Celebrity golf tournament returning to Tuscaloosa

June 22, 2023

WVUA 23 Sports,

By WVUA 23 Sports Reporter Tyler White

The Bridge Builder Friendship Foundation’s Celebrity Golf Classic returns to Ol’ Colony Golf Complex this week.

Join The Bridge Builder Friendship for a weekend of fun and golf during The Bridge Builder Celebrity Golf Classic Weekend. Golfer and Sponsor signup is still open Register as a single golfer or a team. Go to https://t.co/jTMSFt6nLg to download the registration form and signup. pic.twitter.com/fOffVRPZB0

— Bridge Builder Friendship Foundation (@BridgeBuilderFF) May 30, 2023

This weekend is the first time the Bridge Builder group has hosted the Tuscaloosa tournament since 2012.

“We’re very excited to start this back up again, a lot of people remember it,” said James Granger, Chairman of the Bridge Builder Friendship Foundation. “It went a lot of consecutive years prior to 2012, so bringing it back is just excitement. (It will) Recharge our constituents that support us to have this golf tournament so there is going to be a good crowd tomorrow. They’ll have a good time, bringing a staple back to the many tournaments they have here.”

The Bridge Builder Friendship Foundation is a non-profit organization with the vision of “Building Bridges Today that lead to Tomorrow’s Future”. The foundation works to provide sound positive leadership, establish collaborative partnerships and to foster communal growth in the west Alabama area.

“One of the things that we’re very interested in doing is helping young people to build character and supporting young people,” said Gregory Eubanks, Chief Operations Officer for the Bridge Builder Friendship Foundation. “Everybody doesn’t have the same situation. We try to compensate and help and mentor and lead and guide and protect young people wherever they may be”

Profits from the tournament will support the foundation’s Student and Mentor Engagement (SAME) program.

“We have a job-shadowing component that is attached to it,” Eubanks said. “We’re trying to take students on adventures that they would not normally get a chance to do.

“The other project that the funds from this golf tournament will support is our health initiative, providing health screenings for students in elementary schools.”

Eubanks says he hopes proceeds from the Bridge Builder tournament will help 1,500 students.

Headlining the celebrities at this years event are Ozzie Newsome and Johnny Davis. Both former Tide football players are NFL Super Bowl champions. Newsome won two Super Bowls with the Baltimore Ravens, once as an executive and the other as the General Manager.

Davis was a player on the San Francisco 49ers team that won the NFL championship in 1981.

Alabama state senator Bobby Singleton and state representative Curtis Travis will serve as honorary chairmen for the tournament

“It means a lot,” said Granger. “It means a lot when they have the attitude of coming back and giving back to their community.”