Australia Out As A WGC Site

Bernie McGuire reports that Australia is likely not going to be hosting a WGC event anytime soon.

Former Australasian PGA Tour boss and now tour consultant, Andrew Georgiou, said there was simply not enough corporate backing in Australia.

"While it would be nice to see a World Golf Championship return to Australia, the simple fact of the matter is that there is not the sponsorship money in Australia to host one of the events,'' Georgiou said.

One of the three WGC tournaments - the $US7.5m American Express Championship - is taking place this week at The Grove course just north of London and WGC officials indicated yesterday a fourth will join the schedule from 2009 and be staged in China for a 10-year period.

This week's AMEX championship is the seventh staging of the event that was first played and won by Tiger Woods in 1999 in Spain.