City: Memphis, TN

Category: Annual Events & Festivals

Telephone: (901) 748-0534

Address: 3325 Club at Southwind

Description: This annual stop on the PGA Tour brings top players to Memphis every year, along with television cameras. An estimated 150,000 spectators watch as the players compete for a $6 million purse. The Stanford St. Jude Championship is played at Tournament Players Club at Southwind in the southeastern suburbs in early June. The current date is a change from the early days, when the tournament was in August amid the 90-plus temperatures and high humidity that plague Memphis at that time of year. The tournament was started in 1958 as the Memphis Open and has since changed names several times as new sponsors have backed the event. Today, Stanford Financial is the tournament’s main sponsor, and the event has raised more than $14 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital since 1970. Among the tournament’s highlights is when Al Geiberger shot a 59 in 1977, a PGA Tour one-round record. Memphis fans have a soft spot for hometown players, including John Daly, Loren Roberts, and Shaun Micheel, who won the PGA Championship in 2003. One-day tickets are $20 in advance (before May) and $30 at the gate. Season tickets, which are good all week, are $75 in advance and $90 at the gate.