A eulogy to the global series

Fellow golf followers, we’re gathered right here right now to have fun the life and instances of a particular set of tournaments. 

At their peak, these occasions attracted the greatest gamers in the world and served as a stunning showcase of their energy. There have been huge romps, tightly contested battles and champions hailing from Australia, Fiji, Europe and past. 

Were the tournaments flawed? Of course they have been — however aren’t all of us? They by no means fairly lived up to their authentic intent, but that didn’t diminish the high quality of the fields and the competitors.

For a number of years, solely the majors have been superior, when it comes to historical past and status. The prizes for our beloved contests have been large, and the trophies honored the legends of the recreation.

Today, although, these tournaments’ destiny is unknown. This week, in Austin, we may be witnessing their last chapter, as they make means for “designated” occasions which have the similar aim however aren’t almost as open to all.

In an ironic twist, they’re being changed at the similar time as the reincarnation of the very factor they sought to defeat — a Greg Norman-backed rival league — has threatened the PGA Tour.

After 24 years, pricey associates, the World Golf Championships have run their course.

How the WGCs got here to be

The WGCs have been born as a counter from then-PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem to Greg Norman’s failed try at beginning a World Golf Tour in 1994.

Two years later, the PGA Tour fashioned the International Federation of PGA Tours by becoming a member of forces with the European, Australasian, Japanese and South African excursions.

The assertion was clear: International golf goes via Ponte Vedra, Fla.

Norman was irate. As the late golf author Tim Rosaforte documented for Sports Illustrated, Norman chased down Finchem at the Presidents Cup shortly after the announcement.

“I told him I was irritated with him,” he advised Roseforte of the encounter. “I’ve had it up to here with Tim Finchem. It’s the end of the rope for me. He hung me out to dry.” 

Norman claimed Finchem advised him he could be stored in the loop, however he didn’t find yourself listening to about the formation of the federation till the announcement.

“I asked him, ‘How long have you known about this?’” Norman mentioned. “He said, ‘About a month.’ I said, ‘F— you.’ Believe me, I’m hot about this one. I told him, ‘You’ve lost me.’”

At the inaugural WGC two and a half years later, nonetheless, Norman, not less than publicly, appeared extra content material with how issues had shaken out.

“I feel good about it because I can see a lot of the ideas that I had and the dreams that I had starting to take place,” he mentioned in February 1999. “I think it is good for the game of golf. It is necessary for the game of golf because there is enough great players now in a global basis that we do really need to see the players playing against each other on a more of a consistent basis.”

Norman, then the Twenty ninth-ranked participant in the world, misplaced in the second spherical of the WGC-Match Play that week to Eduardo Romero. Jeff Maggert defeated Steve Pate on the thirty eighth gap in the finals to turn into the first WGC champion.

Tiger domination

Tiger Woods gained three of the subsequent 4 particular person WGCs and, paired with David Duval, the first of the seven World Cups performed underneath the WGC moniker.

Woods’ dominance in the WGCs is unmatched. He gained 18 particular person WGC titles and left golf followers with a bunch of indelible moments.

Among these enduring reminiscences is his strategy on the 72nd gap of the 2000 WGC-NEC Invitational, his ball falling out of the darkness on high of the pin. With flash bulbs going off like a red-carpet entrance, Woods tapped in the ensuing two-footer for an 11-stroke win, the largest margin of any WGC victory.

It was his second of eight wis at the WGC-Invitational (final generally known as the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, however maybe extra generally remembered as the WGC-Bridgestone and WGC-NEC Invitational).

At the 2006 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, Stephen Ames drew Woods when Ames was the final man in the subject. When requested about the matchup, Ames mentioned of his 10-time-major-winning opponent: “Anything can happen, especially where he’s hitting the ball.”

Woods promptly throttled Ames, 9 and eight.

When requested afterward about his response to Ames’ feedback, Woods responded with a easy, but eviscerating three-word phrase by which the match would turn into recognized by.

“9 and 8.”

Woods didn’t win the occasion that 12 months, however on three different events he did come away with the Walter Hagen Cup, the Wedgewood trophy awarded to the champion.

For all his WGC success, Woods didn’t win every of the 4 particular person WGC crowns. But Dustin Johnson did. Johnson’s six WGC titles — the second most to Woods — spanned seven years, coming in 2013, ’15, ’16, ’17 (two wins) and ’19.

‘Difficult to foresee’

It’s becoming that the WGC-HSBC Champions will likely be the final holdover from the WGC period. The uncertainty about the way forward for that occasion mimics the uncertainty about how that occasion suits into the WGC ecosphere to start with.

When the occasion was promoted to WGC standing in 2009, it was nonetheless not an official cash occasion on the PGA Tour. Even stranger is that solely from 2010 on have been victories in that occasion counted as official PGA Tour wins (sorry, 2009 winner Phil Mickelson!). But that didn’t embrace Francesco Molinari and Martin Kaymer’s wins in 2010 and ’11, respectively, as a result of neither was a PGA Tour member at the time.

Finally, in 2013, after the WGC-Champions turned Ian Poulter’s first stroke-play PGA Tour win, the occasion was made a full-fledged PGA Tour occasion, awarding the winner a three-year membership.

One of the flaws of the World Golf Championships: for too a few years it missed on the World half. In 2017, when the WGC-Championship moved from its longtime dwelling at Doral, in Florida, to Mexico, it was the first time half of the occasions have been held internationally.

Today, the way forward for the WGC-Champions — and by extension the WGCs — is unsure. It hasn’t been performed since 2019 due to Covid-19 issues in China.

At the Players Championship earlier this March, on the heels of an announcement signaling the last 12 months of the WGC-Match Play, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was requested about the destiny of the WGCs and if they’d run their course.

He mentioned the solely remaining contract was the one with the WGC-HSBC Champions.

“We’ve not played there in three years, and it’s difficult to foresee when we would play,” Monahan mentioned.

“I would never say anything has run its course. But I think right now you see the direction the PGA Tour heading in. It is with these designated events; it’s with the concentration of the best players on the PGA Tour competing in them, and I don’t really, I really don’t expect that to change as we go forward.”

The Tour has not but responded to a request for additional touch upon the standing of the occasion.

And then there was one

This 12 months, the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play is the very factor that’s doubtless to vanquish the WGCs: a delegated occasion.

The first two WGCs to meet their finish have been the Championship and the Invitational. 

In 2021, the Championship couldn’t be performed in Mexico due to the pandemic, so it was moved to Florida, with Workday coming in at the final second to sponsor. There was no fanfare over its demise. The event merely wasn’t included in the 2022 Tour schedule.

The Invitational was moved from its longtime dwelling at Firestone in Akron, Ohio, to Memphis when the title sponsorship was taken over by FedEx in 2019, successfully changing the earlier FedEx-St. Jude Classic. 

The WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational lasted simply three years earlier than FedEx moved its sponsorship to the Northern Trust, shifting that occasion once more to Memphis, and defuncting the WGC-Invitational.

That left simply the Match Play on the schedule for the 2021-22 season, with the WGC-HSBC Champions on the docket for fall 2022. But on July 6 the Champions was canceled once more, with no indication of when it could be performed once more.

“We have worked with all Tours, as well as the China Golf Association, on the viability of hosting the WGC-HSBC Champions this fall, but unfortunately the logistical implications forced the difficult decision to cancel the event,” Christian Hardy, the PGA Tour’s senior vp, worldwide, mentioned in a press release at the time.

Thus started the last march towards the doubtless demise of the World Golf Championships as an entire.

WGC = Designated

In early 2022, Norman and his World Golf Tour idea was resurrected in the type of LIV Golf. The Saudi-backed league had already held its first two occasions in the U.S. and was siphoning expertise from the PGA Tour.

You know this half by now: the Tour introduced the 2023 schedule; the Wilmington gamers assembly occurred; and the Tour revised the schedule, creating the elevated occasions, which are actually referred to as Designated occasions.

The function of the Designated occasions ? Get the greatest gamers in the world collectively extra typically. Sound acquainted? It ought to as a result of it’s precisely when Norman and Finchem needed to do in the 90s.

The catch is, in contrast to the WGCs, which had direct avenues for non-Tour members and high gamers from different qualifying excursions, the Designated occasions in 2023, don’t.

This week’s defending champion, Scottie Scheffler, noticed that as a hindrance to the WGC mannequin.

“The part that didn’t make a lot of sense to me about the WGCs was all the other tours that were out here,” he mentioned Tuesday. “I perceive it’s a World Golf Championship, and also you need to get the greatest gamers from the world, however I feel the PGA Tour’s all the time been a spot the place these gamers gathered.

“For instance, when I was coming off the Korn Ferry Tour, and I looked at some of the fields in the WGCs and they were getting guys from — I hate to pick on the Sunshine Tour, but Sunshine Tour, like Australia Asian Tour. There were a lot of ancillary tours out there that were getting into these events, and I was like, Well, I’m playing here in the States and I’m playing really good. Like, we should also get an opportunity.”

In February, then-World No. 32 Thomas Pieters complained on Twitter throughout the week of the Genesis Invitational — the third Designated occasion of the 12 months — about not making the subject as a result of he was not a member of the Tour.

Four days later, he formally joined LIV Golf.

That situation seems to have been corrected by modifications to the Designated occasions for 2024, which can see all of the high 50 gamers in the world eligible, regardless of their Tour membership.

But in contrast to what was in place for the WGCs, there gained’t be exemptions for leaders on different excursions round the world.

Still, the similarities outnumber the variations. Most of subsequent 12 months’s Designated occasions — with the exception of the majors, which the PGA Tour doesn’t run, and the Players — will likely be limited-field, no-cut occasions, identical to the WGCs.

But what of match play?

It turned offcial earlier this month, the Monday of Players Championship week, that this might be the last 12 months of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

With the finish of the WGC-Match Play after this week, there’s a void in the Tour schedule: no extra match play exterior of the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup.

Monahan mentioned at the Players that creating a brand new match-play occasion wasn’t in the playing cards for the 2024 schedule, which nonetheless has but to be launched. But he did say it could be a consideration shifting ahead.

“Match play has been a staple out here. It’s been a staple on the DP World Tour,” he mentioned. “I think that there’s — that will certainly be a consideration as we go forward.”

The greatest match-play format to use on the Tour has been hotly debated since its inception. The WGC-Match Play began as a conventional 64-man, single-elimination bracket.

This led to challenges as a result of there have been probabilities the greatest gamers might have a nasty spherical and never make the weekend, and even previous Wednesday. Scheffler mentioned Tuesday there are fiscal challenges when solely 16 execs are assured to play the weekend.

The construction was tweaked in 2015, following a format comparable to the FIFA World Cup the place gamers are cut up into 16 teams of 4 with every group having one participant seeded 1–16, 17–32, 33–48 and 49–64.

The round-robin format continues from Wednesday to Friday, then goes to a 16-man knockout bracket on the weekend the place two rounds have been performed Saturday, adopted by the semis and finals on Sunday.

The format could have been a slog at instances, with the high 4 finishers taking part in seven rounds in 5 days, however some gamers say they take pleasure in the change of tempo.

“It’s just a unique form of play compared to what we normally do,” Rickie Fowler mentioned Tuesday, including he’d not be averse to seeing the single-elimination bracket again in play once more. “Match play, other than what we see in team events, it’s fun. We obviously wouldn’t want it every week, just because of how volatile it is, and it’s not always the guy that’s playing the best that week. You can hit someone that gets hot for that day and knocks that person out. But yeah, I love match play. I would love to see a form of it be in the future on the Tour.”

World No. 2 Jon Rahm mentioned he might perceive why the event is troublesome to discover a sponsor for. He mentioned the way it’s attainable a hospitality space would possibly solely get to watch quarter-hour of play on Sunday.

But he nonetheless thinks the gamers would take pleasure in having a daily match-play occasion stay on the schedule.

“It’s really the only time throughout the year besides maybe the Ryder Cup where you’re playing truly against the person in front of you,” Rahm mentioned. “Usually it’s very much about you minding your own business and hopefully beating the other 150 players in the field. It’s fun. It’s a lot more aggressive. You see more birdies. You see a lot of things happen.”