World Golf Championships - Events

Events

The first three events all began in 1999, although the Bridgestone Invitational is the direct successor of the World Series of Golf, which began in 1976. The Cadillac Championship superseded a long-standing event at the Doral Resort in Florida after the 2006 season. It previously traveled to different venues around the world.

In April 2009, it was announced that the HSBC Champions, first held in 2005, had been awarded World Golf Championships status, starting with the next tournament in November. It is now the fourth tournament on the worldwide calendar.

In April 2011, the Sunshine Tour announced that it would host a fifth WGC event starting in 2012. The event, to be known as the Tournament of Hope, is to be linked to awareness of poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa. In February 2012, it was announced that the tournament would first be played in 2013. In October 2012, it was announced that the tournament will be played but it will not be a WGC event.

The WGC concept was introduced to create a larger group of golf tournaments with a high global profile by bringing the leading golfers from different tours together on a more regular basis, rather than just for the major championships. At the time the publicity spoke of a "World Tour" which might develop on the basis of the World Championships and the majors. That concept seems to have been dropped, but the four events usually attract entries from almost all of the elite players who are eligible to compete and they rank among the most prestigious and high profile events outside of the majors. The prize money on offer is very close to being the highest for any professional golf tournament. Winners generally receive 70 to 78 Official World Golf Ranking Points, the most awarded for any tournament apart from the major championships, which carry 100 points, and The Players Championship, which is allocated 80. Tiger Woods has dominated these tournaments, winning 16 of the first 32 events and winning at least one event each year from 1999 to 2009.

From 2000 to 2006 the men's golf World Cup, a tournament for teams of two players representing their country, was a World Golf Championship event, although it was not an official money event on any tour. Beginning in 2007 it is no longer part of the World Golf Championships, but it is still played, and is currently known as the Mission Hills World Cup.

From 2000 to 2006 most years two or three of the four events were staged in the United States and one or two were staged elsewhere. Starting in 2007, all three of the individual World Golf Championships events were played in the United States, which attracted criticism from some golfers, including Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, and in the media outside the United States. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem responded by insisting that playing in the U.S is best for golf as more money can be made there than elsewhere. This criticism has been muted since the 2009 elevation of the HSBC Champions, held in China, to full WGC status.