 | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1999 |
| Organized by | International Federation of PGA Tours |
| Tour(s) | PGA Tour European Tour |
| Format | Stroke play |
| Prize fund | US$10,500,000 (final year) |
| Month played | August |
| Final year | 2021 |
| Tournament record score | |
| Aggregate | 259Tiger Woods (2000) |
| To par | −21as above |
| Final champion | |
 Abraham Ancer | |
TheWGC Invitational was a professional golf tournament that was held in the United States. Established in 1999 as a successor to theWorld Series of Golf, it was one of three or four annualWorld Golf Championships (WGC) until 2021, when the number of WGC events was reduced to two.
Under sponsorship agreements, the WGC Invitational was titled as theWGC-NEC Invitational (1999–2005) and theWGC-Bridgestone Invitational (2006–2018). During this time, it was hosted atFirestone Country Club inOhio, except for 2002 when it was hosted atSahalee Country Club inWashington. With a change of sponsor in 2019, the tournament became titled as theWGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and was relocated to atTPC Southwind inMemphis, Tennessee.
The WGC Invitational was sanctioned and organized by theInternational Federation of PGA Tours and the prize money was official money on both thePGA Tour and theEuropean Tour.Tiger Woods had the record number of wins with eight.[1][2] The winner received aWedgwood trophy called The Gary Player Cup.[3]
From 1999 through 2005, the WGC Invitational was sponsored byNEC. NEC had also sponsored the World Series of Golf from 1984 to 1998. The tournament changed sponsorship in 2006, withBridgestone taking over as title sponsor. As a part of the sponsorship agreement, the event continued to be held at the South Course ofFirestone Country Club inAkron, Ohio. In August 2013, the Bridgestone sponsorship was extended through 2018.[4]
The2018 event was the last held in Akron. In 2019,FedEx became the title sponsor and relocated the tournament toMemphis, Tennessee.[5][6]
Prior to 2019 the event was hosted at the South Course ofFirestone Country Club inAkron,Ohio, with one exception – the2002 event, which was played atSahalee Country Club inSammamish, Washington. Between 2019 and 2021, the tournament was held atTPC Southwind inMemphis, Tennessee.
The event had a field of about 75 players, roughly half the number for a standard professional golf event. Invitations were 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.
From1976 through1998, thePGA Tour event at Firestone Country Club was the "World Series of Golf," and was sponsored by NEC beginning in1984. It was founded as a four-man invitational event in1962, comprising the winners of the fourmajor championships in a 36-hole event.[7] the competitors played in one group for $75,000 in unofficial prize money, televised byNBC.
In1976, it became a 72-hole, $300,000 PGA Tour event and its field was initially expanded to twenty;[8] the victory and $100,000 winner's share went to Nicklaus.[9] The largest first prize at a major in 1976 was $45,000 at thePGA 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.
