The National (golf)

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The National (known as the AT&T National from 2007 to 2013 and as the Quicken Loans National from 2014 to 2017) is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour in the Washington D.C. area, usually held in late June or during the Fourth of July weekend, although in 2015 it ran from July 30 to August 2. It is hosted by Tiger Woods and benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation.

The first edition in 2007 was held July 5-8 at the Blue Course of the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland, northwest of Washington. The event returned to Congressional in 2008 and 2009 and has been held midway between the U.S. Open and The Open Championship to ensure a strong field of competitors.

The event was officially announced on March 7, 2007, to replace The International, which tour officials had abruptly cancelled on February 8, 2007. The Quicken Loans National is a standard 72-hole stroke play event, and does not use the modified Stableford scoring system used by The International in Colorado.

The D.C. area 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, Congressional hosted the tournament in 2005, while Avenel underwent 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. 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. The tournament was played at Congressional from 2012 to 2014 and returned in 2016. It was played in Virginia at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville in August 2015 and was played at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in Potomac in 2017.

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 (now TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm, former site of the Booz Allen Classic) and Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, (four-time host of the Presidents Cup). CBS Sports and Golf Channel currently carry the Quicken Loans National on television.

After the 2017 tournament, the Quicken Loans sponsorship deal ended leaving The National with no current sponsor for the 2018 PGA Tour season. 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 tournaments. Despite a lack of title sponsor and host course, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan confirmed that the 2018 tournament would occur, 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." The 2018 tournament is scheduled for June 28 to July 1, 2018.

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Invitational status

The Quicken Loans National is one a few tournaments given "invitational" status by the PGA Tour, 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). Other tournaments with invitational status include the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the RBC Heritage, the Dean & DeLuca 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).

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Field

The field consists of 120 players invited using the following criteria:

Quicken Loans National winners from past five years
The Players Championship and major championship winners in the last five years
The Tour Championship and World Golf Championships winners in the past three years
Arnold Palmer Invitational and Memorial Tournament winners in the past three years
Tournament winner in past 12 months
Prior year U.S. Amateur winner
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
Top 125 from prior year FedEx Cup points list
Top 10 from current FedEx Cup points list (as of Friday prior)
8 sponsors exemptions - 2 from Web.com Tour finals, 2 members not otherwise exempt, and 4 unrestricted
Remaining positions filled from current year FedEx Cup point list