The Regions Charity Classic, formerly known as the Bruno's Memorial Classic, was an American

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

on the

Champions Tour PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, open to golfers age 50 and over, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, f ...

. It was originally held at

Greystone Golf & Country Club Greystone Golf & Country Club is a private 36-hole golf club in the southeastern United States, located in Hoover, Alabama, a suburb southeast of Birmingham. Opened in 1991, the first of the two courses was the Founders Course, designed by Bob ...

and moved to Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Spa, one of ten courses on the

Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail is a collection of championship caliber golf courses, designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr., distributed across the state of Alabama, as part of investments by the Retirement Systems of Alabama. The Trail started ...

, located in

Hoover, Alabama Hoover is a city in the Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson and Shelby County, Alabama, Shelby counties in north central Alabama, United States. Hoover is the largest suburban city in Alabama and the sixth largest city in Alabama. The populati ...

(a suburb of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

) in 2006. The tournament was founded in 1991 by Birmingham-based Bruno's Supermarkets. The event was managed by the Bruno family under it
Bruno Event Team
company. Through 2006, the tournament was normally scheduled to end on the first Sunday of May of each year, or a few days close to that day. In 2007, the tournament schedule was moved roughly two weeks later, to May 17–20. The first two tournaments were held in August — frequently a time of hot, humid

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteoro ...

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. The dates were moved to June for three more years, then finally to the early May/late April period. In 2010, organizers announced that the tournament would be superseded by the move of

The Tradition The Tradition (known as the Regions Tradition for sponsorship reasons) is an event on the PGA Tour Champions. First staged in 1989 Senior PGA Tour, 1989, the PGA Tour recognizes the event as one of the five senior major golf championships. Unlik ...

, a Champions Tour major tournament, which is played at nearby Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club. Regions took on sponsorship of this event, which is now called "The Regions Tradition."

History

The tournament was first held in 1992 as the Bruno's Memorial Classic, with Bruno's Supermarkets as the title sponsor. The name stems from the founders, Angelo and Lee Bruno (brothers of Bruno's founder Joseph Bruno), who were killed in an

airplane crash An aviation accident is an event during aircraft operation that results serious injury, death, or significant destruction. An aviation incident is any operating event that compromises safety but does not escalate into an aviation accident. Pre ...

shortly after the December 1991 press conference announcing the tournament's inception as the Bruno's Classic. From its beginning, the tournament was staged at the

, in the Inverness section of the Birmingham suburb of Hoover. Since its inception, the Bruno's Memorial Classic has been one of the most popular stops on the Champions Tour, usually attracting all of the top money winners. With the loss of the annual

Iron Bowl The Alabama–Auburn football rivalry, better known as the Iron Bowl, is an American college football rivalry game between the University of Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn University Tigers, both charter members of the Southeastern Conf ...

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

game between

and Auburn, which was formerly played at Birmingham's

Legion Field Legion Field is an outdoor stadium in the southeastern United States in Birmingham, Alabama, primarily designed to be used as a venue for American football, but occasionally used for other large outdoor events. Opened in 1927, it is named in ...

, the golf tournament has become Metro Birmingham's largest sporting event. In 2006, Bruno's Supermarkets—which had undergone a series of financial struggles, various ownerships, and the loss involvement by Bruno family members—announced it would reduce its sponsorship commitment to the tournament.

Regions Financial Corporation Regions Financial Corporation is an American bank holding company headquartered in the Regions Center in Birmingham, Alabama. The company provides retail and commercial banking, trust, stock brokerage, and mortgage services. Its banking subsi ...

, a

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

ing and financial services company based in Birmingham, stepped in as the title sponsor, with Bruno's remaining as a presenting sponsor. At the same time, tournament organizers announced that the site would move to the new Ross Bridge course, approximately 15 miles (25 km) west of Greystone at the other end of the city of Hoover.

Ronnie Bruno Ronald G. Bruno is the former chairman (1991-1995) and chief executive officer (1990-1995) of Bruno's, Inc., a large Birmingham, Alabama-based supermarket chain. He is a co-founder and chairman of the Bruno Event Team, a Birmingham, Alabama-bas ...

, son of Angelo Bruno, continues to serve as chairman of the tournament. Additionally, the group that managed the tournament, run by Ronnie Bruno and

Gene Hallman Gene Hallman Jr. (born December 22, 1959) is an American sports marketing and event management entrepreneur based in Birmingham, Alabama and named "one of Alabama's most influential sports businesspeople". Hallman co-founded Bruno Event Team in ...

, later became a full-time event-management company known as the Bruno Event Team. The team runs a wide variety of events, mostly sports-related, including many championships for the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

. On January 30, 2009, Bruno's Supermarkets confirmed that it would no longer be a presenting sponsor of the golf tournament thus ending its 17-year association with the event. (The company soon after declared bankruptcy, with the assets eventually becoming part of

Belle Foods Belle Foods, LLC was a family-owned chain of American supermarkets headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. The company had a relatively short lifespan. It began operating its rebranded Bruno's and Food World and Piggly Wiggly Stores on July 1, 2 ...

, which also subsequently went bankrupt.)

Winners

Regions Charity Classic *2010

Dan Forsman Daniel Bruce Forsman (born July 15, 1958) is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and who now plays on the Champions Tour. Early years Forsman was born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. however his family relocated to Mountain Vie ...

*2009

Keith Fergus Keith Carlton Fergus (born March 3, 1954) is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour, the Nationwide Tour and the Champions Tour. Early life and amateur career Fergus was born in Temple, Texas. He started playing golf at ...

Regions Charity Classic presented by Bruno's Supermarkets *2008 Andy Bean *2007

Brad Bryant Bradley Dub Bryant (born December 11, 1954) is an American professional golfer. Bryant was born in Amarillo, Texas, the son of a Southern Baptist pastor. He moved with his family to Alamogordo, New Mexico during his youth. Bryant attended the ...

*2006

Bruno's Memorial Classic *2005 D. A. Weibring *2004

Bruce Fleisher Bruce Lee Fleisher (October 16, 1948 – September 23, 2021) was an American professional golfer. Early years and amateur career Fleisher was born in Union City, Tennessee, and was Jewish. In 1950, the Fleisher family moved to Wilmington, Nort ...

*2003 Tom Jenkins *2002

Sammy Rachels Sammy Tindol Rachels III (born September 23, 1950) is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour, but found his greatest level of success on the Champions Tour. Rachels was born, raised and lived hi ...

*2001

Hale Irwin Hale S. Irwin (born June 3, 1945) is an American professional golfer. He was one of the world's leading golfers from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. He is one of the few players in history to win three U.S. Opens, becoming the oldest ever U.S. ...

*2000 John Jacobs *1999

Larry Nelson Larry Gene Nelson (born September 10, 1947) is an American professional golfer. He has won numerous tournaments at both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour level. Early life and amateur career Nelson was born in Fort Payne, Alabama and grew up in ...

*1998

Hubert Green Hubert Myatt Green (December 28, 1946 – June 19, 2018) was an American professional golfer. Green won 19 PGA Tour events including two major championships: the 1977 U.S. Open and the 1985 PGA Championship. He was inducted into the World Go ...

*1997

Jay Sigel Robert Jay Sigel (November 13, 1943 – April 19, 2025) was an American professional golfer. He enjoyed one of the more illustrious careers in the history of U.S. amateur golf, before turning pro in 1993 at age 50, when he became a member of th ...

*1996 John Bland *1995

Graham Marsh Graham Vivian Marsh MBE (born 14 January 1944) is an Australian golfer. In 1968, Marsh turned pro and won several tournaments on the Australasian circuits early in his career. He joined the PGA Tour in the mid-1970s and won the 1977 Heritage ...

*1994 Jim Dent *1993

Bob Murphy Robert, Rob, Bob or Bobby Murphy may refer to: Sports Baseball *Bob Murphy (pitcher) (1866–1904), American baseball pitcher * Bob Murphy (sportscaster) (1924–2004), American sports announcer * Rob Murphy (born 1960), American retired baseball ...

*1992

George Archer George William Archer (October 1, 1939 – September 25, 2005) was an American professional golfer who won 13 events on the PGA Tour, including one major championship, the Masters in 1969. Early life Archer was born in San Francisco, Cali ...

Source:

References

External links

Official websiteBruno Event Team official websitePGATOUR.com's tournament website
{{Former Champions Tour Events Former PGA Tour Champions events Golf tournaments in Alabama Sports in Hoover, Alabama Regions Financial Corporation Recurring sporting events established in 1992 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2010 1992 establishments in Alabama 2010 disestablishments in Alabama