The World Golf Championships are a group of four annual events for male professional golfers created by the International Federation of PGA Tours.
Three of the events are for individual players, and are official events on both the PGA TOUR and the PGA European Tour:
These events all began in 1999. The objective was to create a larger group of golf touraments with a high global profile by bringing the leading golfers from different tours together on a more regular basis. 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 three 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 tourament. Winners receive 38 Official World Golf Ranking Points, the most awarded for any tournament apart from the major championships, which carry 50 points, and the Players Championship, which is allocated 40.
The other event is the WGC-World Cup, which is for national teams of two golfers, and was first played in 2000. It takes place after the end of the PGA TOUR and PGA European Tour season, and the price money does not count as official money on those tours. Far more leading players tend to opt out of this event that the other three, and the prize fund is smaller.
In most years two or three of the four events are staged in the United States and one or two are staged elsewhere.
External link
Official site
Last updated: 05-29-2005 07:33:28
