| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Location | Bethesda, Maryland |
| Established | 2007 |
| Course(s) | Congressional Country Club (2007–09, 2012–14) Aronimink Golf Club (2010–11) |
| Par | 70 |
| Length | 7,237 yards |
| Tour(s) | PGA Tour |
| Format | Stroke play |
| Prize fund | $6,200,000 |
| Month played | July |
| Tournament record score | |
| Aggregate | 267 Tiger Woods (2009) 267 Nick Watney (2011) |
| To par | -13 Tiger Woods (2009) -13 Nick Watney (2011) |
| Current champion | |
| Nick Watney | |
The AT&T National is a professional golf tournament held in the Washington D.C. area during the Fourth of July weekend. The PGA Tour event is hosted by Tiger Woods and benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation. The first AT&T National was held July 5–8, 2007, at the Blue Course of the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland. The event returned to Congressional in 2008 and 2009 and has been held midway between the U.S. Open and the British Open to ensure a strong field of competitors.
Nick Watney is the defending champion, winning in 2011 with a score of −13.
The event was officially announced on March 7, 2007, to replace The International, which tour officials had abruptly cancelled on February 8, 2007.[1] The AT&T National does not use the Modified Stableford scoring system used by The International in Colorado.[2]
The D.C. area hosted a regular tour event for over a quarter century. The Booz Allen Classic arrived in 1980 but was terminated after the 2006 event. Originally named the Kemper Open, it was played at Congressional from 1980–86, then moved to the nearby TPC at Avenel in 1987. Congressional hosted the tournament in 2005, while Avenel was undergoing renovations.
Congressional originally agreed to host the event for the first two years, and after opting out of hosting the 2009 U.S. Amateur, agreed to host the event in 2009 as well.[3][4] The Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania hosted the 2010 and 2011 events, due to Congressional being reconfigured for the 2011 U.S. Open.[5] The tournament is scheduled to return to Congressional from 2012 to 2014.[6]
Other courses that were originally considered for the new tournament were in the Kansas City, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, and Portland areas. Possible sites for the 2010 and 2011 events were the TPC at Avenel in neighboring Potomac (former site of the Booz Allen Classic) and Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia, (four-time host of the Presidents Cup).[7][8]
CBS and the Golf Channel carry the AT&T National, which is the third event on the PGA Tour to be sponsored by the telecommunications giant. The others are the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and the AT&T Classic (formerly the BellSouth Classic).[1]
Contents |
The AT&T National is one of only five tournaments given "invitational" status by the PGA Tour,[9] and consequently it has a reduced field of only 120 players (as opposed to most full-field open tournaments with a field of 156 players). The other four tournaments with invitational status are the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Verizon Heritage, the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, and the Memorial Tournament. Invitational tournaments have smaller fields (between 120 and 132 players), and have more freedom than full-field open tournaments in determining which players are eligible to participate in their event, as invitational tournaments are not required to fill their fields using the PGA Tour Priority Ranking System. Furthermore, unlike full-field open tournaments, invitational tournaments do not offer open qualifying (aka Monday qualifying).
| Year | Player | Country | Score | Earnings ($) | Host club |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Nick Watney | United States | 70-69-62-66=267 (−13) | 1,116,000 | Aronimink Golf Club |
| 2010 | Justin Rose | England | 69-64-67-70=270 (−10) | 1,116,000 | Aronimink Golf Club |
| 2009 | Tiger Woods | United States | 64-66-70-67=267 (−13) | 1,080,000 | Congressional Country Club |
| 2008 | Anthony Kim | United States | 67-67-69-65=268 (−12) | 1,080,000 | Congressional Country Club |
| 2007 | K. J. Choi | South Korea | 66-67-70-68=271 (−9) | 1,080,000 | Congressional Country Club |
|
|||||||||||||||||