"11. Four Chinese players"

They finally got around to satisfying IMG's deal points to announcing the WGC-HSBC event in China and the field qualifications offer what I think may be a couple of buried ledes:

3. Winners from 23 PGA TOUR cosponsored events in 2009, which shall be identified as those 23 PGA TOUR events from 2008 with the highest Official World Golf Ranking Strength of Field Rating, having a rating of 40 points or more.

Bear with me. First this:

11. Four Chinese players

And? Nothing else? Just "Four Chinese Players" as a category?

So stringent!

Alright here's what I found interesting:

13. If necessary to fill the field to 78 players, additional Tournament Winners from the 2008 HSBC Champions through the event preceding the 2009 WGC-HSBC Champions, which shall be identified as those winners of events from the 2007 HSBC Champions to the 2008 HSBC Champions with the highest Official World Golf Ranking Strength of Field Rating, having a rating of 40 points or more, not listed in an above category:

2008/2009 Events    Winner
Bob Hope Chrysler Classic     Perez, Pat
Buick Open
Justin Timberlake Classic
John Deere Classic
Wyndham Championship
RBC Canadian Open
Fry's.com Open
Valero Texas Open
Turning Stone Resort Champ.
Casio World Open           Oda, Koumei
Viking Classic
BMW Italian Open
Madrid Masters
Estoril Open de Portugal           Hoey, Michael
Mitsubishi Diamond
US Bank Championship
Munsingwwear Open
Japan Tour Championship

World Ranking gurus out there, I'm wondering if this is the first time that the line has been so publicly drawn with event winners needing to come from events "having a rating of 40 points or more?"

If so, seems it could set an interesting precedent for other world events or majors?

"I'm sure they're thrilled in China"

Doug Ferguson considers the state of the World Golf Championships and it isn't pretty.

The longer the "World" Golf Championships are anchored in America, the more they look like any other tournament. As more PGA Tour events keep raising their standards, the more they rival WGC events that were meant to be special.

"I don't see them moving forward," Adam Scott said, an opinion shared by many of his peers. "It's not different for the money.

"They're not playing them on great golf courses. It's just another event. They've lost some of the lustre they once had."

How could he say that about The Gallery or Mount Juliet Conrad or Valderama or The Grove or Bellerive or Capital City Club?

"It would be great if, like their name, they actually were held around the world," Lee Westwood said. "It's a disgrace.

"You might as well call them the World Golf Championships of America. They're just like any regular U.S. tour event. It's a good way for getting players to come to the states more regularly. But they're not World Golf Championships."

Doug's being charitable here...

The WGCs lost their momentum the first time all three were held in the United States, in 2003, particularly an atrocious site north of Atlanta that delivered all the excitement of an NFL preseason game. A rotation that once featured Spain, Ireland and Australia now has settled into Arizona, Miami and Ohio.

There is a practical side to this. The corporate sponsor footing the bill gets more value from the U.S. market. TV money comes from America, and ratings shrink when a tournament is held five times zone away, if not more.

"While it's called an international golf series, it probably hasn't represented that in terms of venues," said Gary Beckner, a senior marketing director for Accenture. "But for the most part, the players have been truly international."

Accenture suffered when Match Play went to Australia in 2001. It was held a week after the Christmas holidays, and some two dozen players didn't bother going.

"The contiguous U.S. works well for us," Beckner said.

Finchem will argue that the "world" component of this series comes from the players in the field and television beaming their birdies and bogeys into homes of golf fans around the globe.

"I'm sure they're thrilled in China," Westwood said.

"Sadly, he doesn't pay much attention to that, and never has."

In his Scotland on Sunday column, John Huggan lets Greg Norman rant about the usual stuff. I still enjoy reading it even if he's made many of these points before. Well, he's taken it up a notch on the topic of his good buddy, Tim Finchem.

"I can't fault Finchem in some respects," said the two-times Open champion in Dubai. "You have to say he has done a good job in getting prize- money up in America, so that players from all over the world are going there to play. But when you are the leader of the free world, as the United States is, you have responsibilities beyond that. President Bush has global responsibilities on his shoulders, whether he likes it or not, because of the power of the position he is in. It is the same for Finchem.

Ouch, a Bush-Finchem analogy. Has Greg turned on 43 too?

"He has a responsibility not to forget the rest of the world. He must support the likes of the European Tour, the Australian Tour and the South African Tour. Which has not been happening. Finchem has to be aware that every decision he makes has an impact around the world. Sadly, he doesn't pay much attention to that, and never has."

Now now, he $ee$ great potential in China!

On the subject of the world No.1, Norman is just one of a growing number of informed observers despairing of the fact that, Woods and one or two others apart, the sharp end of the professional game is populated by an ever-growing number of golfing robots devoted to hitting basically the same shot, time after tedious time.

"Because I grew up in an era when we could manoeuvre the ball maybe 60 feet in the air either way, I wonder at the game today," he sighed. "You don't see that any more. There were a lot of shot-makers in my day. And now, even though the very best players still come through, technology has bunched the players up. Tiger, of course, is the exception that proves the rule.

"I see so many players making a lot of prize-money without ever winning a tournament. In my day, you could make the cut, and still not win any money. You had to play hard to get anywhere. I realise people don't like hearing the old war stories about what we went through, but the powers that be in golf - the USGA, the R&A and the PGA Tour - should put some restrictions on the equipment used by the best players in the world."

They should, but that would require an ounce of integrity!

"I would rule the golf ball back to 1996 specifications, number one," he declared. "It's a crying shame that so many of the world's great courses have been lengthened by 400-500 yards for one week a year. The cost of that is just ridiculous, especially when you multiply it 30 or 40 times. That money could be better spent elsewhere. Golf is too expensive, and getting more expensive.

"I look at the Open at St Andrews two years ago. There were four tees there not even on the golf course. And I think of golf courses like Merion or Inverness. There is a long list: Royal Melbourne and Royal Sydney in Australia. The men who designed those great courses must be rolling over in their graves. I know I would be, in their position."

World Golf Championships Now Concentrated In World's Center

That new WGC event in China is no longer a WGC...

That means all the WGC events this year will be played in the United States — the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona next month, the CA Championship at Doral in Miami and the Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone in Akron, Ohio.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and European tour chief George O'Grady said last fall that Mission Hills would host the World Cup for two years, then get a World Golf Championship the following 10 years.

It was not immediately clear how the announcement Monday affects those plans.

Oh I think it's pretty clear!

Finchem Is Talking Bunkum...!?

Alan Campbell in the Sunday Herald may have to pay for a Tour media guide after this little WGC inspired column:

...what is despicable is the conduct of PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem. Not content with ruling the roost over a circuit which is the Premiership to Europe’s Coca-Cola Championship, this myopic golf controller has annexed the so-called world golf championships for the greater good of Uncle Sam. Next year all three WGC events will be staged in the United States, just as they will in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Finchem’s defence? “They’re staged at a level which can pay significant prize money,” said the PGA Tour commissioner. “That costs money.”

Pausing only to let this staggering sliver of logic sink in, Finchem continued: “The American marketplace is best suited to generate those kind of resources. I think that’s why, historically, three of the four Major championships are in the United States.”

Finchem is talking bunkum, as the American marketplace wasn’t involved in the evolving of the Majors. He compounds his error by inviting the question: given that the United States already has the cream of world golf’s championships, why does it need to selfishly syphon off the next tier?

And...

The unwillingness of the Phil Mickelsons and Davis Loves to rack up transatlantic air miles is, along with the financial muscle of US corporations and the dictates of the American television networks, the reason why the world golf championships have become almost as big a misnomer as the World Series in baseball.

John Daly and Woods are just about the only two high profile Americans prepared to leave the country for anything other than the Open Championship. While both are paid handsomely in appearance money, they see the bigger picture. “There should be at least one [WGC] every year somewhere other than America,” said Woods. “Obviously the market is huge here, but it is a world game and any opportunity to get the best players to other parts of the world is a great way to grow golf.”

The PGA Tour have cemented the WGC events into their revamped schedules, which start from next year. It stinks, but then money usually does.

More WGC Talk

An AP story on the lack of world in World Golf Championships.

 "We're in the planning process," Finchem said. "We would like to play a full-fledged World Golf Championship in the fall in Asia. It's premature to say where, but our intent is to do something next year."

This might be the only avenue Finchem has to Asia, a market he covets.

Covets it so much that I understand from a reliable source that they've already signed on with a site in Asia.

So why are they waiting to announce it? 

WGC's and World Cup of Golf

A thought/question.

In all of the 2007 PGA Tour schedule hoopla, I don't recall any stories about the reduction to three World Golf Championship events with the apparent elimination of the World Cup of Golf.

The World Cup had been played every year (but one) since 1953. Granted, it had not been much of an event lately, but it's another longtime event given back burner status in the new setup. More importantly, it offered a format other than 72-holes of individual stroke play, which is way too common in professional golf.

The WGC's were considered one of Commissioner Finchem's brilliant moves. The only casualty to date appears to be the loss of Greg Norman from Champions Tour events, otherwise they have served their purpose.

Yet, in the new deal the Tour appears to have gone from four WGC events to three, and more importantly, the remaining WGC's seem anchored in Miami, Tucson and Akron for the foreseeable future.

Did anyone write about this? Notice? Care?
 

World Match Play Final Set

John Huggan provides an entertaining recap of Saturday's World Match Play and previews the finale between Michael Campbell and Paul McGinley.