| History of The City Tournament |
Since 1936, The City Tournament has provided competition and fellowship opportunities for Columbia's golfing community.
The tournament has many champions with multiple wins. Steve Liebler has been the tournament's greatest champion by far with eleven wins. Gus Sylvan and the late Harold Hall are four-time champions. Emory Harper, Bobby Foster, and Ronnie Smoak won three times while twenty-four-time PGA winner Dustin Johnson had two wins. Our 1971 champion, Joe Inman also won The 1976 Kemper Open.
Several of our champions have also won the South Carolina Amateur, including Emory Harper, Harold Hall, John Plyer, Ronnie Smoak, Jimmy Hawkins, Larry Boswell, Gus Sylvan III, and David DuPre, who won State Am four times. Four of our champions-Leroy Rabon, Bob Stringer, Gus Sylvan III, and Jimmy Hawkins have also won the senior division.
In the professional division, Burke Cromer is a twelve-time champion, Clem King is a five-time champion, George Bryan III is a four-time champion, while Joey Graham and Rohan Allwood are three-time winners.
In the senior professional division, Robin All is a six-time champion, while the late John Summers, Russell Glover, Norman Flynn, Tom Graber, and Bobby Howard are three-time champions.
Twenty-six years ago, The City Tournament took on a larger purpose as Fairway Outreach was founded and initially funded through profits from the tournament. The City Tournament has contributed over $250,000 to the program and hundreds of youngsters have participated in a year-round golf program including participating in The Fellowship of Christian Athletes Golf Camps.
The Sonic Women's City Tournament has supported Fairway Outreach for the last several years. We salute their board and players for choosing Fairway Outreach as their tournament's charity.
The Committee is also grateful for the wonderful coverage the local media gives the tournament every year, including The State Newspaper, and all of our television stations. We also appreciate the local courses that have served as challenging and hospitable host courses. We are very proud to be playing at Spring Valley Country Club this year.
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