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Event Information:
The Volvo World Match Play
Championship is the current name of
an annual match play men's
professional golf tournament. From
2009 the event will be played at the
Finca Cortesín Golf Club in Casares
near Málaga, Spain, having
previously been played at Wentworth
Club near London. The event is
traditionally played in the autumn,
usually in October but sometimes in
September, and is an official money
event on the European Tour.
The
tournament was founded by sports
agent, 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.
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 (for the
first time since 1999), and the
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.
But in January 2007 HSBC activated a
break clause in its ten year
contract and withdrew from
sponsorship after the 2007 even.
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