Longtime title sponsor pulls out of Las Vegas PGA Tour event

Shriners Children’s Hospital is ending its sponsorship of the PGA Tour event in Las Vegas, putting the future of the tournament in jeopardy.

Shriners has been the sponsor of the tournament since 2007, one of the longest runs among title sponsors for tournaments on the PGA Tour schedule.

“We have enjoyed a tremendous 18 years as the host and title sponsor of the Shriners Children’s Open,” said Bob Roller, vice president of sports for Shriners. “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.”

Roller offered no explanation for the decision.

PGA Tour officials confirmed the 2024 tournament would be the final one associated with Shriners after the two sides mutually agreed to the split.

Tour and tournament officials will now spend the coming weeks searching for a new title sponsor for the tournament, which has been played for 42 years in Las Vegas and is one of the longest-running events on tour.

The 2025 regular-season schedule has been released, but the tour has yet to announce the fall events, where Las Vegas is on the calendar.

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.

This year, Fortinet pulled out of its sponsorship of the tournament in Napa, California, with Procore stepping in as the new title sponsor at the last minute. Sanderson Farms also announced 2024 would be the final year of its sponsorship of the tournament in Jackson, Mississippi, although company officials had a change of heart last month and decided to give it one more year.

The fall events’ struggles can also be seen in their dropping purses. All but one of the tournaments reduced prize money in 2024. That included the Shriners, which went from a $7.8 million purse in 2023 to $7 million this year.

Tournament officials must also compete for sponsorship money with the LPGA, which has its own event in Las Vegas. The LPGA Match Play had Bank of Hope as its title sponsor for its first three years before T-Mobile took the lead in 2024. MGM Resorts also plays a role in that event since it is played at Shadow Creek, an MGM property.

The Las Vegas tournament is the only golf event that Shriners sponsors. It is active in other sports, including the East-West Shrine Bowl (college football), two races on NASCAR’s Xfinity circuit, and college basketball, baseball and softball tournaments.

The PGA Tour’s Las Vegas event has had many highlights over the years, including Tiger Woods’ first professional win in 1996 and Jonathan Byrd making a hole in one on the 17th hole at TPC Summerlin to win a playoff in the 2010 tournament.

J.T. Poston won the final event bearing the Shriners name Sunday.

“The PGA Tour has been a tremendous partner along the way, and we thank them and the entire Las Vegas/Summerlin community,” Roller said.

Greg Robertson covers golf for the Review-Journal. Reach him at grobertson@reviewjournal.com.