Don’t know that I’ve ever seen a list of Lamar University’s most influential alums, but if such a thing existed former Cardinal golfer Giles Kibbe would arguably be high on the list.

Over the past decade, Kibbe has gone from being an attorney in the Beaumont law firm of Weller, Green and Toups to general counsel for Houston Astros owner Jim Crane. In that role, he’s become a big time mover and shaker whose latest challenge is leading efforts to revive the Houston Open.

A press conference last week revealed Kibbe as president of the Astros Golf Foundation, tasked with making major decisions involved in bringing the Houston Open back to life in October at the Golf Club of Houston. That will be a prelude to the event moving to Memorial Park in October 2020.

To make all that happen, Kibbe will be overseeing fundraising efforts to bank the $12 to $14 million the PGA requires to host one of its tournaments. In addition, he and four others on a select Astros Golf Foundation team must secure $13.5 million in private funding needed for renovation of the Memorial Park course and to build a First Tee and short course complex.

Beyond that, Kibbe’s team, which includes former Lamar golf coach Brian White, is going to need to come up with an approximately $20 million more for a Memorial clubhouse expansion. That will include a player locker room, player and family dining areas and a media center.

Also on Kibbe’s plate is heading up the Astros management group preparing for arbitration with Carlos Correa, Gerrit Cole and Chris Devenski, and serving as president of Crane’s spectacular Floridian Golf property.

Oh, yes, he’s also in charge of the Crane Group’s mergers and acquisitions and litigation.

In his spare time, Kibbe does fun things like joining Crane at the Floridian this past weekend to play a round of golf with one of the club’s members — former president Barack Obama. A month earlier, he’d teamed with two-time U.S. Open champ Brooks Kopeka to win the club’s pro-member Floridian Cup.

Crane, by the way, placed second with his partner, Jimmy Walker. Among the also-rans were teams including the likes of Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Nick Price, Chris Stroud, Mark O’Meara, Steve Elkington and Butch Harmon. Yes, the Floridian does have some high profile members.

The latter is one of the reasons Kibbe thinks the Houston Open will do better in the fall than most would suspect. He already has commitments from most of the big names in that group.

Kopeka, for sure, will be teeing it up in the Houston Open because he’ll be working with Kibbe’s hand-picked architect — Tom Doak — at Memorial Park.

“There are obvious obstacles to a fall date — baseball playoffs and NFL and college football,” says Kibbe. “But those fall tournaments are becoming more and more important with the changes in the PGA schedule. I am confident we will become the top tournament in the fall series and attract top names.

“Houston is the biggest city with a fall tournament and we will have the biggest purse. The best players are going to need to play some in the fall and we have much to offer. Our pro members at the Floridian are certainly an asset.”

Many of you reading this no doubt remember the outgoing Kibbe. He attended Kelly High School, played golf at LU in the late 1980s and can even say he’s logged a few rounds at the Pea Patch. He was president of Beaumont Country Club when it underwent a major renovation in 2006.

Kibbe caught Crane’s eye in late 2009 while working as the attorney for a small electricity company that Crane had invested in, and was hired to do legal work for him. That quickly evolved into becoming Crane’s general counsel about the time he purchased the Astros.

Kibbe’s first major assignment was to oversee a renovation of the Floridian, a club Crane had purchased from late Miami Dolphins owner Wayne Huizenga for a price reportedly in excess of $25 million. Crane dispatched Kibbe to Palm City, Florida with the instructions that he wanted something really special.

That’s exactly what Kibbe delivered, thanks to noted architect Tom Fazio and another former Lamar golfer — New Orleans-based Kelly Gibson.

The finished product not only included what some view as the best course in Florida, but a 4,500-foot Butch Harmon Teaching Center, luxurious cottages, a yacht club and a renovated 50,000 square foot clubhouse. Big name pros were soon attracted as members. Also signing on were Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

Meanwhile, Kibbe is truly excited about the Houston Open project. He’s incorporating what is likely to be a revolutionary model on funding a PGA tournament without a title sponsor. And he can’t wait to get involved with Doak on a renovation that he thinks will turn Memorial Park into a showpiece.

“I wanted Tom because he is so good and because he has never done a PGA Tour course,” Kibbe said.  “He really wants that on his resume, which tells me he will be 100 percent invested. Plus he told me he wanted a PGA Tour player working with him to check out his thinking. That led to Brooks Kopeka.”

Remember all this if you come across anybody putting together that list of Lamar’s most influential alums.

CHIP SHOTS

Chris Stroud will be playing but Andrew Landry is taking the week off as the PGA Tour moves to San Diego. Landry tied for 28th in last week’s Desert Classic while Stroud, in his first tournament, missed the 54-hole cut, despite being five-under par.

Once again, not much going on in the way of local games, due to cold, rainy weather.

In the Friday 2-ball, the team of Doug LeBlanc, Tom LeTourneau, Larry Foster and John LeBlanc won the front with one under. On the back, the team of Bim Morrow, Rick Pritchett, Don MacNeil and their ghost player won with minus-3.

There was a tie for first in the Wednesday DogFight, which was played in an all-points-count format. Fininshing with 25 points was the team of Morrow, Earl Richard, Larry Foster and Bob Barnes and the foursome of LeTourneau, Ron LaSalle, Roy Martinez and Paul Duplantis.

Closest to the pin winners were Ron Mistrot (No. 2), Keith Marshall (No. 7), Charles Perez (No. 12) and Bill Jones (No. 15).

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