Volvo World Match Play Championship: Difference between revisions
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==Winners== |
==Winners== |
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'''HSBC World Match Play Championship''' |
'''HSBC World Match Play Championship''' |
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*2007 [[Ernie Els]]- {{RSA}} |
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*[[2007 HSBC World Match Play Championship|2007]] Final between [[Ángel Cabrera]] & [[Ernie Els]] |
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*2006 [[Paul Casey]] - {{ENG}} |
*2006 [[Paul Casey]] - {{ENG}} |
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*2005 [[Michael Campbell]] - {{NZL}} |
*2005 [[Michael Campbell]] - {{NZL}} |
Revision as of 15:01, 14 October 2007
This article is related to a current sports-related event. For information on the topic, see 2007 HSBC World Match Play Championship. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The last updates to these articles may not reflect the most current information. |
The HSBC World Match Play Championship is the current sponsored name of a match play golf tournament played annually at Wentworth Club near London. In 2007 it is reverting to its traditional month of October after being played in September for a few years. Previous sponsors have included Piccadilly, Suntory, Toyota and Cisco.
History
The tournament was founded by Mark McCormack as a showcase for the players he managed. The inaugural event in 1964 was won by Arnold Palmer, who was McCormack's first client. The calibre of the winners has consistently been very high, with the majority of the tournaments being won by players who have been ranked in the top two in the Official World Golf Ranking or its predecessor Mark McCormack's world golf rankings.
The event consists of 36-hole matches played in a single day. For many years it was a twelve man event, with four seeded players being given a bye in the first round. It was sometimes felt that this was unfair, as an unseeded player needed to string together eight successful rounds in four days to win, twice as many as in a stroke play tournament, whereas a seeded player only needed six successful rounds to win.
For its first forty years the tournament was an unofficial one, highly regarded by golf fans in Britain and many other countries outside the United States, popular with players, and happily coexisting with the European Tour, at whose home course it is played, but not taken into account on an official tour money list, and offering no World Ranking Points. The introduction in 1999 of the 64-man WGC-Accenture World Matchplay Championship, which selected its field on the basis of the World Rankings, was a blow to the prestige of the older event, whose exhibitional aspects, with a small invited field, were emphasised by contrast.
The current Championship
In 2003, the tournament was given a major overhaul. Greatly increased sponsorship was secured from the largest British based bank, HSBC, and the winner's prize was increased to £1 million, which was then easily the largest in world golf (although the Nedbank Golf Challenge had had a $2 million first prize from 2000-02). In 2004, the field was increased to sixteen players, all of whom need to play eight rounds of golf to win, to eliminate the advantage previously given to seeds. A qualifying system based primarily on performances in the four majors, replaced the invitations of the past. World ranking points were allocated to the event, and championship became an official money European Tour Order of Merit event - not however the actual prize money, as the first prize is far higher than for the other events on the tour, but scaled down amounts intended to be more proportionate. In recent years Americans have tended to decline their invitations. In 2005, no Americans took part at all, and with stalwart Ernie Els injured and Vijay Singh and Sergio García also absent, the field was one of the weakest seen at the event, with just one player from the world top ten. The 2006 event had a considerably stronger field with six of the world's top ten players headed by the world's top two ranked players Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk. [1]. But in January 2007 HSBC activated a break clause in its ten year contract and will withdraw from sponsorship after the 2007 event, leaving the future of the tournament in doubt. [1]
Winners
HSBC World Match Play Championship
- 2007 Ernie Els- South Africa
- 2006 Paul Casey - England
- 2005 Michael Campbell - New Zealand
- 2004 Ernie Els - South Africa
- 2003 Ernie Els - South Africa
Cisco World Match Play Championship
- 2002 Ernie Els - South Africa
- 2001 Ian Woosnam - Wales
- 2000 Lee Westwood - England
- 1999 Colin Montgomerie - Scotland
- 1998 Mark O'Meara - United States
Toyota World Match Play Championship
- 1997 Vijay Singh - Fiji
- 1996 Ernie Els - South Africa
- 1995 Ernie Els - South Africa
- 1994 Ernie Els - South Africa
- 1993 Corey Pavin - United States
- 1992 Nick Faldo - England
- 1991 Seve Ballesteros - Spain
Suntory World Match Play Championship
- 1990 Ian Woosnam - Wales
- 1989 Nick Faldo - England
- 1988 Sandy Lyle - Scotland
- 1987 Ian Woosnam - Wales
- 1986 Greg Norman - Australia
- 1985 Seve Ballesteros - Spain
- 1984 Seve Ballesteros - Spain
- 1983 Greg Norman - Australia
- 1982 Seve Ballesteros - Spain
- 1981 Seve Ballesteros - Spain
- 1980 Greg Norman - Australia
- 1979 Bill Rogers - United States
Colgate World Match Play Championship
- 1978 Isao Aoki - Japan
- 1977 Graham Marsh - Australia
Piccadilly World Match Play Championship
- 1976 David Graham - Australia
- 1975 Hale Irwin - United States
- 1974 Hale Irwin - United States
- 1973 Gary Player - South Africa
- 1972 Tom Weiskopf - United States
- 1971 Gary Player - South Africa
- 1970 Jack Nicklaus - United States
- 1969 Bob Charles - New Zealand
- 1968 Gary Player - South Africa
- 1967 Arnold Palmer - United States
- 1966 Gary Player - South Africa
- 1965 Gary Player - South Africa
- 1964 Arnold Palmer - United States
Multiple winners
Through the 2006 event, the following players have won the World Match Play Championship more than once:
- 6 times: Ernie Els
- 5 times: Seve Ballesteros and Gary Player
- 3 times: Greg Norman and Ian Woosnam
- 2 times: Nick Faldo, Hale Irwin and Arnold Palmer
Qualification criteria
This is the current qualification system. The largest category is criteria 3, which is based on the major championships, but criteria 4 and 5 give favourable treatment to members of the European Tour.
1. The defending champion.
2. The World Number One on the Official World Golf Ranking as at March 31 in the year of the Championship.
3. The leading ten available players, not qualified under criteria 1 or 2, from the HSBC Major Championship Rankings as at the conclusion of the PGA Championship. These rankings reflect the actual World Ranking points earned in the four majors.
4. The leading two available European Tour Members from the HSBC European Tournament Rankings, not qualified under criteria 1, 2 or 3. These rankings reflect the actual World Ranking points earned by European Tour Members in the following seven events:
- HSBC Champions
- Dubai Desert Classic
- Johnnie Walker Classic
- BMW PGA Championship
- BMW International Open
- French Open
- Smurfit European Open
5. The leading two available European Tour members, not qualified under criteria 1, 2, 3 or 4, from the European Tour Order of Merit, as of three weeks before the Championship.
The defending champion is seeded #1, while the rest of the seeds are determined by the Official World Golf Ranking.
Media coverage
The World Matchplay currently gets shown live by BBC and it also gets broadcast in Ireland by Setanta Ireland.
References
- ^ Don't Bank on HSBC, sportbusiness.com, 31 January 2007.