WGC Invitational


The WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational is a professional golf tournament hosted at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee from 2019 onwards, and is one of the four annual World Golf Championships.
It was previously known as the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, and the WGC-NEC Invitational when it was hosted at Firestone Country Club in Ohio. It is sanctioned and organized by the International Federation of PGA Tours and the prize money is official money on both the PGA Tour and the European Tour. Tiger Woods has the record number of wins with eight. The winner receives a Wedgwood trophy called The Gary Player Cup.
The event was established in 1999 as a successor to the World Series of Golf.

Sponsorship

From 1999 through 2005, the WGC Invitational was sponsored by NEC. NEC had also sponsored the World Series of Golf from 1984 to 1998. The tournament changed sponsorship in 2006, with Bridgestone taking over as title sponsor. As a part of the sponsorship agreement, the event continued to be held at the South Course of Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. In August 2013, the Bridgestone sponsorship was extended through 2018.
The 2018 event was the last held in Akron. In 2019, FedEx became the title sponsor and relocated the tournament to Memphis, Tennessee. The 2019 event is scheduled to be held at TPC Southwind.

Venues

Prior to 2019 the event was hosted at the South Course of Firestone Country Club, with one exception. The 2002 event was played at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington. Beginning in 2019, the WGC Invitational will be held at TPC Southwind.

Qualifying criteria

The current event has a field of about 75 players, roughly half the number for a standard professional golf event. Invitations are issued to the following:
From 1999 to 2001, only the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams were eligible and the field was about 40 players. Prior to 2011, both Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams were eligible.

World Series of Golf

From 1976 through 1998, the PGA Tour event at Firestone Country Club was the "World Series of Golf," and was sponsored by NEC beginning in 1984. It was founded as a four-man invitational event in 1962, comprising the winners of the four major championships in a 36-hole event. the competitors played in one group for $75,000 in unofficial prize money, televised by NBC.
In 1976, it became a 72-hole, $300,000 PGA Tour event and its field was initially expanded to twenty; the victory and $100,000 winner's share went to Nicklaus. The largest first prize at a major in 1976 was $45,000 at the PGA Championship.
The World Series of Golf quickly became a leading event on the tour. For many years a victory in it gave a 10-year exemption on the PGA Tour, the same as was granted for a victory in a major championship at that time, and twice as long as is given even for winning a major now. The field consisted of the winners of all the high status men's professional golf tournaments around the world in the previous twelve months. This was quite different from the criteria for the WGC Invitational listed above, but produced much the same sort of global field.

Winners

World Golf Championship1999–2015; 2017 onwards
World Golf Championship without European Tour recognition2016