May 24, 2009 As the lights go out at Corning Country Club tonight, the 31-year-run of the LPGA Corning Classic also comes to an
end. Today is a bittersweet time for Corning Classic fans, who have watched the world’s best women golfers display their skills here each May since 1979. From the prodigious putting of Penny Pulz to the crowd-pleasing antics of Joanne “Big Mama” Carner, there has been much to admire and to marvel at during the tournament’s three decades. So the question naturally arises, “Who killed the Corning Classic” That, however, is only a superficial look at the demise of the Corning Classic. Corning Inc. in this case acted more as a coroner than an executioner – pronouncing the tournament dead after other factors had squeezed the life out of it.
As a charity event, there wasn’t much sense in continuing the tournament if it couldn’t generate money for area hospitals, as it has done for three decades.