Tournament information | |
---|---|
Location | Memphis, Tennessee |
Established | 1967 |
Course(s) | TPC Southwind |
Par | 70 |
Length | 7,244 yards (6,624 m) |
Tour(s) | PGA Tour |
Format | Stroke play |
Prize fund | US$20,000,000 |
Month played | August |
Tournament record score | |
Aggregate | 254 Dustin Johnson (2020) |
To par | −30 as above |
Current champion | |
![]() | |
Location map | |
Location in the United States Location in Tennessee |
The FedEx St. Jude Championship, founded as the Westchester Classic in 1967, is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. The Championship has a partnership with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, with the hospital serving as the tournament's designated charity since 1970. [1] Since 2007, it has been played as the first tournament of the playoff system for the FedEx Cup, with the field limited to the top 70 players on the FedEx Cup points list at the end of the regular season; prior to 2023, the top 125 players were included. For sponsorship reasons, the tournament has previously been titled The Northern Trust, The Barclays, and the Buick Classic.
The Westchester Classic was hosted at Westchester Country Club in Harrison, New York until 2007, after which it moved around several courses in New York and New Jersey. In 2018, the PGA Tour announced that The Northern Trust, as it was then known, would alternate between the New York/New Jersey and Boston areas from 2019, and in 2020 it was held at TPC Boston. [2] For the 2021–22 season, the tournament was relocated to TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee with FedEx as the new title sponsor and the event being titled the FedEx St. Jude Championship. [3]
Many of the world's top players have won the event including Sergio García, Adam Scott, Jason Day, Matt Kuchar, Patrick Reed, Dustin Johnson and 2018 champion Bryson DeChambeau, who captured a four-stroke victory and became the tournament's youngest winner in the FedEx Cup era. Since the tournament's inception in 1967, The Northern Trust has generated nearly $50 million for New York/New Jersey Metropolitan-area charities, including a record $1.865 million in 2018. [4]
The event can trace its origins back to a Westchester based pro-am tournament that began at The Apawamis Club in Rye, New York. [5] Founded by William Mitchell "Bill" Jennings, [6] the popular spectator event drew many top players before leaving Apawamis after 1961 when it was merged into the Thunderbird Classic. [7] It was next played at the Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, New Jersey (1962, 1966-68) and the neighboring Westchester Country Club (1963-65) also in Rye. Proceeds from the popular event benefited the now defunct United Hospital in Port Chester, New York for many years.Beginning in 1976, the tournament underwent a series of name sponsorships (detailed below), not unlike other PGA Tour stops. The name of the event evolved to the point that, by 1990, it no longer contained the name of its host course or location. However, among golfers on tour and many fans, it was still known by its traditional name, the Westchester Classic.
The tournament was usually played during June of each year, either the week before (in even-numbered years) or the week after (in odd-numbered years) the U.S. Open. It had its greatest attendance in 2001 when Tiger Woods participated, although two days of heavy rains disrupted play. It had one of its more exciting finishes in 2005, when Pádraig Harrington eagled the par-5 final hole with a 65-foot (20 m) putt to win the title. The most frequent winner of the tournament is Vijay Singh, with four trophies.
Beginning in 2008, it left the Westchester Country Club and began being rotated amongst different clubs in the New York metropolitan area (also detailed below).
In 2011, Hurricane Irene shortened the tournament to 54 holes, which was played that year at the Plainfield Country Club in Edison, New Jersey. The tournament ended by noontime on Saturday, August 27, allowing ample time for players and spectators to evacuate the golf course.
The tournament has traditionally closed CBS Sports's PGA Tour television schedule, due to the network's commitment to airing SEC and NFL football during the fall months; until 2014, the network also had rights to the U.S. Open tennis tournament, which begins the Monday prior to Labor Day. (The 2019 changes to the PGA Tour calendar, which resulted in The Northern Trust being moved up two weeks due to the PGA Tour's desire to complete the FedEx Cup Playoffs by the end of August, will not affect this tournament ending CBS's golf season, even though the tournament now takes place three weeks before the first week of the college football season.) Jim Nantz, who calls the final two rounds of The Northern Trust on television, is also the lead play-by-play announcer for the NFL on CBS.
In 2017, Chicago-based financial services company Northern Trust replaced Barclays, which had sponsored the tournament since 2005. [8] Northern Trust had previously been the title sponsor of the Los Angeles Open at Riviera for nine years, known as the "Northern Trust Open" from 2008 through 2016.
In 2019, the FedEx Cup Playoffs featured three events, instead of four, and the Playoffs concluded by the end of August. As a result, The Northern Trust was played earlier in August (August 5–11, 2019), followed by the BMW Championship, August 12-18 (70 players); and the Tour Championship August 19–25 (30 players). [9]
In 2015, Brian Harman became only the third player in PGA Tour history to record two holes-in-one in the same round. [10]
In 2020, Scottie Scheffler shot a 12-under-par 59 at TPC Boston in the second round. [11]
PGA Tour (FedEx Cup Playoffs) | 2007– | |
PGA Tour (Regular) | 1967–2006 |
Note: Green highlight indicates scoring records.
Sources: [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]
Westchester Country Club is a private country club located in Harrison, New York. Founded in 1922 as a destination for sportsmen, it was known to professional golfers and spectators for more than four decades as the home of the Westchester Classic," a PGA Tour favorite. Amenities include an historic clubhouse designed by architects Warren and Wetmore and two championship caliber 18-hole golf courses designed by Walter Travis. The club also boasts one nine-hole golf course, an indoor swimming pool, squash courts, grass tennis courts and a stand-alone beach, outdoor pool and restaurant facility on Manursing Island.
The Dell Technologies Championship, originally the Deutsche Bank Championship, was a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour that was played annually from 2003 to 2018. It was held in Norton, Massachusetts, United States, over the Labor Day weekend in late summer.
The Ridgewood Country Club (RCC) is a country club located in Paramus, New Jersey, a suburb northwest of New York City in Bergen County. It was founded in 1890 in neighboring Ho-Ho-Kus, but has been at its current location since 1926. Its facilities were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
Kevin Sangwook Na is a Korean American professional golfer. He was a member of the PGA Tour until June 2022, when he resigned in order to join LIV Golf. He won five tournaments on the PGA Tour between 2011 and 2021.
Liberty National is a country club located in Jersey City, New Jersey adjacent to Liberty State Park on the Upper New York Bay. Its clubhouse, guest villas, teaching center, and "Cafe 12" halfway house were designed by Lindsay Newman Architecture and Design, while the golf course was designed by Robert E. Cupp and Tom Kite.
Dustin Hunter Johnson is an American professional golfer. He has won two major championships, the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club with a 4-under-par score of 276 and the 2020 Masters Tournament with a record score of 268, 20-under-par. He had previously finished in a tie for second at both the 2011 Open Championship and the 2015 U.S. Open. He has six World Golf Championships victories, with only Tiger Woods having won more, and was the first and only player to win each of the four World Golf Championship events. He has played in The LIV Golf League since 2022.
The 2009 FedEx Cup Playoffs, the series of four golf tournaments that determined the season champion on the U.S.-based PGA Tour, began on August 27 and ended on September 27. It included the following four events:
TPC Southwind is a private golf club in Shelby County, Tennessee, southern United States, located within the gated community of Southwind in southeast Memphis.
The 2010 FedEx Cup Playoffs, the series of four golf tournaments that determined the season champion on the U.S.-based PGA Tour, began on August 26 and ended on September 26. It included the following four events:
The FedEx St. Jude Classic was a professional golf tournament held in Memphis, Tennessee, as a regular event on the PGA Tour. The tournament was held annually from 1958 through 2018, and was played in June at TPC Southwind.
The 2011 FedEx Cup Playoffs, the series of four golf tournaments that determined the season champion on the U.S.-based PGA Tour, began on August 25 and ended on September 25. It included the following four events:
The 2012 FedEx Cup Playoffs, the series of four golf tournaments that determined the season champion on the U.S.-based PGA Tour, began on August 23 and ended on September 23. It included the following four events:
Justin Louis Thomas is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and is a former world number one. In 2017, Thomas experienced a breakout year, winning five PGA Tour events and the FedEx Cup championship. He has won two major golf championships, winning the PGA Championship in 2017 and 2022. In May 2018, Thomas became the 21st player to top the Official World Golf Ranking.
Daniel F. Berger is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. After turning pro at age 20 in 2013, he won the FedEx St. Jude Classic in both 2016 and 2017 and the Charles Schwab Challenge in 2020, the first PGA Tour tournament played after a three-month hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2021, he won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am; clinching victory with an eagle on the 18th hole.
The 2018 FedEx Cup Playoffs, the series of four golf tournaments that determined the season champion on the U.S.-based PGA Tour, was played from August 23 to September 23. It included the following four events:
The 2018–19 PGA Tour was the 104th season of the PGA Tour, the main professional golf tour in the United States. It was also the 51st season since separating from the PGA of America, and the 13th edition of the FedEx Cup.
The 2019–20 PGA Tour was the 105th season of the PGA Tour, the main professional golf tour in the United States. It was also the 52nd season since separating from the PGA of America, and the 14th edition of the FedEx Cup.
The 2020 FedEx Cup Playoffs, the series of three golf tournaments that determined the season champion on the U.S.-based PGA Tour, was played from August 20 to September 7. It included the following three events:
The 2021 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational was a professional golf tournament being held August 5–8 at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee. It was the 23rd and final WGC Invitational tournament, the third of the World Golf Championships events in 2021. It was also the 64th year that the PGA Tour stopped in Memphis; dating back to the 1958 Memphis Open. The WGC Invitational was removed from the schedule in 2022, with the venue of the tournament hosting the FedEx St. Jude Championship, a FedEx Cup playoff event, ultimately replacing The Northern Trust.
The 2022 FedEx Cup Playoffs, the series of three golf tournaments that determined the 2021–22 season champion on the U.S.-based PGA Tour, was played from August 11–28. It included the following three events: