Losing Greensboro adds regional appeal.

• Position: Triad

For decades, rivalries have plagued the Triad. Winston-Salem versus Greensboro, Greensboro versus High Point, Forsyth County versus Guilford. The cities and counties have competed for jobs, attention, residents, money, you name it.

But the last three years, organizers of the golf tournament known most of its history as the Greater Greensboro Open have followed a path they say has led toward greater regional cooperation and bigger crowds. And all it took was a company with enough money to fill a void as title sponsor and enough vanity to want the tournament's name all to itself.

When automaker Chrysler dropped out of what was then the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro, organizers got the Wyndham Worldwide hotel chain to take its place. It was willing to pony up an estimated $18 million over four years--but only if the host city's name was dropped from the tournament's name.

Tournament organizers made that work by playing up regionalism and getting more help outside the Gate City. Winston-Salem-based BB&T Corp., for example, became a premier sponsor, the second-tier level of support. "They were on board, but they came in in a bigger way after we became the Wyndham, after hearing the regionalism pitch," tournament director Mark Brazil says.

The Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation, which...