The Tradition (known as the Regions Tradition for sponsorship reasons) is an event on the
PGA Tour Champions
PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour.
History and format
The Senior PGA Championship, founded in 1937, was for many yea ...
. First staged in
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker ru ...
, the PGA Tour recognizes the event as one of the five
senior major golf championships
Men's professional senior golf is for players aged 50 and above. Golf differs from all other sports in having lucrative competitions for this age group. The leading senior tour is the U.S.-based PGA Tour Champions, which was established in 1980 (as ...
. Unlike the
U.S. Senior Open
The U.S. Senior Open is one of the five major championships in senior golf, introduced in 1980. It is administered by the United States Golf Association (USGA) and is recognized as a major championship by both the PGA Tour Champions and the E ...
,
Senior PGA Championship
The Senior PGA Championship, established in 1937, is the oldest of the five major championships in men's senior golf. It is administered by the Professional Golfers' Association of America and is recognized as a major championship by both PGA ...
and
Senior Open Championship
The Senior Open Championship, or simply The Senior Open (and originally known as the Senior British Open) is a professional golf tournament for players aged 50 and over. It is run by The R&A, the same body that organises The Open Championship. Pr ...
, it is not recognized as a major by the
European Senior Tour
The Legends Tour is the current branding of the European Senior Tour, a professional tour for male golfers aged 50 and over, run by the PGA European Tour. The tour was branded as the Staysure Tour for the 2018 and 2019 seasons after UK-based insur ...
, and is not part of that tour's official schedule. It is the only senior major where the winner does not earn an exemption into a
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
or
European Tour
The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fif ...
event.
Locations
Arizona
From its inception in 1989 through 2001, the tournament was held in
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...
at the Cochise Golf Course of the Golf Club at Desert Mountain in
Scottsdale. In 2002, it was held at the Prospector Course of Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club near
Gold Canyon. While in Arizona, the event was played in early April.
Oregon
In 2003, the event relocated to northwest
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...
for four years at the South Course of
The Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club
The Reserve Vineyards & Golf Club is a 36-hole private and public golf club in the northwest United States, located near Hillsboro, Oregon, a suburb west of Portland.
The award-winning club in Washington County opened in 1997 and hosted the PGA ...
in Hillsboro, Oregon, just west of
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
. Following the 2006 edition, it moved to the
high desert of
central Oregon
Central Oregon is a geographic region in the U.S. state of Oregon and is traditionally considered to be made up of Deschutes, Jefferson, and Crook counties. Other definitions include larger areas, often encompassing areas to the north towards ...
for four years, to the
Crosswater Club in
Sunriver, south of
Bend. The lengthy course sits on of woodlands and preserved wetlands along the
Deschutes River Deschutes River may refer to:
* Deschutes River (Oregon)
**Little Deschutes River (Oregon)
The Little Deschutes River is a tributary of the Deschutes River (Oregon), Deschutes River in the central part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is about lon ...
, at an average
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...
of
above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as '' orthometric heights''.
The ...
. The par-72 layout played at in 2009. During the eight years in Oregon, the event was held in mid- to late August.
Alabama
Following the 2010 event,
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
–based
Regions Financial Corporation
Regions Financial Corporation is a bank holding company headquartered in the Regions Center (Birmingham), Regions Center in Birmingham, Alabama. The company provides retail banking and commercial banking, trust, stockbrokerage, and mortgage se ...
announced in August that it was taking over sponsorship of the tournament. For five years, the event was played at the
Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club in the Shoal Creek development, southeast of Birmingham.
The Tradition superseded the
Regions Charity Classic
The Regions Charity Classic, formerly known as the Bruno's Memorial Classic, was an American golf tournament on the Champions Tour. It was originally held at Greystone Golf & Country Club and moved to Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Spa, one of ten cou ...
, a regular Champions Tour event which began in 1992 as the
Bruno's Memorial Classic.
Shoal Creek will host Regions Tradition in 2011
/ref> Shoal Creek previously hosted two PGA Championships, in 1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast As ...
and 1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
.
Since moving to Alabama in 2011, the event has been played in May and June. It moved from Shoal Creek to the nearby Greystone Golf and 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 B ...
in 2016, and is held on the recently renovated Founders Course.
Winners
Multiple winners
Through 2021, five men have multiple wins in the Tradition:
*4 wins:
**Jack Nicklaus
Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), nicknamed The Golden Bear, is a retired American professional golfer and golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. He won 117 professional tou ...
: 1990, 1991, 1995, 1996
*2 wins:
**Gil Morgan
Gilmer Bryan Morgan II, OD (born September 25, 1946) is an American professional golfer.
Morgan was born in Wewoka, Oklahoma. He graduated from East Central State College in Ada, Oklahoma in 1968. In 1972, Morgan earned a Doctor of Optometry ...
: 1997, 1998
**Fred Funk
Frederick Funk (born June 14, 1956) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions.
Early life
Fred Funk was born in Takoma Park, Maryland. He tried several sports, and even boxed for eight years for a junio ...
: 2008, 2010
**Tom Lehman
Thomas Edward Lehman (born March 7, 1959) is an American professional golfer. A former number 1 ranked golfer, his tournament wins include one major title, the 1996 Open Championship; and he is the only golfer in history to have been awarded the ...
: 2011, 2012
**Bernhard Langer
Bernhard Langer (; born 27 August 1957) is a German professional golfer. He is a two-time Masters champion and was one of the world's leading golfers throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1986, he became the sport's first official number one ran ...
: 2016, 2017
**Steve Stricker
Steven Charles Stricker (born February 23, 1967) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. He has twelve victories on the PGA Tour, including the WGC-Match Play title in 2001 and two FedEx Cup playo ...
: 2019, 2022
References
External links
*
Coverage on the PGA Tour Champions's official site
Greystone Golf and Country Club
– official site – current venue
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tradition
PGA Tour Champions events
Golf in Alabama
Golf in Arizona
Golf in Oregon
Sports in Birmingham, Alabama
Sports in Hillsboro, Oregon
Sports in Scottsdale, Arizona
Recurring sporting events established in 1989
1989 establishments in Arizona