PGA Tour stop changing name back to Reno-Tahoe Open

RENO, Nev. - The PGA Tour's Greens.com Open at Reno-Tahoe is changing its name back to the original title, the Reno-Tahoe Open.

Officials for the tournament that Notah Begay III won in its inaugural run last August decided late Wednesday to break off the new sponsorship agreement with Greens.com.

The startup company that reserves golf tee times via the Internet recently was sold and failed to meet a July 1 deadline for the final $500,000 due in the $1 million title sponsorship agreement, said Josh Luke, the tourney's director of public relations.

"We will be changing the name back," Luke told The Associated Press.

Still to be determined is what to do with tens of thousands of dollars worth of souvenirs and signs that already have been printed up with the Greens.com moniker.

Advertising will be switched over to the old name within 10 days. But it would cost at least $100,000 to change "all the advertising, hats, shirts, trash cans, banners and signs," Luke said.

"It would be irresponsible to take that much money away from a charity event," he said.

Some of the ticket orders and volunteer shirts already have been shipped with the old name.

"We're considering other alternatives, like buttons to put over them, or just to bite the bullet," Luke said.

He estimated less than 20 percent of the tournament paraphernalia would end up with the old Greens.com logo.

Tournament officials initially were under the impression that the sale of the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Greens.com to Greens Technology Inc. would have no impact on this year's tournament with a $3.25 million purse, scheduled at Montreux Golf & Country Club in southwest Reno at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, Aug. 24-27.

The company paid $500,000 when the contract was signed Jan. 25 and was due to pay the other $500,000 the first of this month.

"We did not receive the second check," Luke said Wednesday night.

"We have been in communication with the new owners and the communication hasn't been as fluent as we'd like," he said.

"Obviously the partnership is not a top priority for them right now, so we have to move forward," he said.

Members of the tournament foundation, including a number of casino owners, voted unanimously Wednesday night to return to the old name.

It's possible the tournament will snag another sponsor within the next two weeks, which could earn a part of the title used on the CNBC telecasts of the tournament without a formal logo at the course, Luke said.

"The tournament itself is not in jeopardy in any way, shape or form," he said.

"This year we were in better shape financially before we ever signed the title sponsorship agreement than we were this year. We're $500,000 ahead of where we were last year, not $500,000 behind," he said.

"We had hoped we'd be $1 million ahead."

Greens.com, which sponsored the Kathy Ireland Greens.com tournament on the LPGA Tour earlier this year, shut its doors and laid off employees last month.

The company's Web site continues to carry a news release dated June 23 announcing Greens.com's assets had been auctioned off and purchased by the newly formed Greens Technology Inc. as a result of Greens.com's "inability to raise additional funding."

It said the investor group behind Greens Technology included John Porter, founder of VeriFone, a division of Hewlett-Packard Co.

The Web site still featured a banner for the Greens.com Open at Reno-Tahoe Wednesday night as well as accounts of the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. But it stated "no tee times available" at the dozens of courses where it was booking tee times for customers across the country.

Messages left at the telephone number listed for press contacts in Scottsdale were not immediately returned Wednesday night.

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