FedEx St. Jude Classic

From Freepedia

The FedEx St. Jude Classic is a regular golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played annually in May in Memphis, Tennessee. Since 1989 the tournament has been held on the course at the Tournament Players Club at Southwind.

FedEx Corporation is the sponsor of the tournament. All proceeds from the tournament are donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

The format of the tournament is stroke play at 18 holes for four days, a total of 72 holes. The feild consists of 156 players. After 36 holes, the field is cut to the top seventy players plus all players tied for 70th place. The 2005 purse is $4,900,000, with $882,000 going to the winner (the usual PGA Tour winner's share of 18%).

The tournament was founded in 1958 as the Memphis Open and was two years later named the Memphis Invitational Open. In 1969, actor Danny Thomas agreed to lend his name to the tournament in exchange for his St. Jude Hospital becoming the tournament's charity. Accordingly, the tournament changed its name the next year to the Danny Thomas Classic. In 1977, ex-President Gerald Ford, who had just left office, hit a hole-in-one at the tournament's Celebrity Pro-Am. The same year, pro golfer Al Geiberger shot a record 13-under-par round. The tournament was renamed the St. Jude Memphis Classic in 1985. Federal Express became the tournament's sponsor in 1986 and the tournament was again renamed the Federal Express St. Jude Classic until the company officially changed its name to "FedEx".