• For the organizers of the Regions Charity Classic, December was shaping up to be a disastrous triple-bogey for the golf tournament that depends
on a high level of corporate support. The worst recession in decades already had tournament officials bracing for reduced corporate support in 2009, but they didn’t expect the repeated major blows that came in December. At the Bruno Event Team, which organizes the tournament each year, officials were stunned. Morale was zapped. “All of this happened in December when we were well on our way to selling this year’s tournament,” said Gene Hallman, president of the Bruno Event Team and tournament director of the Regions Charity Classic. “It left us with little time to make up those losses.”
Then Ronnie Bruno, chairman of the Bruno Event Team, called an employee meeting.