Location | Shanghai, China |
---|---|
Established | 2005, 12 years ago WGC event since 2009 |
Course(s) | Sheshan Golf Club |
Par | 72 |
Length | 7,261 yards (6,639 m) |
Tour(s) |
PGA Tour (since 2013) European Tour (since 2005) Asian Tour (since 2005) |
Format | Stroke play |
Prize fund | $9,750,000 |
Month played | November |
Aggregate | 264 Dustin Johnson (2013) |
To par | −24 Dustin Johnson (2013) |
Hideki Matsuyama | |
2017 WGC-HSBC Champions |
The WGC-HSBC Champions is a professional golf tournament, held annually in China. Inaugurated in 2005, the first seven editions were played at the Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai, then moved to the Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen in for a single year in 2012. It returned to Sheshan Golf Club in 2013.
Since 2009, it has been a World Golf Championships event. Played in November, it is the fourth tournament on the WGC calendar along with the WGC-Dell Match Play, the WGC-Mexico Championship, and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational events, all in the United States. The field consists primarily of players who have won the top rated tournaments since the previous WGC-HSBC tournament, supplemented by other leading players in the world rankings and money lists of the major tours.
The WGC-HSBC Champions has the highest prize money in East Asia. Originally it was US$5 million, and grew to 7 million when it got WGC status and 8.5 million in 2013. Only the CIMB Classic and BMW Masters have had similar purses in the region.
Originally, the event was sanctioned by four —the European, the Asian, and Sunshine Tours and the PGA Tour of Australasia— of the six constituent tours of International Federation of PGA Tours at that time. Invitations were issued to all players placed amongst the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). Also invited were players who had, during the calendar year preceding the event, captured at least one tournament title on a sanctioning tour, or had finished the preceding season amongst the top twenty in the European Tour's Race to Dubai (the Order of Merit standings through 2008) or amongst the top five in the Order of Merit standings of any of the other three sanctioning tours. Players who had finished first in the Order of Merit standings in any of three developmental tours—the Von Nida and Challenge Tours and the winter swing of the Sunshine Tour—were also invited. Finally, starting berths were also reserved for eight Chinese amateur and professional players to be selected by tournament organizers and sponsors, whether by qualifying tournament or not.