Finally, the World Golf Championships are moving outside of the U.S. with the announcement South African will play host to a WGC for five years from 2012.
Sunshine Tour CEO, Gareth Tindall confirmed the new $US 7m event after meetings with the major tours last week in Augusta.
The announcement is also timely given South African Charl Schwartzel captured a first Major in winning the Masters at Augusta.
South Africa has hosted a number of big events including the Presidents Cup and the annual Nedbank Challenge but not a WGC that are second only to the Majors.
“This is without a doubt, the most significant milestone in the history of professional golf in South Africa,” said Tindall.
“It is something that we as the Sunshine Tour have been working on for a long time and the unanimous support that we have received from the other professional Tours around the world confirms the major standing of our players and the Sunshine Tour in world golf.”
The date for the new WGC has not been made public nor a sponsor but it’s only the second WGC that will be played outside of the U.S.
Presently, only the WGC – HSBC Champions event in Shanghai is staged outside of the States that currently stages the other three.
South Africa presently boasts five players with Major Championship status competing around the world – Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman, Louis Oosthuizen and now Schwartzel – and then there’s Tim Clark who next month will defend the Players Championship.
The new WGC event will feature just the 70 top players off the World Rankings and will be closely linked to building aware of poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa.
It also with the theme of ‘Tournament of Hope’.
Meanwhile, the Sunshine Tour also confirmed a consensus had been reached to ensure South Africa’s top players will not miss their national Open which was scheduled to clash with The Presidents Cup from November 16-21 in Melbourne, Australia.
Instead the South African Open Championship, to be defended by Ernie Els, will now be held a week later from November 24-27, with the Alfred Dunhill Championship played from November 16-20.
“The International team in this year’s Presidents Cup is likely to feature at least five South Africans so we wanted to ensure that they have the opportunity to play in both events,” said Tindall.
“So we are delighted that we were able to reach this agreement and must pay tribute to our long-time sponsor Alfred Dunhill for agreeing to the compromise.”
Bernie McGuire, Crail, Scotland.
