginning in 2007 -- a time spot that had long been targeted and desired by tournament host and sponsor Joe Hardy.

What's more, since the inception of the tournament, Mr. Hardy had spent more than $80 million to improve facilities, upgrade the Mystic Rock golf course that hosted the event and make the tournament one of the best late-summer stops on the PGA Tour.

In a statement released yesterday, Maggie Hardy Magerko, owner and president of 84 Lumber Co. and Mr. Hardy's daughter, said the tournament will be discontinued as part of a strategic growth plan in which the company wants to add 125 stores and hit $10 billion in sales by 2009. The firm also plans to close 67 "underperforming" stores; that move would affect 600 employees.

Mrs. Magerko unveiled the financial plan last week and immediately informed PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem. But the announcement that the 84 Lumber Classic will cease to exist didn't come until yesterday, when a tournament in Hartford, Conn., sponsored by the St. Paul Travelers Co., was named as a replacement.

"At the end of the day, it was a very emotional and difficult decision not to continue with the golf tournament," said Jeff Nobers, vice president of communications for 84 Lumber.

Mrs. Magerko would not comment. However, in the statement, she said talks will continue with the PGA Tour on "future partnerships." Those include player sponsorships like the deals 84 Lumber has with John Daly and Vijay Singh, two of the highest profile players on the PGA Tour.

Attempts to reach Mr. Finchem and other members of the PGA Tour's tournament staff were unsuccessful.

84 Lumber Co. is the nation's third-largest professional building supply dealer, according to industry publication Home Channel News. Company sales have doubled from $2 billion in 2002 to $4 billion in 2005.

"We're not consumer-driven, like golf manufacturers," Mr. Nobers said. "We sell to professional contractors and use the tournament to bring our customers in and entertain them. But you can do that at any PGA Tour event you want."

He said the tournament, which is in the final year of a four-year contract with the PGA Tour, will be run "the same as always" when it is staged Sept. 11-17.

"We will not back off just because this is our last year," Mr. Nobers said. "We will still do everything we've always done to make it so attractive, including the concerts."

The tournament, which was a permanent replacement for the former Pennsylvania Classic that alternated between the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia areas, enjoyed immediate success and garnered plenty of attention in just three years.

The tournament wooed Singh and Phil Mickelson, nearly attracted Tiger Woods, and players received such perks as electronic toy Hummers at Christmas and a free airplane ride to Ireland for the tournament that followed the 84 Lumber Classic.

With an improved field and concerts such as the Doobie Brothers and Leeann Womack being staged at night, the 84 Lumber Classic attracted slightly more than 200,000 for six days last year.

An economic study by Tripp Umbach, a Pittsburgh-based company that specializes in customized market research, determined the 84 Lumber Classic had a direct annual economic impact of $77.8 million last year on the state of Pennsylvania.

"Our restaurants filled up, our hotels filled up," said Muriel Nuttall, executive director of the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce. "It was a real good thing for Fayette County. I'm sorry to see they made this decision."

"It's a shame because [the tournament] has grown over the years," said Annie Urban, director of the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau. "It has enhanced Nemacolin's image and visibility by drawing people from all over, even the players. Phil Mickelson was playing last year and the man just won the Masters."

The decision to end the tournament was such a surprise that even Daly, considered the unofficial host of the tournament, did not know it was coming. In an interview Monday morning in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Daly talked about the growth of the 84 Lumber Classic and how much better the tournament would be when it moved to June in 2007.

Daly was one of the prime reasons Hardy was able to attract a PGA Tour event to his posh resort. Daly was able to lobby the tour to get an event and also persuade PGA Tour players to come to Nemacolin Woodlands.

It was Daly, with the help of his Pittsburgh-based agent Bud Martin, who managed to get Woods, the world's No. 1 player, to agree to play in 2004. But the week of the tournament, Woods withdrew, citing fatigue from playing in the Ryder Cup.

"Maggie and Joe Hardy are successful in whatever they do," said Mr. Martin, senior vice president of SFX Sports, a management firm that was responsible for recruiting players to the inaugural 84 Lumber Classic in 2003. "I'm sure their strategy will work out for the best for them and the PGA Tour. We're fortunate to be affiliated with them and look forward to those future partnerships."