Fred Meyer Bio
Fred Meyer is the namesake of a former charity golf tournament held annually in the Portland metropolitan area of Oregon. Although the Fred Meyer Challenge was not a professional player, the Fred Meyer brand became closely tied to professional golf in the Pacific Northwest through its sponsorship of a high-profile exhibition event that ran for nearly two decades. The tournament connected active and retired PGA Tour players with regional fans, raised money for charitable causes, and helped establish Portland as a recurring stop on the summer golf calendar.
The Fred Meyer Challenge is remembered as one of the most successful corporate-sponsored golf events in Oregon history, drawing large galleries and featuring many of the biggest names in the game. The event was founded in 1986 and concluded in 2002, leaving a notable legacy in the local sports community and in the career of organizer Peter Jacobsen, who went on to bring additional professional events to the state.
The Fred Meyer Challenge Tournament
Origins and Format
The Fred Meyer Challenge was established in 1986 as a charity golf tournament organized by Peter Jacobsen, a Portland native and PGA Tour professional. The event was sponsored by the Fred Meyer hypermarket chain, which at the time was locally owned and headquartered in the Portland area. The tournament was designed to combine competitive golf with charitable fundraising, using a team format that paired active and retired PGA Tour players together.
In its inaugural year, the Fred Meyer Challenge was played as a match play event featuring four teams, with the format shifting to stroke play for the remainder of its history. From 1987 onward, the tournament field expanded to between eight and twelve two-man teams competing in a best ball format, where the lower score of the two partners counts on each hole. This team-based structure made the event accessible and entertaining for spectators, who were able to watch pairs of professionals work together rather than compete against one another individually.
Courses and Schedule
The Fred Meyer Challenge rotated among three prestigious golf clubs in the Portland metropolitan area during its seventeen-year run. From 1986 to 1991, the tournament was played at Portland Golf Club, one of the oldest courses in the region. The event then moved to The Oregon Golf Club from 1992 to 1997, before relocating to The Reserve, a private club in nearby Hillsboro, where it was held from 1998 through 2002.
This rotation among three high-quality venues allowed the tournament to showcase different course designs and challenges to its field of professionals and to the growing galleries that attended each summer. The Reserve hosted the final five editions of the event, providing a fitting setting for the tournament’s concluding years.
Charity and Prize Fund
The Fred Meyer Challenge served as a significant charitable fundraiser throughout its existence, with proceeds directed to causes supported by the sponsoring company and the organizing committee. The prize fund for the winning team grew over the years, beginning at one hundred thousand dollars in 1986 and rising to one hundred fifty thousand dollars in 1998 before reaching one hundred eighty thousand dollars in 2000, where it remained through the final tournament in 2002.
Increasing prize money helped attract top-tier players to the Portland event, contributing to a period in the late 1990s and early 2000s that is often described as the tournament’s heyday. During this peak period, attendance figures approached forty thousand fans, demonstrating the event’s strong appeal among golf enthusiasts in the Pacific Northwest.
Notable Events and Milestones
One of the defining moments in the history of the Fred Meyer Challenge came in the late 1990s, when the tournament reached its highest level of popularity and prestige. The combination of an expanded prize fund, a strong field of marquee PGA Tour players, and enthusiastic local support created an atmosphere that rivaled many regular tour stops.
The tournament’s most significant milestone was its conclusion in 2002, when Fred Meyer was acquired by the Kroger Company and discontinued its sponsorship. Without a title sponsor, the long-running charity event was unable to continue, ending a seventeen-year run that had become a staple of the Oregon sports calendar.
Fred Meyer Challenge Legacy
The end of the Fred Meyer Challenge did not mark the end of professional golf events organized by Peter Jacobsen in Oregon. In 2003, Jacobsen brought The Tradition, a major event on the PGA Tour Champions circuit, to the state, where it was played at The Reserve from 2003 through 2006 before moving to Crosswater Club in Sunriver, Oregon, where it remained through 2010.
In 2011, Jacobsen’s company Peter Jacobsen Sports revived the team-style exhibition concept with the Umpqua Bank Challenge, which drew fifteen thousand spectators to Portland Golf Club in its first year and ten thousand fans to The Reserve in 2012. However, declining attendance and sponsorship shortfalls led Jacobsen to announce in October 2012 that the 2012 edition might be the last, effectively closing a chapter on challenge-style team golf tournaments in the Portland area.
2025 Season Outlook
No successor to the Fred Meyer Challenge has been scheduled in the Portland metropolitan area for 2025, more than two decades after the original event’s final edition. The Umpqua Bank Challenge, which briefly revived the team format between 2011 and 2012, has not returned, leaving a gap in the regional professional golf calendar that has not yet been filled by a comparable team-style exhibition.
Oregon continues to host professional golf through other venues and organizations, but the specific charity-team format pioneered by the Fred Meyer Challenge remains dormant. Whether a future event will revive this tradition in 2025 or beyond remains an open question for golf organizers in the Pacific Northwest.