Thursday, March 11, 2004 | 9:01 a.m.
From the most unusual of sources came the most unusual of golf tournament sponsorships and because it did, the Las Vegas Invitational will proceed as usual this year.
A $5 million commitment over the next three years by Bay Area widow Helen Morton will give the Las Vegas Founders enough financial strength to continue operating the city's PGA Tour stop while they continue to search for a title sponsor to truly solidify the event. The tournament retains its October date and its pro-am format this year as part of the generous, yet temporary, fix.
This year, Morton's donation to the tournament is $1.5 million. Morton pledged the money in memory of her late husband, Thomas, who played many times as an amateur in the Las Vegas Invitational.
The Morton family considers Las Vegas to be a second home and they wanted to keep the tournament from folding, said Helen Morton's son, Kevin Kleczka. Morton attended the event last year.
"To her, it was just going to be a crime and it was something that shouldn't happen," Kleczka said of losing the tournament.
The Founders signed a one-year contract with the PGA Tour to operate the tournament in 2004. The purse will remain at $4 million, with pro-am entry fees accounting for most of the Founders' portion of the money.
If the Founders cannot locate a title sponsor in the next two years, Morton will provide $1.7 million in 2005 and $1.8 million in 2006. By then, the tournament may look drastically different.
Duke Butler, the Tour's vice president for tournament business affairs, said at Wednesday's press conference that the Tour would like to see the Invitational shift from its current five-day, three-course format to a four-day, two-course format popularized at the event at the Walt Disney World Golf Resort courses in Florida.
Such a change would mean professionals would play with a single amateur on the first two days instead of the current situation where three amateurs are paired with a Tour golfer for the first three days.
"That format could be part of our future," Butler said. "Ostensibly, that could be more attractive for a gallery and possibly for the player field and the television ratings."
Strong player interest in Las Vegas was a major factor in the Tour's efforts to keep a stop in town. Even though the initial Tour schedule ominously listed the Las Vegas weekend only as "TBD" while the title sponsor search continued, Butler said the desire to stay in Las Vegas never waned.
"It didn't come all that close to being taken off the 2004 schedule because the player directors on their policy board are so supportive of continuing in Las Vegas," Butler said. "The Tour members, the players themselves, have a loud voice in the administration of the schedule and the events. The players were heard -- they want to continue playing in Las Vegas."
The search for a corporate sponsor now continues with a bit less urgency.
"Our top priority now is to sell the Las Vegas Invitational and I believe we will," Butler said. "Certainly there was concern, but the prevailing factor has been 21 years of success with the Founders Club and a great city in Las Vegas where the PGA Tour wants to be."
It is also where the Morton family wants to be. Kleczka said that although the family has a charitable foundation which has helped sponsor the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, it has never taken on a commitment as large as this one. He said there is nothing for Helen or anyone in the family to gain by donating the money.
"The benefit we get out of this is seeing all these smiling faces," Kleczka said. "That's the benefit. There was nothing for us to gain except for a lot of smiles."
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