The Louisiana Open is the oldest professional golf tournament in the state of Louisiana dating back to the 1920s. However, it was not until 1957 that the tournament began maturing into the organized event that it is today. In 1978, a successful effort was made to move the Louisiana Open to Les Vieux Chenes de Lafayette Golf Course.
1986 brought more change for the Louisiana Open. Herbert E. Schilling II, President of the Schilling Distributing Company, incorporated the event into a 501 C-3 non-profit organization, created a Board of Directors and an Advisory Board, and officially renamed the event, theLouisiana Open Golf Tournament.
During the Louisiana Open Inc.'s first year, a total of $15,000 was donated to three area charities.
In 1991, no one could have foreseen the exciting future that was ahead for the Louisiana Open. Tournament officials began meeting with the PGA in an effort to bring a PGA event back to Cajun Country. The result, the 1992 Ben Hogan Louisiana Open hosted at LeTriomphe Golf and Country Club. The Louisiana Open board planned the tournament in less than three months and ultimately organized one of the best events on the Hogan Tour. From 1993 until 1999, the tournament was known as the Nike Louisiana Open and then in 2000, BUY.COM became the tour's presenting sponsor, and the tournament was renamed the BUY.COM Louisiana Open.
There are now 31 stops on the Nationwide Tour, including the season's first event in Panama, two in Australia and two north of the border in Ontario and Calgary. At the beginning of March 2002, the PGA Tour announced that their lengthy court case with BUY.COM had been settled; the settlement called for the Tour to remain the BUY.COM Tour unless a new national sponsor was found, but that there was new flexibility to each individual tournament. Therefore, the Lafayette event will now be known as the Louisiana Open, presented by the Chitimacha Tribal Enterprise, which has been the primary sponsor since the 1994 tournament.
In the first days of 2002, Herbert E. Schilling II and Bill Kallam, founding board members, announced their retirement. Schilling and Kallam turned over leadership of the Louisiana Open to Dr. John Hendry, long time president, along with Harry Patin, Jr., vice-president and tournament director.
During the fall of 2002, the PGA TOUR achieved their goal of replacing BUY.COM and regaining the respectability for the developmental tour. While excited for the future of the tour, the focus was on the present as Nationwide Insurance signed a five-year deal with the PGA TOUR to be the national sponsor and then it was introduced that we were part of the new Nationwide Tour.
After a successful run in 2002, neither the Louisiana Open nor the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana could have seen what was coming. The tournament continues to grow and so does the role of the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana. After nine years as the presenting sponsor, the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana will be the title sponsor of the Louisiana Open. This newfound role allowed Open officials to introduce Dynamic Industries of New Iberia as the new presenting sponsor. Therefore the tournament will now be known as the ChitimachaLouisiana Open Presented By Dynamic Industries.
2003 offered a tremendous tournament with a great 4 rounds of golf by champion Brett Wetterich. His 24-under par was good enough to claim the first place check in the amount of $85,500. In the summer months of 2003, Le Triomphe owner Mike Maraist decided to reconstruct the 7079-yard golf course to better the layout for his members and challenge the Nationwide Tour professionals. Since construction of the course started, Tour players have been talking about it constantly and are eager to take aim at the new challenging golf course and put on a show to make the 2004 Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by Dynamic Industries as year to remember.
The golf course was not the only change in 2004, as once again, the Chitimacha Louisiana Open fell under new leadership. In the Fall of 2003, Herbert Schilling returned as Chairman of an executive board that oversees the entire Louisiana Open corporation. At the same time, Harry Patin, Jr. (Tournament Chairman) and Kenny Crockett (Co-Chairman) were introduced as the new leaders of the Nationwide Tour event.
Chitimacha Louisiana Open officials take great pride in being named as one of the top three stops on tour year in and year out, as they have consistently been among the leaders in volunteers, purse prize and charitable dollars given. In addition to nationwide exposure, Acadiana has also benefited from the Open's generous philanthropy. Since it's incorporation, the Chitimacha Louisiana Open has awarded more than $1.8 million to local charities.
