Simmons Bank Open gets promotion to PGA Tour feeder in late 2023

December 5-11, 2022

By The Daily Record Staff 

Simmons Bank will get its first tour start on the PGA Tour when the Arkansas bank’s current tournament in Nashville, Tenn., joins the Korn Ferry Tour (KFT) Finals in late 2023.

In October, the KFT released its 2023 lineup and officially announced that the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation will be one of four events making up the expanded KFT Finals in September next season. 

The KFT is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level.

The Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation — formerly the Nashville Golf Open — was first held at the Nashville Golf and Athletic Club in 2016. 

The 2023 dates for the Simmons Bank Open will be Sept. 

14-17 at The Grove Club in College Grove, Tenn. The tournament will join the Albertsons Boise Open, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio, and the Korn Ferry Tour Championship as KFT Finals events.

“Through our partnership with the Tennessee Golf Foundation and with the support of Brandt and Mandy Snedeker, the Simmons Bank Open has been recognized as one of the best events on the Korn Ferry Tour and we are proud to have the tournament become a marquee event in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals,” said George Makris Jr., chairman and CEO of Simmons Bank. “This tournament is about more than just the game of golf. It also represents an opportunity for Simmons Bank to support the important work of the Snedeker Foundation and many other organizations in Nashville through community partnerships, service hours and philanthropic giving.”

As one of the KFT Finals events, all four days of the 2023 Simmons Bank Open will be televised on Golf Channel, bringing additional national exposure to the tournament. Fans and sponsors will also experience upgraded hospitality offerings on-site.

“This is great news for the Simmons Bank Open, the Snedeker Foundation and golf in Tennessee,” said Whit Turnbow, the president of the Tennessee Golf Foundation, which handles Simmons Bank Open tournament operations.

“I can’t explain how truly proud I am of our team, everyone at Simmons Bank, and our hosts at The Grove Club. The Tennessee Golf Foundation believes in providing opportunities, from junior golf to professional golf, for individuals from all walks of life to be successful. We look forward to showcasing that to the golf world next September,” said Turnbow.

The Simmons Bank Open announcement comes more than a year after the Arkansas regional bank announced the opening of a new corporate banking office in Nashville, Tenn., one of the nation’s fastest growing cities.  Simmons Bank’s new Nashville offices are located in the new Gulch Union office building at 1222 Demonbreun, a 20-story, LEED certified complex with 330,000 square feet of office and retail space. 

In addition to occupying approximately 11,900 square feet in the eco-friendly building, Simmons Bank also relocated its West End branch to a first-floor branch of the new corporate office. In June, Pine Bluff-based Simmons First National Corp. (SFNC), announced that it plans to acquire Landmark Community Bank and Triumph Bancshares Inc., two Tennessee-based community banks with operations across the city’s metropolitan area. Simmons Bank is the operating subsidiary of the SFNC, the publicly-traded Arkansas regional bank with operations in six states and total assets of nearly $25 billion.

Since its founding by 2012 FedExCup champion and Nashville native Brandt Snedeker and his wife, Mandy, the Simmons Bank Open continues to benefit the Snedeker Foundation. The golf open made a $250,000 charitable contribution to the Snedeker Foundation following the 2021 tournament and has distributed more than $1 million to various charities in middle Tennessee over the past decade. 

“I can’t say enough about the commitment Simmons Bank has made to this tournament, as well as the middle Tennessee community,” said Snedeker, a 9-time winner on the PGA Tour. “With the opportunity to make the Simmons Bank Open a Korn Ferry Tour Finals event, the Simmons Bank team was the driving force to ensure it got done.”

“The Snedeker Foundation, myself and Mandy are very appreciative and look forward to continuing to work with the tournament and Simmons Bank to impact the local community in a positive way.”

The Simmons Bank Open supports charities beyond the Snedeker Foundation. At this year’s event, the Simmons First Foundation presented five $10,000 checks to charities affiliated with the tournament’s inaugural Foundation Friday, which took place the Friday of tournament week. Representatives from the Jordan Thomas Foundation, KultureCity, Safe Haven Family Shelter, First Tee Tennessee and Our Kids were on-site to accept these donations to their respective organizations. An additional $10,000 was given to the Second Harvest Food Bank as a matching grant to honor the tournament’s volunteers. For every volunteer during the 2022 tournament, the Tennessee Golf Foundation, Hattie B’s and Simmons Bank pledged to each give $10. The tournament was supported by more than 300 volunteers.

In May 2020, Simmons Bank also announced it has signed agreements with four professional golfers on the KFT, the development tour for the U.S.-based PGA TOUR. The brand ambassadors, collectively known as Team Simmons Bank, included Will Zalatoris, Braden Thornberry, Kevin Dougherty and Dawson Armstrong. Zalatoris has since been promoted to the PGA Tour and is now the 8th-ranked golfer in the world.

The KFT announced in August that it would go to four tournament finals, each of which will have a tournament purse of $1.5 million. The finals will have an elimination format similar to the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs. The first leg of the tournament will have a 156-player field, the Simmons Bank Open will have 144 players, the third event 120, and 75 will advance to the finale in late September. Thirty PGA Tour cards will be awarded at the end of the Finals.

For more information on the Simmons Bank Open, visit simmonsbankopen.com.  

Photo Caption:

1. Pro golfer Brett Snedeker announced on Nov. 2 that the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation will be one of four events making up the expanded Korn Ferry Tour Finals in September next season. Snedeker, a 9-time winner on the PGA Tour, is one of several pro golfers sponsored by the Arkansas regional bank.