With the status of the 2019 Houston Open still undecided, Minnesota will have to wait a little longer to find out whether a PGA Tour event will be coming to the state next summer.
According to a Monday report in the Houston Chronicle, organizers of the Houston Open did not meet last Friday's deadline to secure a sponsor for next year's tournament. But the Chronicle added that Houston Astros owner Jim Crane has lined up investors to back the Open in 2019 under a proposal that would move it to October.
Hollis Cavner, who is trying to bring the PGA Tour to Minnesota, said last month that 3M would sponsor a new event next June at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine if the Houston Open is dropped. Even if the Texas tournament survives, Cavner said TPC Twin Cities could host a PGA Tour event June 6-9—a week before the 2019 U.S. Open — if the Houston Open is moved to a vacant date in the fall.
Cavner said Monday it "could be a few weeks'' before the 2019 schedule is finalized. The longtime tournament director for the 3M Championship, a Champions Tour event at the Blaine course, Cavner said he is not allowed to comment further until agreements have been completed.
The Houston Open lost its sponsor, Shell Oil Co., in 2017. The tournament, established in 1946, lost its venue last month when the Golf Club of Houston announced it would no longer host after this year.
The Houston Chronicle's report said Crane has assembled a group of 10 to 12 people willing to finance the tournament. Crane's proposal to the PGA Tour would keep the Open at the Golf Club of Houston and move it from its usual date, the week before the Masters, to October. The Valero Texas Open already has been awarded the pre-Masters date as part of a reshuffled schedule.
Should the Twin Cities get a tournament in 2019, it would be the first regular PGA Tour event in Minnesota since 1969.
