The International Federation of PGA Tours announced that it has entered into an agreement with Mission Hills Golf Club in China to host the World Cup in 2007 and 2008, and to host a World Golf Championships event at Mission Hills through to the year 2018.
The World Golf Championships-Mission Hills World Cup will be held from November 21-25, 2007, at the José Maria Olazábal-designed Olazábal Course at Mission Hills Golf Club in China, located just 30 minutes from the Hong Kong border, and will mark the first time the World Golf Championships have visited China.
George O’Grady, Executive Director of The European Tour, commented on behalf of the International Federation of PGA Tours: “We congratulate the Mission Hills Golf Club on its commitment to host the World Golf Championships–Mission Hills World Cup in China in 2007 and 2008.
“Since their debut in 1999, World Golf Championships have visited some of the world’s best golf courses, and we are proud to add the superb Olazábal Course at Mission Hills to this distinguished list.”
“We are delighted to announce the World Golf Championships-Mission Hills World Cup for the next two years and look forward to working with Mission Hills Golf Club in staging a World Golf Championships event China for many years,” said US PGA Tour Commissioner, Tim Finchem. “The Mission Hills World Cup has held an esteemed position within the golf world for decades, and has done as much to promote golf around the world as any event in the sport.”
The Mission Hills World Cup is part of the World Golf Championships, a series of global events that bring the world’s best golfers together in competition in various formats at a variety of venues.
Up to 28 nations, including China as host country, will participate in this prestigious event, which will offer a purse of US$5,000,000.
The World Cup of Golf became the fourth event of the World Golf Championships in 2000 when the International Federation of PGA Tours entered into an agreement with the International Golf Association, the organization which operated the World Cup beginning in 1953.
The United States has won a record 23 World Cups with David Duval and Tiger Woods winning at Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2000 when the World Cup was first played as a World Golf Championships event.
The Mission Hills World Cup will mark the event’s second visit to Mission Hills. In 1995, the World Cup of Golf was contested there with the United States team of Fred Couples and Davis Love III winning by 14 strokes over Australia. In his winning speech, Love said of the event: “The World Cup is truly a big deal around the world. With 32 countries involved it is like the Olympic Games competition.”
This year, the World Golf Championships–Barbados World Cup will be contested at Sandy Lane Resort in St. James, Barbados. The team of Stephen Dodd and Bradley Dredge led Wales to their second title in the event last year in Portugal.
The 2008 World Golf Championships-Mission Hills World Cup will be played from November 20-23. Dates, field criteria and format for a World Golf Championships event at Mission Hills will be announced at a later date.
The Olazábal Course is one of ten courses at Mission Hills Golf Club. It will be the second Olazábal design to play host to a World Golf Championships event. The 2004 World Cup was played at the Real Club de Golf de Sevilla in Seville, Spain.
At the end of this year World Golf Championships will have been played in ten different nations. The series only previous visit to Asia was in 2001 when the World Cup was played at Japan’s Taiheyo Club in Gotemba City.
