The Tradition is one of the five major championships recognized by the U.S.-based Champions Tour, the world's leading tour for professional golfers aged fifty and older. The inaugural event was staged in 1989.

Unlike the U.S. Senior Open and the Senior PGA Championship and the Senior British Open, it is not recognized as a major by the European Seniors Tour, and is not part of that tour's official schedule. Unlike the mainstream major championships, some of the senior majors have title sponsors, and at present The Tradition is officially known as the "Regions Tradition". It is the only senior major where the winner does not earn an exemption into a PGA Tour or European Tour event.

From its inception in 1989 through 2001, the tournament was held at the Cochise Golf Course of the Golf Club at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Arizona. In 2002 the tournament was held at the The Prospector Course of Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club Superstition Mountain, Arizona.

From 2003 through 2006, it was held at the South Course of The Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club in Aloha, Oregon, just west of Portland.

Amiri Baraka (born October 7, 1934), formerly known as LeRoi Jones, is an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism. He is the author of numerous books of poetry and has taught at a number of universities, including the State University of New York at Buffalo and the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Baraka was born Everett LeRoi Jones in Newark, New Jersey, where he attended Barringer High School. His father, Coyt Leverette Jones, worked as a postal supervisor and lift operator. His mother, Anna Lois (née Russ), was a social worker. In 1967, he adopted the Muslim name Imamu Amear Baraka, which he later changed to Amiri Baraka.

He won a scholarship to Rutgers University in 1951, but a continuing sense of cultural dislocation prompted him to transfer in 1952 to Howard University, which he left without obtaining a degree. His major fields of study were philosophy and religion. Baraka subsequently studied at Columbia University and the New School for Social Research without obtaining a degree.

Vassilis Konstantinos "Basil" Poledouris (August 21, 1945 – November 8, 2006) was an American music composer who concentrated on the scores for films and television shows. Poledouris won the Emmy Award for Best Musical Score for work on part four of the TV miniseries Lonesome Dove in 1989. He is best known for scores such as Conan the Barbarian (1982), and RoboCop (1987).

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Poledouris was a Greek-American. He credited two influences with guiding him towards music: the first was composer Miklós Rózsa; the second his own Greek Orthodox heritage. Poledouris was raised in the Church, and he used to sit in services enthralled with the choir's sound. At the age of seven, Poledouris began piano lessons, and after high school graduation, he enrolled at the University of Southern California to study both filmmaking and music. Several short films to which he contributed are still kept in the university's archives. At USC, Poledouris met movie directors John Milius and Randal Kleiser, with whom he would later collaborate as a music composer. In 1985, Poledouris wrote the music for the movie Flesh & Blood of Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, establishing another durable collaboration in films.

Douglas Richard "Doug" Flutie (born October 23, 1962) is a former American and Canadian football quarterback. Flutie played college football at Boston College, and played professionally in the National Football League, Canadian Football League, and United States Football League. He first rose to prominence during his career at Boston College, where he received the prestigious Heisman Trophy and the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award in 1984. His Hail Mary touchdown pass in a game against Miami on November 23, 1984 (dubbed "Hail Flutie") is considered among the greatest moments in college football and American sports history. Selected as the 285th pick in the 11th round by the Los Angeles Rams making him the lowest drafted Heisman Award winner among those who were drafted. Flutie played that year for the New Jersey Generals of the upstart United States Football League. In 1986 he signed with the NFL's Chicago Bears, and later played for the New England Patriots, becoming their starting quarterback in 1988.