Phil Cannon
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in July 2019. The 2020 golf tournament kicks off this weekend on July 30th.
When the first player tees off at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational on July 25th, my thoughts will be with the late Phil Cannon. The longtime tournament director at TPC Southwind — who died in 2016 after a courageous battle with cancer — remains, for me, the face of our annual dance with the PGA Tour. Just as he is for hundreds of volunteers who have made professional golf as much a part of a Memphis summer as ice tea on ascreen porch.
But Phil would be the first to emphasize a new golf era is upon us with the arrival of the WGC, one of only four such “sub-majors” in the world. At least when it comes to the finest golfers on the planet, Memphis is now a sister city to Shanghai, Mexico City, and Austin, Texas. It’s the kind of foursome only an elite sporting event could gather.
Cannon may be with us only in spirit, but what a spirit he’ll bring to the first WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
The WGC field at Southwind will be exclusive, around 75 golfers expected to play (this is essentially half the field of the former FedEx St. Jude Classic). The top 50 players in the world — as ranked on July 22nd — earn automatic bids along with tournament winners dating back to last year’s event (when it was held in Akron, Ohio). Current members of the U.S. and European Ryder Cup teams also have a locker waiting for them at the TPC Southwind clubhouse. And does the world pay attention to the World Golf Championships? According to tournament officials, the event will be broadcast in more than 220 countries (32 languages) to more than a billion households. How do you say “Hush y’all” in Korean?
The WGC means a new era for Memphis golf, but it will build upon 61 years of PGA history in the Bluff City. Billy Maxwell won the inaugural Memphis Open (at Colonial Country Club) in 1958. Cary Middlecoff won his hometown tournament in 1961, five years after winning his second U.S. Open. You’ve heard of other Memphis champions: Jack Nicklaus (1965), Lee Trevino (’71, ’72, and ’80), Gary Player (’74), Greg Norman (’97), Dustin Johnson (2012 and ’18). Al Geiberger made history in the second round of the 1977 Danny Thomas Memphis Classic when he shot a 59, the first sub-60 round in PGA history. (For a measure of golf’s growth, consider Geiberger’s winner’s check that year: $40,000. This month’s WGC champ will take home $1.8 million.)
Back to Phil Cannon, though. My first feature assignment for this magazine (June 1994) was a look at what was then called the Federal Express St. Jude Classic. Phil was not yet tournament director, but he was the chief media liaison for the event. Somewhat nervous being a rookie, I called Phil and asked if he had time for an interview. He said, “Absolutely, what time should I be there?” That was perfectly Phil, and perfectly Memphis golf. He would come to my office. And share whatever he could, for however long I needed him. It’s a form of customer service, you might say, that we in the media don’t often anticipate.
“Professional golfers see beautiful courses every week. There’s a million-dollar purse every week. What separates us is St. Jude.” — Phil Cannon
There has been one conspicuously absent player over the last two decades at Southwind. Year after year, when I’d ask Cannon about another snub from Tiger Woods, Phil would take the high road and tell me, “The greatest golfers in the world playing this week will be in Memphis.” He didn’t miss Tiger, the greatest player of at least two generations. No, Phil Cannon was an ever-smiling example of just how much Woods missed by not coming to Memphis each summer. There are far too many happy people on and around the Southwind course for one absentee to spoil the party, no matter his international fame. (Woods has won this WGC event eight times since it was first held in 1999. No other player owns as many as two titles.)
Phil Cannon shared some wisdom with a young sportswriter during that 1994 interview. “Professional golfers see beautiful courses every week,” he noted. “There’s a million-dollar purse every week. What separates us is St. Jude.” And it’s the truth. The children’s research hospital became the Memphis tournament’s sole beneficiary in 1970, a year the event made a donation in the amount of $10,600. In 1992, the tournament donated more than $1 million to St. Jude for the first time, and the cumulative total of donations to date is $43 million.
Cannon may be with us only in spirit, but what a spirit he’ll bring to the first WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. An old tournament becomes new, the kind of transformation that fueled Cannon. In his own words (from 2013): “We truly have to reinvent ourselves year after year. I’ve seen some Memphis institutions take their place in the market for granted, and we don’t want to succumb to that lethargy. We try to stay fresh and keep the vitality at a high pitch.” Imagine that: Phil Cannon’s lasting touch reaching a billion living rooms around the world.
