Jack Sammons posed for the photo inside the corporate FedEx cabana overlooking the 18th green at TPC Southwind, the sparkling FedEx Cup trophy encased next to him to start the 65th year of the annual pro golf tournament in Memphis, Tennessee.
The image was so much more than a picture given the circumstances, given the name of the event is different again, and the date of the event is different again, and the tournament director is different again, and even the stability of the PGA Tour is different than it was just a year ago.
There was Sammons, the former city council member with all that Southern charm, who helped rescue this tournament when it almost went under 13 years ago, standing with the symbol for all his work. He was armed with a joke, of course, about the many versions of this event he has now overseen as General Chairman.
“I’ve had more logos on this shirt than Elizabeth Taylor had husbands,” he cracked. “But I got 125 of the best golfers in the world coming here. Back in the day … they’d say, ‘It’s hot there. There’s mosquitoes.’ They had all sorts of reason not to come.”
Welcome back to PGA Tour golf in Memphis. It’s like never before, and yet this tournament’s enduring spirit feels the same as ever, despite being on its third name, third date and third format over the past five years.
FedEx St. Jude: Tee times, TV info | PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ | 5 things to watch
This week, the FedEx Cup playoffs and the top 125 golfers in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings will descend on TPC Southwind for the first FedEx St. Jude Championship. At $15 million, the prize money soars past last year’s $10.5 million purse at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Most of the world’s best, many who never deigned come to Memphis before it became a WGC event three years ago, are back.
But some big fan favorites aren’t. Phil Mickelson. Dustin Johnson. Brooks Koepka. Bryson DeChambeau. Even the golfer who won last year’s Memphis tournament, Abraham Ancer. They’re all playing on the LIV Golf Series that is threatening the future of the PGA Tour, and the controversy driving the conversation in golf in recent months will come barreling into the Mid-South.
Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford, three LIV defections who still rank among the top 125 in FedEx Cup points, have actually filed a federal lawsuit requesting a temporary injunction in order to play in Memphis this week.
All these factors…
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