LA QUINTA — Despite rumors circulating last week during the 50th Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, tournament officials insist Chrysler remains the tournament sponsor.

“We have a contract with Chrysler through 2010,” said tournament president John Foster after the 50th Hope tournament was played with minimal mention of Chrysler. “All our conversations we have had with them, they are excited to stay. They are just fighting for their lives.”

Rumors that Chrysler was leaving or already had left the tournament have circulated around the tournament in recent weeks, spurred on by the economic downturn and the troubled automaker accepting $4 billion in federal bailout money. The rumors caught fire last week with the notable absence of Chrysler's name in promotional material, fewer Chrysler cars displayed on the Hope courses and no Chrysler executives on hand during the event.

But Chrysler, title sponsor of the Hope since 1986 and part of the tournament since 1965, met the terms of its contract to fund the 2009 tournament, Foster said, and might do the same in 2010.

“At this point, unless they disappear off the face of the Earth, they will be here next year,” Foster said.

But Chrysler is struggling to turn around plunging sales and dwindling cash reserves. News that Chrysler received $4 billion in bailout money and struck a deal to sell 35 percent of the company to European auto maker Fiat might not be enough to keep Chrysler from bankruptcy, Foster said.

While Chrysler faces a rocky future, Foster and the rest of the Hope board are proceeding as if it will fulfill the final year of its four-year sponsorship deal.

“We are going to start talking about the future (with Chrysler) in a little bit,” Foster said. “We will see what happens. Obviously, this is fluid situation. So we don't know.”

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem, already facing the prospect of losing sponsors at other tournaments because corporations are cutting spending on high-end sponsorships, echoed Foster's balance of optimism and concern.

“We have had a long, great relationship with Chrysler. We have no particular reason to believe that won't continue,” Finchem said.

Foster said Chrysler's low-key approach to last week's tournament was understandable as the company fights to stay alive.

“They just didn't have time to come out here,” he said. “Floating those cars (in lakes on the golf course) costs money. They were doing some cost savings. That's understandable.”

Chrysler may be the most visible of potential sponsorship problems for the tour, but hardly the only one. The tour lost two events last year when sponsors AT&T and Ginn Resorts withdrew from those events. Foster said everyone on tour is feeling the pinch.

“We feel a little bit of it on the sponsorship part, but other than that, you just have to downgrade your expectations a little bit,” he said.

Desert Sun reporter Leighton Ginn contributed to this story.