Regions Bank extends sponsorship of Regions Tradition golf at Greystone through 2023

Regions Bank and the PGA Tour Champions today announced that Regions will extend its sponsorship of the Regions Tradition golf tournament at Greystone Golf and Country Club through 2023.

That means adding five more years of the tournament at Greystone, where the previous agreement was set to end in 2018.

Scott Peters, head of consumer banking for Regions, said in a press conference at Children’s of Alabama hospital today that the Regions Tradition golf tournament is an important extension of the bank’s mission to make life better for its customers and communities.

Regions is proud that the golf tournament has raised more than $4.5 million for charities since it became the Regions Tradition in 2011, Peters said. “These charities and those dollars make our lives better every day in our communities,” he said.

Greg McLaughlin, president of the PGA Tour Champions, added that the Birmingham area tournament has raised more than $15 million for charities since the tournament’s inception in 1992.

The tournament also has a $25 million economic impact to the greater Birmingham area each year, Peters said.

McLaughlin said the PGA Tour Champions organization had a good partnership with the Shoal Creek Country Club as host site for the Regions Tradition from 2011 through 2015.

However, they were delighted to be back at the Greystone Golf and Country Club last year, McLaughlin said. The Founders course at Greystone was the home for the Bruno’s Memorial Classic from 1992 through 2005 before the tournament moved to the Renaissance Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Spa from 2006 to 2010.

The Greystone course, which underwent significant renovations in 2015, created a really fun family atmosphere, McLaughlin said.

Peters agreed, saying moving the tournament back to Greystone was a renaissance of sorts.

“Things went so wonderfully last year,” Peters said. “It was quite obvious to us this was something we wanted to continue for quite some time.”

Pro golfer Jeff Sluman said he can’t imagine a better venue than Greystone. The players love coming to the Birmingham area to play, he said. “It’s absolutely wonderful.”

Russ Hale, president of the Greystone Golf and Country Club, said club members are excited to see the tournament coming back. And the greens, having had a whole year to grow since being reconstructed, are in even better shape than last year, Hale said.

With a warm winter and spring, the course is way ahead in growth than it was last year, he said. “It’s looking great.”

Sluman said the players have the easy part in hitting the balls around the course. The most important thing is raising as much money as possible for the charities such as Children’s of Alabama hospital, he said.

Last year’s Regions Tradition tournament raised $1.1 million for charities. Children’s of Alabama is the primary beneficiary of the tournament, but more than 70 other charities benefited from the Birdies for Charities program that is part of the tournament, said Liz Leckemby, tournament director for the Bruno Event Team, which handles tournament logistics.

Children’s of Alabama CEO and President Mike Warren said proceeds from the Regions Tradition allow the hospital to do things it otherwise would not be able to do, such as purchase a stand-up X-ray machine and six disinfecting robots that resemble the R2D2 character in Star Wars movies.

For 2017, the Regions Tradition already has confirmed more than 70 pro golfers for the event, including 29 of the top 30 moneymakers last year, Leckemby said. Confirmed golfers include the 2016 winner, Bernhard Langer, and the winners at the Shoal Creek course: Tom Lehman, David Frost, Kenny Perry and Jeff Maggert. Other crowd favorites such as John Daly, Tom Kite, Jerry Pate and Mark Calcavecchia also are confirmed.

But this year’s tournament also will include a lot of new faces, McLaughlin said. This will be the first time to play in the Birmingham area tournament for both Vijay Singh and Angel Miguel Jimenez, Lechemby said.

They will be competing for the top prize of $345,000, but the total purse that will be split up among players is $2.3 million, PGA Tour Champions spokesman Stewart Moore said.

The tournament begins with a pro-am on Wednesday, May 17, that is scheduled to include: SEC football coaches Nick Saban, Guz Malzahn, Kirby Smart, Dan Mullen and Hugh Freeze; Alabama basketball coach Avery Johnson, former Auburn, NFL and Major League Baseball star Bo Jackson, former Alabama and NFL quarterback Greg McElroy, SEC Network football analyst Booger McFarland, comedian Steve Harvey, musician Taylor Hicks, radio personalities Rick Burgess and Bill “Bubba” Bussey and UAB Athletics Director Mark Ingram.

Championship play begins on Thursday, May 18 and runs through Sunday, May 21. Gates open at 7 a.m. Wednesday through Friday and 6:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The tournament will be broadcast live on the Golf Channel from noon to 2:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 2-4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Also, Paul Finebaum plans to broadcast his SEC Network show from the golf course on the day of the pro-am.

Tickets are $20 for one day or $80 for Wednesday through Sunday, plus a processing fee. Children 18 and younger can get free junior tickets when accompanied by a ticketed adult. Military members are admitted free Thursday and Friday with a valid military ID.

To get tickets or more information, go to regionstradition.com.

This post was updated at 9:53 a.m. on April 11 to correct the amount of money going to the winner of the 2017 Regions Tradition.