It’s a good thing that Hampton Inn on Tallahassee Highway opened last week.

Bainbridge has a ton of visitors this weekend, and we need all the spare rooms we can get.

The 2015 Bass Pro Shop Southern Open No. 3 is in full swing on Lake Seminole, with weigh-ins at the Earle May Boat Basin every day at 3:30 p.m. (4:30 p.m. on Saturday). We have 144 fisherman from across the country enduring this last wave of South Georgia heat for a shot at winning the tournament right here in Bainbridge.

Right down the road is another tournament. The United States Tennis Association Combo State Championships is happening this weekend at the Bill Renyolds Tennis Center, bringing in even more visitors to the city.

Bainbridge isn’t the biggest city in Southwest Georgia. It’s not the richest or the most showy, either. But it says something that the biggest bass fishing organization in the world and the USTA are choosing this place to hold major tournaments.

The location and proximity to Lake Seminole makes hosting bass tournaments a no-brainer, but men and women over the years have worked hard to draw the attention of the big names that set up camp at the boat basin on weekends like this one. Same with the tennis center, which is one of the nicest facilities I’ve seen.

Lots of money is being injected into the local economy with all these guests to Bainbridge this weekend. More events like these on a more frequent basis will give Bainbridge and

Decatur County an extra boost in growth that it needs