The National, originally titled for sponsorship reasons as the AT&T National and later as the Quicken Loans National, was a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 2007 to 2018. It was hosted by Tiger Woods and benefited the Tiger Woods Foundation. It was usually held either in late June or during the Fourth of July weekend in the Washington, D.C. area, except for 2010 and 2011 when it was held near Philadelphia.
The National was a 72-hole stroke play tournament. It was one of a few events given "invitational" status by the PGA Tour and consequently had a field of only 120 players, as opposed to 156 players at most full-field tournaments.
The first edition of The National in 2007 was held July 5–8 on the Blue Course at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, northwest of Washington. The event returned to Congressional in 2008 and 2009 when it was held midway between the U.S. Open and The Open Championship to ensure a strong field of competitors. The National was part of the Open Qualifying Series that gave non-exempt players a chance to compete in The Open.
History
The event was officially announced on March 7, 2007, to replace The International, which tour officials had abruptly cancelled four weeks earlier on February 8.[1] The National was a standard 72-hole stroke play event, and did not use the modified Stableford scoring system used by The International in Colorado.
The D.C. area had hosted a regular tour event for over a quarter century; the Kemper Open arrived in 1980, but was terminated after the 2006 event. It was played at Congressional from 1980 to 1986, then moved to the nearby TPC at Avenel in 1987. Later renamed the Booz Allen Classic, it returned to Congressional in 2005, to give Avenel time to undergo renovations, which did not occur.[2]
After the 2017 tournament, the Quicken Loans sponsorship deal ended leaving The National with no sponsor for 2018,[10] scheduled for June 28 to July 1.[11] The PGA Tour also announced that it would be buying out the remaining two years of its contract with Congressional Country Club to host the 2018 and 2020 editions.[12] Despite a lack of title sponsor and host course, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed that the event would occur in 2018, stating, "We made the commitment. Our players are going to be showing up there and we're going to be playing for that amount of money."[13] On May 30, less than a month before the event, Quicken Loans agreed to sponsor for a fifth consecutive year.[14][15] On July 10, 2018, it was announced that the Detroit Golf Club would host the Rocket Mortgage Classic in 2019, replacing The National.[16]
Field
The National was one of a few tournaments given "invitational" status by the PGA Tour,[17] and consequently it had a reduced field of only 120 players (as opposed to most full-field open tournaments with a field of 156 players). Other tournaments with invitational status include the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the RBC Heritage, the Fort Worth Invitational, and the Memorial Tournament.
Invitational tournaments have smaller fields (between 100 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). The Los Angeles Open was converted to an invitational in 2020, inheriting the National's format.
Current PGA Tour members who were playing members on last named U.S. Ryder Cup team, European Ryder Cup team, U.S. Presidents Cup team, and International Presidents Cup team
Francesco Molinari
