The Tradition golf tournament, staged in Central Oregon for the past four years, is moving to Birmingham, Ala., the Champions Tour announced Monday.
Now named the Regions Tradition after the tournament’s new title sponsor, Birmingham-based Regions Financial Corp., the tournament, a major championship on the 50-and-older professional golf circuit, will be played at Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club.
The 2011 Tradition is scheduled for May 2-8.
The Jeld-Wen Tradition, as the tournament was known for the last eight years when it was staged in Oregon, has been played every August since 2007 at Sunriver Resort’s Crosswater Club.
Shoal Creek has hosted two PGA Championships and the 1986 U.S. Amateur. But the private golf course has not hosted a major professional golf tournament since the PGA Championship in 1990, when the club came under fire for having what was then an all-white membership.
Klamath Falls-based Jeld-Wen announced earlier this month that it would no longer be the tournament’s title sponsor after the 2010 Tradition, which was won by Fred Funk on Sunday. Jeld-Wen’s departure all but assured that The Tradition would no longer be staged in Central Oregon.
— Bulletin staff report
