WGC means Who's Gonna Care?

This week the leading 64 players in the world will assemble in the desert outside of Tucson, Arizona for the fifteenth edition of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, it will be the 47^th individual World Golf Championship played since the series was formed in 1999. But if you ask most people in and out of sport what the World Golf Championships were it is likely they would not be able to tell you, the four events currently lack status and exposure out-with of golf and it can be argued that 14 years after the first one their place as the next level behind the Majors is seriously under threat.

The idea of World Championships in Golf began a long time before 1999, specifically in 1962 with the World Series of Golf at Firestone Country Club and in 1964 with the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth Club just outside London, England. In 1960 Mark McCormack created IMG (International Management Group) an his first client was Arnold Palmer, winner of the 1958 and 1960 Masters along with the 1960 US Open the 30-year-old was the best golfer in the world and with the help of McCormack would become one of the world's most recognizable athletes through television and advertisements and endorsements of popular products.

McCormack added Jack Nicklaus in 1962 and Gary Player shortly after, along with several other less well-known golfers of the era and in order to showcase his stable of players McCormack created the World Match Play Championship in 1964. For the next 40 years the championship became one of the most sought after titles in world golf, with 35 of the 40 champions either having already won or going on to win at least one Major title. The World Match Play was a flagship event for McCormack and true World Golf Championship.

In 1994 there was a genuine chance that the golfing landscape would be changed forever, a breakaway World Tour led by Greg Norman and FOX Sports (Rupert Murdoch) was planned and ready to start until pressure from the PGA Tour, including potential sanctions on players who competed in the World Tour events meant an overall lack of support from the players and the series folded before it even got started. FOX planned to broadcast the tour's events on their worldwide group of television channels.

The plans for the tour outlined an initial 8 tournaments built around the Major Championship schedule featuring events in Canada, Japan, Scotland, Spain and four in the United States, all with prize funds of $3million with $600,000 awarded to the winner of each event (First prizes on the PGA Tour ranged from $126,000-$320,000 in 1994). The SONY World Rankings would be used to determine the field with the top thirty eligible and the sponsors would invite 10 additional players, each player would receive a travel allowance of $50,000 and the player of the year would receive a bonus of $1,000,000. The tour didn't get started and it seemed that golf's tours would continue to operate in a very introverted manner.

Fast forward two years to the 1996 Presidents Cup at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia and the world's major tours are planning a “World Tour” of their own, but in a slightly different guise. The PGA Tour, European Tour, Japan Golf Tour, Sunshine Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia executives met to discuss the world ranking system and a series of tournaments at world championship level to enhance the structure of professional tour golf.

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 majors. At the time the publicity spoke of a "World Tour" which might develop on the basis of the World Championships and the majors. The “World Tour” hasn't developed and it could be said that tours are further apart, especially the PGA Tour and European Tour with their competing FedEx Cup and Race to Dubai, if anything these series have lessened the impact and strength of the World Golf Championships.

When they were introduced they had a $5million prize fund with $1million awarded to the champion, this was double the winners cheque at the majority of PGA Tour events in 1999 and the championships stood out as unique, exciting and significant.

The date is Wednesday February 24 and the first tee shot is struck in the WGC-Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship by Nick Price of Zimbabwe. It was the dawn of a new era, the beginning of the World Golf Championships. The draw was based solely on the official world golf rankings and fans could plot who would play who in each round and the potential final was between world number one Tiger Woods and world number two David Duval. With the fickle nature of match play the two didn't progress past the quarter-finals and the 36-hole final was between world number 25 Jeff Maggert and world number 51 Andrew Magee, hardly the dramatic head-to-head between the top golfers in the world that the International Federation of PGA Tours had hoped for. It was also astonishing that the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth was not chosen to be part of the series, the reasons for that may lay at the door of IMG but more likely at the door of the PGA Tour and the mainly U.S. based modern-day golfer.

But like any new thing it takes time for the series to develop and find its feet, the next two championships were won by Tiger Woods. The NEC World Series of Golf evolved into the WGC-NEC Invitational and a new championship, the WGC-American Express Championship was established in Europe, played at Valderrama Club in Southern Spain, the event was designed to be held on either side of the Atlantic and until 2006 it was. Tiger Woos won 16 World Golf Championships between 1999 and 2008 and 22 players from 10 countries have joined Woods in winning a WGC, only 6 other players have won more than one World Golf Championship since 1999.

The WGC's are viewed with different levels of regard depending upon your origin and the tour you came through as an emerging golfer, Americans who have played their entire career on the PGA Tour regard The Players Championship as the next biggest tournament outside the Majors and actually hold The Arnold Palmer Invitational, Crowne Plaza Invitational and Memorial Tournament with higher status than the World Golf Championships. Jeff Maggert, the winner of the first WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in February 1999 believes that the WGC's have hurt the PGA Tour, ''When I started, the tournaments were very consistent week to week,'' Maggert said. ''Now there seems to be a real up-and-down on strength of fields. That's just the way the Tour has evolved. The World Golf Championships have really hurt the consistency of the rest of the tournaments out here.''

However, if you are from Europe the World Golf Championships are generally unanimously viewed as the next level after the Majors. Lee Westwood said in 2010 “I think The Players probably used to be regarded as the fifth major, and it felt that way back in the late '90s, But since the invention of the World Golf Championships, I think it's actually stepped back from that. They [WGCs] have to go in now before The Players Championship. It's still a big tournament, very prestigious, you get a great field and it's one that everybody wants to win, including me, myself."

Tiger Woods, 2001 Players Champion and 16-time winner of a World Golf Championship between 1999 and 2008, believes that The Players Championship was still the best of the rest saying “I would say I think this event is much bigger, This field is so much deeper, and I think it's played on a much more difficult golf course." When the American golfing media talk about the World Golf Championships they do talk about them in terms of being regular tour events, and that wasn't the intention when they were established. The World Golf Championships need overhauling and this is how I would do it.

Firstly I would double the number from 4 to 8, including some existing PGA Tour events which the best players play in anyway so they wouldn't have to compete in extra events but they could play in other events without adding to their schedule. The PGA Tour already has several invitational tournaments on the tour which are not WGC's but have a field of 120 and a 36-hole cut, they are more WGC's than the current structure. The WGC's should be more like the ATP World Tour's Masters 1000 series of tournaments, which ARE one step down from the Grand Slam Tournaments and DO have worldwide status. The 9 ATP Masters 1000 tournaments are played across North America, Europe and Asia to compliment a global schedule of tournaments, and the WGC's could do the same.

The ATP Masters 1000 series are a series of tournaments which vary in age, some of which are newer events in emerging destinations and some are tournaments with a long and distinguished history, this platform could be repeated by the World Golf Championships and enhance the series of tournaments to be considered by all as the second tier of tournaments behind the Majors. The ATP Masters 1000 series was launched in 1990 as the ATP Championship Series Single Week, with the longest continuing event being the Canada Masters which began in 1881, followed by Monte Carlo Masters in 1897, the Cincinnati Open in 1899, the Italian Open in 1930 and the Paris Masters in 1968, along with newer tournaments in Indian Wells, Miami and Shanghai over the last 25 years. The tournaments all pre-date the creation of the series and have an established fan base, world-class facilities and championship history and tradition.

Secondly I would ensure that every continent with a major tour hosts at least one World Golf Championship each season, South America would continue to be developed by the PGA Tour Latinoamerica ahead of the Olympic Games in 2016 with a view to the continent hosting the World Cup of Golf once every two years in a rotation of Latin American countries including Brazil, Argentina and Colombia.

Thirdly each WGC would count for the money lists of every tour and FedEx Cup points would be awarded, each tournament would be considered an official PGA Tour event and a win would earn the same exemption as any current WGC does under the PGA Tour exemption categories.

Finally the WGC's would be broadcast like Majors, not like PGA Tour events, golf broadcasters from all parts of the world would be welcome to apply for credentials to cover the tournaments on site and work with the production team to provide coverage tailored to their audience. Each broadcaster would be able to present their coverage on site and use their own commentators, on-course commentators would be limited to ensure minimum disruption to play.

The WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship has been played in Arizona since 2007, to me the World Match Play Championship is and always has been the tournament played in the Autumn at Wentworth and I would merge the WGC and the IMG events into a 64-man tournament with the same format as the US Amateur Championship beginning with a 36-hole strokeplay stage followed by the leading 16 players qualifying for a matchplay knockout tournament concluding with a 36-hole championship match on the Sunday. 

If the International Federation of PGA Tours want to play a tournament in Arizona then surely they cannot look any further than the existing extravaganza at TPC Scottsdale. The Waste Management Phoenix Open is the most attended golf event in the world and surely a perfect setting to assemble the best golfers in the world for four days of competition. The Phoenix Open would be one of six additional tournaments which would have a new set of exemption categories exclusively for the World Golf Championships.

The Phoenix Open and World Match Play would be joined by the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard, Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, The Memorial Tournament, HSBC Champions, Tournament of Hope and Australian Masters as World Golf Championships and each would have the following exemption categories:

EUROPE World Match Play October, week following the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship	Leading 64 Official World Golf Rankings
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Phoenix Open* February, week of the Super Bowl Arnold Palmer Invitational* March, week prior to The Players Championship which would move back to March to be played two weeks prior to The Masters Crowne Plaza Invitational* May, played in the week currently occupied by The Players Championship The Memorial Tournament* June, two weeks prior to the US Open SOUTH AFRICA Tournament of Hope* December, first week of December AUSTRALIA Australian Masters* November, Third week of November	Top 50 OWGR, Top 70 PGA Tour, Top 20 European Tour, Top 5 Japan, Asia, Australasia, Sunshine Tours
CHINA HSBC Champions November, first week of November	Winners of tournaments on each tour

*Every WGC would award a remainder of places to qualifiers to complete a field of 120 after entries from the exemption categories are complete

With all of these 8 tournaments counting for both the PGA Tour and European Tour it means that the leading golfers in the world can play all 8 of the events and in addition to the 4 majors would just need to find 3 more PGA Tour events to fulfill membership and just 1 more event for the European Tour.

Tiger Woods' 2012/13 schedule in addition to the 4 Majors and 8 WGC's would see him play in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, Farmers Insurance Open, The Honda Classic, Cadillac Championship, Wells Fargo Championship, AT&T National, The Greenbrier Classic, The Barclays, Deutsche Bank Championship, BMW Championship, THE TOUR Championship, Turkish Open, CIMB Asia Pacific Classic, a total of 25 tournaments throughout the year including 14 which count for the European Tour and 23 which count for the PGA Tour. Despite meeting the requirements for European Tour membership Tiger would have to compete in the DP World Tour Championship if he wanted to win the Race to Dubai, meaning he would have to compete in a total of 26 tournaments in the calendar year.

Rory McIlroy's 2013 schedule in addition to the 4 Majors and 8 WGC's would see him play in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. The Honda Classic, Shell Houston Open, Wells Fargo Championship, BMW PGA Championship, Irish Open, The Barclays, Deutsche Bank Championship, BMW Championship, THE TOUR Championship, Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, BMW Masters, Turkish Open, DP World Tour Championship, a total of 26 tournaments throughout the year including 18 which count for the European Tour and 19 which count for the PGA Tour.

Tournaments like the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Crowne Plaza Invitational, The Memorial Tournament and the Australian Masters are what I would consider to be genuine World Golf Championships, played over 72-holes with a cut on a championship course, a stellar roll of honour and in the case of three of them have an association with a legendary figure of the game. The Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard has been won by the modern big four of Tiger Woods (7), Ernie Els (2), Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh and Fred Couples, Tom Kite (2), Ben Crenshaw, Paul Azinger and Payne Stewart among others, it is a definitive mini-major.

The Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial has been won by a Major Champion in 10 of the last 19 years and has a roll of honour which includes Phil Mickelson, Nick Price, Corey Pavin, David Toms, Zach Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Tom Watson, Tom Lehman, Ben Crenshaw, Ian Baker-Finch, Lanny Wadkins, Jack Nicklaus, Fuzzy Zoeller, Lee Trevino, Tom Weiskopf, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Gene Littler, Dave Stockton, Billy Casper, Doug Sanders, Julios Boros, Roberto De Vicenzo and Cary Middlecoff. The tournament has a long time association with Ben Hogan being at his home club in his home town and he won the inaugural tournament and won five times and finished third in the 1941 U.S. Open played at Colonial.

The Memorial Tournament was established by Jack Nicklaus at the course he designed in his home town, it has been one of the leading invitational tournaments on the PGA Tour and elevation to WGC status would give it a global field and stature worldwide that it deserves, it too has an iconic roll of honour since its first edition in 1976. Nicklaus himself won it twice, Tom Watson (2), Greg Norman (2), Hale Irwin (2), Tom Lehman, Paul Azinger, Raymond Floyd, Hal Sutton, Curtis Strange, Bob Tway, Vijay Singh, Fred Couples, Tiger Woods (5), Kenny Perry (3), Ernie Els and Jim Furyk have all won the tournament hosted by the all-time greatest ever golfer.

The Australian Open is one of the five oldest championships in golf, but since 1979 the Australian Masters has been played in Melbourne and has consistently attracted some of the biggest names in the game to the country, the tournament will be played at Royal Melbourne in 2013. Royal Melbourne is by far the most famous and highly ranked golf course in the country having staged numerous Australian Opens, Australian PGA's, two Presidents Cups and four Heineken Classics, and would help the tournament reach WGC standards. Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Colin Montgomerie, Greg Norman, Mark O'Meara, Bernhard Langer and Gene Littler have all won the title in Melbourne, and the likes of Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo have played in the event on several occasions in the 1980's. It is the perfectly placed tournament in that part of the world to be elevated to WGC standard with the support of Australia's sporting capital behind it hosting the Australian Open Tennis and Australian Grand Prix every year.

These changes would firstly make the series a genuine series of championships, secondly would make them a genuinely global series, thirdly would make the championships significant for all members of all tours throughout the season and finally would elevate the championships to globally significant events in the eyes of people across the world on a par with other World Championships from other sports where the media of the world attend.

I am sure we will be entertained this week by the drama of match play but as we enter the fifteenth year of the World Golf Championships change is needed if we are to see another fifteen years of this series of tournaments which in my opinion are not reaching their full potential.

I will post again this Friday night after the completion of the first three rounds, previewing the Quarter-Finals, and then again on Sunday morning previewing the Semi-finals and then Sunday evening previewing the Final, and then on Monday during the first of my series on the Florida Swing I will have reaction to the outcome of the 2013 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.