Dinah Shore and the Tournament That Made Mission Hills Famous

Some tournaments are remembered by a course. Others are remembered by a champion. For decades at Mission Hills, this one was also remembered by a first name: Dinah.

Shore’s name linked a familiar entertainer to women’s professional golf. The relationship grew into a major championship and a Rancho Mirage tradition, then outlived the tournament’s long desert residency. To follow the story clearly, keep the host, the championship and the place in view.

Dinah Shore brought an audience

Before her name became inseparable from a golf tournament, Dinah Shore was a singer, actress and television personality. For people who did not follow the LPGA every week, she was a familiar face through which the sport could reach them.¹

Her contribution is easy to underestimate if “celebrity host” sounds like a ceremonial job. A recognizable host gives an event an introduction; sustained involvement helps turn that introduction into a relationship. Shore’s presence offered a bridge between entertainment audiences and women competing at the highest level.

The LPGA’s own retrospective pairs Shore with David Foster of Colgate-Palmolive in explaining the tour’s growth during the 1970s. Their backing mattered to the event’s commercial ambition as well as its personality. The story is about someone who could draw attention and the institutional support that helped turn attention into a tournament.²

1972: a tournament before it was a major

The first Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle was played in 1972, with Jane Blalock winning at Mission Hills. The event’s early ambition was unmistakable, but it was not yet an official major championship. That status arrived in 1983.⁴³

Keeping those dates separate matters. A tournament can be significant before it receives a particular designation. The early winners helped establish the occasion that later generations would inherit; the word “major” should not be projected backward onto their editions.

Mission Hills and the surrounding city supplied a distinctive setting. In the larger history of Rancho Mirage, country clubs were places to live and socialize as well as play. A televised tournament gave one of those landscapes an audience far beyond the people who could enter its gates.

Explore the names, champions and turning points

Choose an era to connect its tournament name, venue and selected champions. This is a guide to the championship’s continuity, not a complete results database. The official winners archive is linked in the sources.

One championship, several names

Few local sporting institutions have carried so many names while remaining so recognizable. The original Colgate branding gave way to Nabisco; the name was shortened around the turn of the century, followed by Kraft Nabisco, ANA Inspiration and Chevron.³

For longtime followers, “the Dinah” remained a useful shorthand because a familiar person and place held the story together. A sponsor title told you which edition you were watching. Shore’s name pointed toward the event’s roots.

Names and earlier venues follow the LPGA’s tournament chronology; the 2026 venue follows its current records.³⁸

How a victory leap became part of the event

Amy Alcott jumped into the water beside the closing green after winning in 1988. She repeated the celebration in 1991, this time with Shore joining her. The image linked competitive success with something spontaneous and human: a champion, her caddie and the event’s host sharing the moment.⁵

Traditions often look inevitable after they become familiar. This one had a beginning. It should not be described as something every winner had done since 1972, nor should Shore be substituted for Alcott as the originator of the leap.

Poppie’s Pond gave the tournament a visual ending that did not require much explanation. Even a viewer who had missed the preceding rounds could understand why the people in the water were smiling. In a sport often remembered through scores and trophies, it supplied another kind of memory.

The players made it a championship

The host helped bring people to the event; the golfers gave them a reason to keep watching. Later Mission Hills winners included Stacy Lewis, Lexi Thompson, Lydia Ko, Jin Young Ko and Patty Tavatanakit. Different generations and national backgrounds became part of the same place’s sporting history.³⁶

That is an important balance in an article about Dinah Shore. Her influence should be visible without turning the athletes into a supporting cast. The championship endured because it combined a recognizable occasion with serious competition.

Our wider story of how the valley became a golf capital includes development, architecture, resorts and celebrity. Mission Hills adds another essential strand: women’s professional golf helping define the region’s reputation.

2022: the last championship at Mission Hills

Jennifer Kupcho won the 2022 Chevron Championship at Mission Hills at 14 under par. That edition closed the tournament’s Rancho Mirage run. It was already carrying the Chevron name; the move to Texas followed in 2023.⁶

The distinction prevents a common mix-up. The last ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills was in 2021, but the last edition of this championship there was in 2022. The event did not disappear when the ANA title ended.

The loss of a long-running tournament changes how a place appears on the sporting calendar. For Rancho Mirage, the championship had made a familiar landscape a recurring meeting point between local life and an international audience. Its departure closed that particular chapter, even though the course remained.

The event moved; its history traveled with it

The Chevron Championship moved to The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands in 2023. Lilia Vu won the first Texas edition, followed by Nelly Korda in 2024 and Mao Saigo in 2025. Those are later chapters of the same championship, not Mission Hills results.⁶⁷

There has since been another venue change. The LPGA announced the move to Houston’s Memorial Park Golf Course for 2026, where Korda won. A history that ends by saying the tournament is “now at Carlton Woods” is already out of date.⁸⁹

The desert course began its own next chapter. The inaugural Galleri Classic brought PGA TOUR Champions competition to Mission Hills in March 2023, with David Toms winning. It is a separate event on a different tour, not a renamed continuation of the women’s major.¹⁰¹¹

What remains of Dinah’s contribution

A course, a championship and a person’s reputation can carry different kinds of continuity. The golf moved to Texas. Mission Hills retained its place in the record. Shore’s contribution remains part of how the tournament explains its identity.

Her name also lives through a separate collegiate recognition. The LPGA Foundation’s account of the Dinah Shore Trophy Award traces it to 1994 and connects it with achievements on and off the course. That award should not be confused with the professional championship’s winner’s trophy.¹²

To explore the local setting further, read about Thunderbird’s ranch-to-country-club transformation, Tamarisk’s founding and the tennis tournament that also began at Mission Hills. Together they show how several sports and institutions helped make the desert recognizable.

Dinah Shore helped make women’s golf an occasion people recognized. The players made that occasion worth returning to. For half a century, Mission Hills gave both a home.

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