The LPGA lost Cognizant as a sponsor four days ago. Now the PGA Tour is seeing one of its sponsors back out.
Shriners Children’s Hospitals is no longer going to be title sponsor of the fall event at TPC Summerlin, which was first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Shriners has had its name on the event since 2007.
“We have enjoyed a tremendous 18 years as the host and title sponsor of the Shriners Children’s Open,” Bob Roller, vice president of sports for Shriners, told the Review-Journal. “The opportunity to tell our incredible stories of the more than 1.6 million children that have received care from Shriners was, and always is, our primary goal.”
More from the Review-Journal story:
Should officials fail to find a new title sponsor, it is conceivable the tour would step in and sponsor the tournament for one year to maintain its place on the schedule. That’s something that has been done for legacy tournaments in the past, but not recently. The tour has been fully sponsored for the past seven years.
Changes in tournament sponsorships are not uncommon on the PGA Tour, with seven new title sponsors added among the 49 events on the 2024 schedule.
But the fall schedule has had the most issues recently. Since LIV Golf burst on the scene three years ago and the PGA Tour responded with a series of big-money, signature events during the regular season, getting stars and eyeballs on the fall events has been a challenge.
A PGA Tour official has confirmed the report to Golfweek.
The event has been part of the Vegas sports scene for 42 years. It was one of eight tournaments on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Fall series in 2024.
PGA Tour prize money in Vegas
In its second year of competition in 1984, Vegas became the first Tour event to showcase a purse of more than $1 million ($1,122,500 to be exact).
Here’s a look at all the winners and their prize money since its inception:
| Year | Winner | Score | To par | Total purse |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | J.T. Poston | 262 | -22 | $7,00,000 |
| 2023 | Tom Kim | 264 | -20 | $8,400,000 |
| 2022 | Tom Kim | 260 | -24 | $8,000,000 |
| 2021 | Im Sung-jae | 260 | -24 | $7,000,000 |
| 2020 | Martin Laird | 261 | -23 | $7,000,000 |
| 2019 | Kevin Na | 261 | -23 | $6,600,000 |
| 2018 | Bryson DeChambeau | 263 | -21 | $7,000,000 |
| 2017 | Patrick Cantlay | 275 | -9 | $6,800,000 |
| 2016 | Rod Pampling | 264 | -20 | $6,600,000 |
| 2015 | Smylie Kaufman | 268 | -16 | $6,400,000 |
The 2024 tournament saw a reduction in total prize money as well as first-place money compared to the year prior.
Names of PGA Tour event in Las Vegas over the years
Tournament of Champions, 1967-1968
Sahara Invitational, 1969-1976
Las Vegas Invitational, 1983-1999
Invensys Classic at Las Vegas, 2000-2002
Las Vegas Invitational, 2003-2006
Frys.com Open, 2007-2008
Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, 2008-2012
Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, 2013-2020
Shriners Children’s Open, 2021-2023
