History
The tournament debuted in May 1958 as the Memphis Open and was played annually at Colonial Country Club in Memphis through 1971, then at the club's new home in Cordova until 1989.
In 1969, actor Danny Thomas (1912-91) agreed to lend his name to the tournament in exchange for his St. Jude Children's Research Hospital becoming the tournament's charity. Accordingly, the tournament changed its name the next year to the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic. In 1977, President Gerald Ford, who had just left office, hit a hole-in-one at the tournament's celebrity pro-am. The same year, Al Geiberger shot a PGA Tour record 59 (13-under-par) round.
In 1986, Federal Express became the title sponsor. For the first three years of their sponsorship, FedEx increased the purse one dollar for each package they shipped on the Friday of the tournament. The purses went from $500,000 to $605,912 in 1986, from $600,000 to $724,043 in 1987, and from $750,000 to $953,842 in 1988.
In 1989, the event moved from Colonial Country Club in Cordova to its present location at TPC Southwind in Memphis. In 2007, The Stanford Financial Group took over as the tournament's title sponsor, and it was renamed Stanford St. Jude Championship. In 2009, the tournament changed its name to St. Jude Classic following accusations that the Stanford Financial Group was a Ponzi scheme. FedEx returned as title sponsor in 2011.
In 2012, the total purse was $5,600,000, with $1,008,000 going to the winner.
Read more about this topic: Fed Ex St. Jude Classic
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