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Bruno's folks know how to put on a tournament 05/08/2006

Publication: Birmingham News
Author: Kevin Scarbinsky

Bruno's folks know how to put on a tournament

They changed the name. They moved the game. They did something you're never supposed to do. They fixed what wasn't broken. They messed with success. Advertisement And they didn't make a mess of things.

On the last day of what used to be the Bruno's Memorial Classic at Greystone, the first Regions Charity Classic at Ross Bridge went back to the beginning.

Jim Thorpe shot a 63 to set the course record, just as Jack Kiefer did on the first day of this event's first year in 1992. There's a moral there somewhere in that parallel.

The more things change, the more the local organizers, volunteers and spectators prove one thing. They know how to do a golf tournament.

With or without a five-star resort hotel in the middle of the property. With or without a big name at the top of the leaderboard. With or without Chamber of Commerce weather.

Despite the uncertainty of new surroundings and threatening skies, the only real drama happened where it belongs on a Sunday afternoon, on the final holes in the final round.

Mark McNulty got all wet at 17 and 18. Brad Bryant, the grinder known variously as Mr. Dirt, Dr. Dirt and the Commander of All Dirt Forces, finished high and dry in first place.

"You gotta hand it to Brad," McNulty said in a classy concession speech after he'd done just that.

You also have to hand it to the Bruno Event Team and the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail and the Champions Tour. They worked together - a unique concept around here - to change a lot of the details surrounding this tournament without altering the bottom line.