Raising money to help these children battle these illnesses and recover from injuries is just fabulous, he said. “Some of them, their families will be impacted for a long, long time, and a lot of them may not ever make it out of the hospital.” Some kids go to children’s hospitals for simple things such as broken bones, but “there are kids in there battling some really, really difficult diseases right now,” he said. Kite, who serves on the board of directors for a children’s hospital in Austin, Texas, said it’s a great thing for these golf tournaments to raise money for charities, especially when children are the beneficiaries. 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.Ĭhildren’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.
Last year’s tournament raised more than $700,000 for charities in Alabama, said George Shaw, director of the tournament for the Bruno Event Team. 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 10 weeks ago, he said.īut the most important thing is the money that the Regions Tradition raises for charitable causes, Kite said. Kite said he has long held a connection to Alabama because his daughter went to school in Alabama and still lives in the Cahaba Heights community in Vestavia Hills. He won The Tradition tournament that year when it was held in Scottsdale, Arizona. He has played in the Birmingham area tournament every year since he became eligible for the Champions Tour in 2000, he said. “It’s a wonderful golf course in a great city,” Kite said today. It stayed there for five years before coming back to Greystone two years ago. 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. 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.
The Greystone Golf and Country Club first hosted a PGA tournament in 1992, when it was known as the Bruno’s Memorial Classic. 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. “This is the Champions Tour version of the Masters,” Kite said of the Regions Tradition.
Tom kite professional#
Kite said he’s very much looking forward to the 2018 Regions Tradition, which is the first of five major tournaments put on by the PGA Tour Champions, which features professional golfers age 50 and older.
Open in 1992, met up with some patients from Children’s of Alabama hospital at the Topgolf facility in Birmingham’s Uptown district to give a few swing tips and talk a little golf. Kite, the PGA of America Player of the Year in 1989 and winner of the U.S. Professional golfer Tom Kite is in Birmingham today to help promote the upcoming Regions Tradition golf tournament scheduled for May 16-20 at Greystone Golf and Country Club.
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