The HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai is to become a World Golf Championships event in November – prompting Tiger Woods to confirm he will attend. The event’s prize money will go up from £3.4m to £4.8m and the US Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, speaking on behalf of the International Federation of PGA Tours, claimed that the staging of a WGC event in Asia is “one of the most significant steps ever taken in the globalisation of golf”, adding: “World-class golf has arrived on this continent and the map of the golf world may never look the same.”
The event runs from 5–8 November, a week before Woods plays the Australian Masters. The world No1 has already played in the tournament twice, finishing runner-up to England’s David Howell in 2005 and to the South Korean Yang Yong-eun the following year.
“I am looking forward to returning to Shanghai this November,” he said. “It is an event that symbolises 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. I enjoy playing around the world when possible and having a WGC event in China is very important to the global growth of the game.”
“The tournament certainly has a very special feeling and many of the players already referred to it as Asia’s Major,” Sergio García, the defending champion said. “Now there is no doubt about it – it is officially recognised as being a cut above the rest.”
“I think this is an excellent decision by the International Federation of PGA Tours,” Padraig Harrington added. “The HSBC Champions established itself immediately on the players’ schedules and has gotten better and better every year.”
The tournament will remain in Shanghai next year to coincide with the city hosting the World Expo, but future venues have yet to be determined. The WGC series, introduced in 1999, had been criticised for not travelling outside the United States more. This season’s events are all there again, with the Match Play straddling February and March in Arizona followed shortly by the CA Championship in Florida, and the Bridgestone Invitational in Ohio this August.
