BYOB Scramble preps for 13th year of raising funds for charity

Thirteen years ago, a Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail employee started a golf tournament at the Oxmoor Valley location as a way to “try and get his old buddies to come back and play golf again,” said Peter Rouillard, senior vice president of golf operations.

Now, the Bring Your Old Buddy (BYOB) Scramble has become a huge golf tournament in Alabama and has spread to become a trail-wide event, including the Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Spa.

Hosted on the first Sunday in December, the tournament has changed its missions statement since its first year. 

“It started out [as a way] to just try and get people acquainted with our properties,” Rouillard said. “After a couple of years, we wanted to bring a charity aspect to it.”

For the first few years, the BYOB Scramble chose a statewide charity to support, but later it decided to let each site pick their own local charity on top of the statewide ones.

This year, the Ross Bridge location has chosen the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation as its charity. 

According to Rouillard, a full field at Ross Bridge is 120 players, and for the last two years the field has been full or almost full. However, 1,500-1,600 players participate statewide.

“A full field allows us to give back to the charities that we can support both locally and on a statewide level,” he said.

Entries will be accepted until 1 p.m. on Nov. 28, and the cost to participate is $120. To learn more, register or become a sponsor, visit rtjgolf.com/byob.