Riverfest

Looking to provide a service to golf by hosting a tournament, Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts decided to hold an annual event beginning in 1934. The final decision was made at a meeting in New York at the office of member W. Alton Jones. Roberts proposed the event be called the Masters Tournament, but Bobby Jones objected thinking it too presumptuous. The name Augusta National Invitation Tournament was adopted and the title was used for five years until 1939 when Jones relented and the name was officially changed. An early decision was whether Jones would play or serve as an official. Jones preferred not to compete but was persuaded by the Club's members to join the field. In the 12 Tournaments that Jones played, his best finish was 13th in 1934.

On Oct. 4, 1895, the first U.S. Open Championship was conducted by the United States Golf Association on the nine-hole course of Newport (R.I.) Golf and Country Club. The first U.S. Open was considered something of a sideshow to the first U.S. Amateur, which was played on the same course and during the same week. Both championships had been scheduled for September but were postponed because of a conflict with a more established Newport sports spectacle, the America’s Cup yacht races.

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, located in Montgomery - Alabama's state capital - is the sixth largest Shakespeare festival in the world and attracts more than 300,000 annual visitors from all 50 states and over 60 countries.

The dream of an international tennis tournament in Miami began in the 1960s, when top tennis players such as Jack Kramer, Frank Sedgman, Pancho Gonzalez, Pancho Segura and Butch Buchholz toured the country in a station wagon, playing tennis in darkened arenas and fairgrounds. It was before the days of Open tennis, and they traveled with a portable canvas court and plenty of hopes. Buchholz - an original member of the “Handsome Eight” (the first recognized pros of Lamar Hunt’s World Championship Tennis Circuit introduced in 1968) - competed until he was forced to retire from tennis in 1970 with chronic tennis elbow.

September - October 26. More than 175 houses and gardens, 8 - 10 per evening. Held annually early fall.