The renowned Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, CA. was the original home to the Colgate Dinah Shore golf tournament that began in 1972. Nabisco became the sponsor in 1982 and when Kraft purchased Nabisco in 2000, the name was changed to the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Air Nippon Airlines was the title sponsor of the event sponsor from 2015-2021.
At the end of 2021, a six-year sponsorship agreement with Chevron was announced and the energy company moved the tournament from Rancho Mirage, CA. to Houston, TX.
Without a professional golf tournament in Rancho Mirage for the first time in 50 years, a five-year agreement was reached in 2022 with GRAIL, a healthcare company focused on pioneering new technologies for early cancer detection.
The new tournament, The Galleri Classic, is now a stop on The PGA Champions Tour reserved for PGA senior professionals over the age of 50. The 54-hole inaugural event was held at Mission Hills from March 20-26, 2023 and featured 78 PGA Tour professionals including ten World Golf Hall of Fame members and 20 major championship winners. All rounds were televised Nationally on the GOLF CHANNEL.
Included in the field were German professional golfer Bernhard Langer, a two-time Masters champion and winner of 45 PGA Tour Champion victories. Local California fan favorites included Fred Couples and John Cook. Couples is a 1992 Masters champion, former #1 golfer in the world, five-time member of the US Ryder Cup team, and winner of 64 professional tournaments. Cook was born in Ohio but grew up in Southern California and learned the game of golf at Mission Hills where he once had a home. His first PGA victory was in 1981 at the rain-shortened Bing Crosby Pro-Am where he won a five-way sudden death playoff.
The winner of the inaugural Galleri Classic was Louisiana native David Toms who won 13 PGA events including the 2001 PGA Championship where he shot a fifteen under par 265 and finished one stroke ahead of Phil Mickelson.
The Galleri Classic was Toms’ second win of the 2023 PGA TOUR Champions season. He was the leader after each day of play, finished the tournament at 16 under par, and won $330,000