HSBC Champions Tournament Elevated to WGC Status

With Tuesday's announcement in Shanghai disclosing that China's HSBC Champions event has been elevated to World Golf Championships status, the lucrative WGC series immediately added a layer of legitimacy to its title by including an international venue in a tournament series that touts itself as a worldwide competition.

Sounding a bit like the villainous Dr. Evil character of Austin Powers fame, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem stopped short of fantasizing about global domination saying, "The map of the golf world may never look the same."

The tournament, which originated in 2005, promises to excite golf's leading officials by further exposing one of the world's largest metropolitan areas and its most populous nation to the game of golf.

"This will be the main force driving the development of the sport of golf in China," said Zhang Xiaoning, general secretary of the Chinese Golf Association.

“It’s impossible to overstate the importance of this moment for Asian golf," said senior vice president and IMG global managing director, golf, Mark Steinberg. "HSBC does a lot for the game of golf and its vision will ensure this will be a very successful addition to the World Golf Championships stable.”

For the time being the HSBC purse is $7 million, $1.5 million short of the amount offered by the other three WGC events; Accenture Match Play, CA Championship and Bridgestone Invitational. But the amount of prestige associated with a premier PGA Tour event combined with the event's global appeal almost guarantees a deep and talented field.

Already committed to play in Shanghai this coming November (5-8) are Tiger Woods and defending champion Sergio Garcia. Also scheduled to compete is reigning PGA and British Open champion Padraig Harrington who had glowing remarks about the tournament.

"The HSBC Champions established itself immediately on the players' schedules and has gotten better every year," Harrington said.

Scheduled to be played at Shanghai's Sheshan International Golf Club, the HSBC Champions pushes professional golf in the direction of a year-round intercontinental tour. With the exception of January and October, when the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup doesn't move to that month, professional golf now has a much more balanced 12-month schedule.

There's a WGC event in February, March and August. The majors are contested in April, June, JUly and August. The month of May belongs to the PLAYERS Championship. The FedEx Cup is played almost entirely in September, and now November has both the Dubai World Championship and the fourth WGC event. PGA Tour Q-School happens in December, and yes it is that important, just take some time to read the stories that come out of that event.

Qualifying criteria for the event is somewhat complicated and can be viewed here . Basically, the 78-player will be filled by winners of major championships, WGC events, winners of the strongest 23 PGA and European Tour events, FedEX Cup and Race to Dubai standings, Japanese Tour events, Australasian Tour events, Asian Tour events and four chinese players, who I'd assume will be invited by the tournament committee. Sounds like it might be the most international field ever assembled.

Establishing the HSBC Champions as a premier event is only possible if the players are receptive to it. A release announcing the tournaments new status on the HSBC Web site stated "The decision has been greated with unanimous appeal by the golfing fraternity."

The acting fraternity president backed up that sentiment.

"It is an event that symbolizes the amazing progress of golf in Asia and its new World Golf Championships status underlines how firmly China has established its place on the global golf calendar," said Woods, who played the event in 2005 and 2006."

“I was delighted to win the HSBC Champions and am looking forward to defending my title in November," said Garcia. "The tournament certainly has a very special feeling and many of the players already referred to it as Asia’s Major. Now there is no doubt about it. It is officially recognized as being a cut above the rest.” 

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