History

The Nationwide Tour began in the early hours of February 2,1990 as dawn broke over the fairways of the Bakersfield Country Club in Bakersfield, California. Since that day over 23 years ago players from around the world have come to prove their skills and earn their PGA TOUR cards.

During the tournament’s inaugural year, Knoxville, Tennessee became an institutional stop for the then “Ben Hogan Tour” and continues in that tradition as the 2012 Nationwide Tour the News Sentinel Open presented by Pilot.

The first Knoxville Open was won by Jeff Maggert who later went on to win the 2006 FedEx St. Jude Classic and also represented the United States in the Ryder Cup  in three appearances and in the Presidents Cup once.  Most recently, the 2009 20th anniversary of the tournament was celebrated in dramatic fashion as Kevin Johnson became the tournament champion after two electrifying sudden death playoff holes against Bradley Isles.

Knoxville’s PGA TOUR heritage can be traced back to over 55 years ago when Golf Hall of Fame inductee and second recipient of the PGA TOUR Lifetime Achievement award, Byron Nelson, won the PGA TOUR Knoxville Invitational in 1945 at historic Holston Hills Country Club.  Since then hundreds of thousands of local attendees have been witness to the journey of thousands of professional golfers and have seen over $1,000,000 in contributions to local and national charitable foundations.