Photo by Layton Dudley.
Professional golfer John Daly, right, and Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn meet at the first tee before the NCR Pro-Am of the Regions Tradition at Greystone in Hoover on May 17, 2017.
Pro golfer Bernhard Langer is aiming to claim his third straight victory at the Regions Tradition when the golf tournament returns to Greystone Golf and Country Club on May 16-20.
Langer will be competing for the top prize of $360,000 against 77 other professionals who are scheduled to come, including Freddie Couples, Vijay Singh, Steve Stricker, Angel Miguel Jimenez, Tom Kite, Fred Funk and John Daly.
The total purse for all the players is $2.4 million, said George Shaw, tournament director for the Bruno Event Team.
It’s the first of five major tournaments put on by the PGA Tour Champions, which features professional golfers age 50 and older.
“This is the Champions Tour version of the Masters,” Kite said of the Regions Tradition.
The other four major tournaments move around to different metro areas every year, but the Regions Tradition has been held in the Birmingham-Hoover metro area every year since 2011, he said.
The Greystone Golf and Country Club first hosted a PGA tournament in 1992, when it was known as the Bruno’s Memorial Classic. The tournament gained a new sponsor and became the Regions Charity Classic when it moved to the Renaissance Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Spa in 2006.
Then in 2011, the PGA Tour Champions made it a major tournament, renamed it the Regions Tradition and moved it to Shoal Creek Country Club. It stayed there for five years before coming back to Greystone two years ago.
“It’s a wonderful golf course in a great city,” said Kite, whose daughter lives in Vestavia Hills.
Kite has played in the Birmingham area tournament every year since he became eligible for the Champions Tour in 2000, he said. He won the Tradition tournament that year when it was held in Scottsdale, Arizona.
He’s looking forward to this year’s Tradition but might be a little rusty because he’s just getting started playing again after having surgery for a torn meniscus in his left knee early this year, he said. But the most important thing is the money that the Regions Tradition raises for charitable causes, Kite said.
Last year’s tournament raised more than $700,000 for charities in Alabama, Shaw said. It has raised more than $4.5 million for charities since becoming the Regions Tradition in 2011 and more than $15 million since the tournament’s inception in 1992.
Children’s of Alabama hospital is the largest recipient of donations, but a program associated with the tournament called Birdies for Charities last year raised $486,000 for 75 charitable groups.
For more information, visit regionstradition.com.
SCHEDULE
► Wednesday, May 16: NCR Celebrity Pro-Am, first tee time 6:50 a.m. Includes SEC football coaches Nick Saban, Gus Malzahn and Kirby Smart, former NFL and Major League Baseball star Bo Jackson and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
► Thursday, May 17: First round play; gates open 7 a.m.; first tee time 8 a.m.; Lexus hole-in-one shootout 5 p.m. at 18th hole
► Friday, May 18: Second round play; gates open 7 a.m.; first tee time 8 a.m.; Shipt Yoga on the Green 5:30-7 p.m. at The Watering Hole at 10th green
► Saturday, May 19: Third round play, gates open 8 a.m.; first tee time 9:15 a.m.; Chuck the Hitman trick shot show at driving range immediately after play ends
► Sunday, May 20: Final round of play; gates open 8 a.m.; first tee time 9:15 a.m.
TV SCHEDULE
► Live on Golf Channel, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Thursday-Friday; 2-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday: “The Paul Finebaum Show” to broadcast live on SEC Network during Wednesday Pro-Am.
TICKET INFORMATION
► Go to regionstradition.com; $20 for one day; $80 Wednesday-Sunday (plus processing fee); children 18 and younger get free junior tickets when accompanied by ticket adult; active and retired military with valid ID and guests admitted free.
