The Fred Meyer Challenge was a charity

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

tournament played in the

Portland metropolitan area The Portland metropolitan area is a metropolitan area, metro area with its urban area, core in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington (state), Washington. It has 5 principal cities, the largest being Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Man ...

in the U.S. state of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. Held from 1986 to 2002, it was organized by

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

native and

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

golfer

Peter Jacobsen Peter Erling Jacobsen (born March 4, 1954) is an American professional golfer and commentator on Golf Channel and NBC. He has played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. He has won seven events on the PGA Tour and two events on the Champion ...

and sponsored by the then-locally owned

hypermarket A hypermarket or superstore is a big-box store combining a supermarket and a department store. The result is an expansive retail facility carrying a wide range of products under one roof, including full grocery lines and general merchandise. In ...

chain

Fred Meyer Fred Meyer, Inc. is an American chain of hypermarket superstores and subsidiary of Kroger based in Portland, Oregon. The stores operate in the northwestern United States, with locations in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska. The company was ...

. The field included active and retired PGA Tour players. It was always played as a two-man team best ball event. In its inaugural year, it was played as in a

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

format, with four teams competing. For the rest of its tenure, it was played in a

stroke play Stroke play is a scoring system in the sport of golf. In the regular form of stroke play, also known as medal play, the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In a regular stroke play competition, the winner is the ...

format, with 8 to 12 teams competing.

History

From 1986 to 1997, the winning team split a $100,000 first prize. In 1998, this increased to $150,000 and in 2000 to $180,000. In the tournament's heyday, many high-profile golfers participated, and attendance neared 40,000 fans. After Fred Meyer was acquired by

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinc ...

, it discontinued sponsorship of the event and the tournament was also discontinued.

Legacy

After the end of the Challenge, Jacobsen brought

The Tradition The Tradition (known as the Regions Tradition for sponsorship reasons) is an event on the PGA Tour Champions. First staged in 1989 Senior PGA Tour, 1989, the PGA Tour recognizes the event as one of the five senior major golf championships. Unlik ...

, a

PGA Tour Champions PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, open to golfers age 50 and over, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, f ...

event, to Oregon starting in 2003. It was played at The Reserve from 2003-2006 before moving to the

Crosswater Club Crosswater Club is a private golf club in the northwest United States, located in central Oregon at Sunriver, southwest of Bend. Opened in 1995, the par-72 golf course was designed by Robert E. Cupp and plays to , at an approximate average e ...

Sunriver, Oregon Sunriver is a census-designated place and planned residential and resort community in Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 2,023 an increase from 1,393 in 2010. It is part of the Bend Metrop ...

through 2010. In 2011, Jacobsen's company Peter Jacobsen Sports revived the challenge-style exhibition tournament with the Umpqua Bank Challenge, which drew 15,000 to the Portland Golf Club for the 2011 tournament and 10,000 spectators to the 2012 edition at The Reserve. In October 2012, Jacobsen announced that the 2012 edition of the tournament may have been the last one, as both attendance and sponsorship had fallen short of expectations.

Tournament hosts

Winners

Multiple winners

As a team

*3 wins **

Brad Faxon Bradford John Faxon Jr. (born August 1, 1961) is an American professional golfer. He has won eight times on the PGA Tour. Early life and amateur career Faxon was born in Oceanport, New Jersey and raised in Barrington, Rhode Island. He attended F ...

and

Greg Norman Gregory John Norman (born 10 February 1955) is an Australian former professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as List of World Number One male golfers, world number one in the 1980s and 1990s. He won 88 professional tournaments, including 20 PGA ...

: 1995, 1996, 1997 *2 wins ** John Cook and

Mark O'Meara Mark Francis O'Meara (born January 13, 1957) is an American retired professional golfer. He was a tournament winner on the PGA Tour and around the world from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s. He spent nearly 200 weeks in the top-10 of the Offici ...

: 1994, 2000 **

Billy Andrade William Thomas Andrade (born January 25, 1964) is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Champions Tour. He was previously a member of the PGA Tour, where he was a four-time winner. Early life Andrade was born in Bris ...

and

: 1999, 2001

As an individual

*5 wins **

: 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2001 *4 wins **

: 1986, 1995, 1996, 1997 *3 wins **

: 1992, 1999, 2001 *2 wins **

Paul Azinger Paul William Azinger (born January 6, 1960) is an American professional golfer and TV golf He won 12 times on the PGA Tour, including one major championship, the 1993 PGA Championship. He spent almost 300 weeks in the top-10 of the Official Wo ...

: 1988, 1991 ** John Cook: 1994, 2000 **

: 1994, 2000

References

{{Sporting events in Portland, Oregon PGA Tour unofficial money events Golf tournaments in Oregon Sports in Portland, Oregon Sports in Hillsboro, Oregon Annual events in Oregon Recurring sporting events established in 1986 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2002 1986 establishments in Oregon 2002 disestablishments in Oregon