The Tour Championship is the final golf tournament of the PGA Tour season. The annual event, held at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia since 2004, started in 1987 and was held at the end of October or beginning of November for the top 30 money winners on tour for the season. Starting in 2007 the event moved to September and top 30 eligibility was based on a point system accumulated by players during the season. The 2009 event took place from September 24 to September 27. Phil Mickelson won by three shots over TIger Woods.http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/r060/
Background
The first Tour Championship was held in 1987 at the Oak Hills C.C. in San Antonio, Texas and was won by Tom Watson. It was known as the Nabisco Golf Championship through 1990 and was held at a different venue each year. In 1991 the tournament became The Tour Championship, and was held at the Pinehurst Country Club through 1992. The Olympic Club in San Francisco, California held the even in 1993 and 1994. The Tour Championship was held in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the Southern Hills C.C. in 1995 and 1996. The event took place at the Champions G.C. in 1997 and has been held at the East Lake Golf Club since 1998. Notable winners in this event include Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Camilo Villegas.http://www.golfobserver.com/new/golfstats.php?tournament=Tour+Championship&tour=PGA The winner's purse in 2008 was $1,260,000. The total purse for the 2009 event is $7,500,000.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tour_Championship Tiger Woods holds the tournament record for lowest score relative to par at minus 23 and aggregate score of 257.http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/2009-2010/psulsu.html
The Tour Championship Winners
- 1987: Tom Watson
- 1988: Curtis Strange
- 1989: Tom Kite
- 1990: Jodie Mudd
- 1991: Craig Stadler
- 1992: Paul Azinger
- 1993: Jim Gallagher, Jr
- 1994: Mark McCumber
- 1995: Billy Mayfair
- 1996: Tom Lehman
- 1997: David Duval
- 1998: Hal Sutton
- 1999: Tiger Woods
- 2000: Phil Mickelson
- 2001: Mike Weir
- 2002: Vijay Singh
- 2003: Chad Campbell
- 2004: Retief Goosen
- 2005: Bart Bryant
- 2006: Adam Scott
- 2007: Tiger Woods
- 2008: Camilo Villegas
- 2009: Phil Mickelson