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Texas Children's Hospital named title sponsor for Houston Open

By Chandler France – Reporter, Houston Business Journal
May 31, 2023

The Houston Open has found a new long-term title sponsor for the golf tournament as the event returns to a spring date on the PGA Tour calendar.

The Astros Golf Foundation and PGA Tour announced May 31 that Houston-based pediatric and women’s health system Texas Children’s Hospital will serve as the title sponsor for the event. The sponsorship is a five-year deal running through the 2028 tournament, the Astros Golf Foundation said. It’s the first time the golf tournament will have a long-term sponsor since Shell Oil Co. ended its sponsorship of the event in 2017.

“This is a big deal for us and it’s a big deal for (Texas Children’s),” Houston Astros Owner and Chairman Jim Crane said during a press conference. “Now this will be bigger, better and be able to help a lot more people.”

Texas Children’s Hospital has been a community partner for the Houston Open for the past two years, but the relationship between the hospital and Crane extends further than that. During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Mark Wallace, president and CEO of Texas Children's Hospital, said Crane helped the hospital find supplies and manage supply chain issues.

Wallace added that the partnership made sense for the hospital because the commitment to the community that his organization and the Astros Golf Foundation both share. The tournament was able to raise about $6 million for Houston-area charities during last year’s event.

“To be a part of this tournament, to be affiliated with Jim Crane and everything that he does for the community, the coming together of all of this was based on shared values and friendships,” Wallace told the media. “We’re going to raise more money than I think we ever have before.”