CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Call it a WGC with training wheels.
In a step hailed this week by golf administrators as a major development in the emerging Asian market, the four-year-old HSBC Champions event in China this week was upgraded to elite World Golf Championship status, although the stamp of approval from the PGA Tour contains a not-so-small asterisk.
The HSBC Champions, sanctioned by several other global circuits, including the European Tour, is the biggest event in Asia and will feature a heightened $7 million purse when it is staged Nov. 5-8. But while the perks for invitees will include competing against a big league field in a no-cut event with Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia, the winner's rewards will be mostly financial in the States.
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| Anthony Kim says the Asian golf world is hungry to see PGA Tour players showcase their talent. (Getty Images) |
Because of concerns that the cash-heavy, limited-field event would badly skew the PGA Tour money list with only one week remaining in the season, the HSBC victory and any tournament earnings will be considered unofficial in the U.S. Moreover, the winner won't get the customary two-year PGA Tour exemption, either, or a berth in the Masters.
Like a plate of chow mein, after first blush, it sorta leaves you hungry for more.
"Having a huge tournament with that purse at that point in the year, we just felt like it might be too much access for a [non-member] player," said Stewart Cink, a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board. "There are already complaints from our players that World Golf events provide too much access to players who, all they have to do is play well in a few no-cut tournaments, and they can get their card."
The winner of the HSBC will receive $1.2 million and enjoy status on tours elsewhere -- the International Federation of PGA Tours technically administers the events -- but the biggest member of the organization is pulling its punches for now. The U.S. stamp of approval has a huge caveat.
"We felt that official money in the middle of the Fall Series wasn't the appropriate way to go," PGA Tour communications chief Ty Votaw said.
It could certainly skew the pot. A player finishing near the top of the no-cut HSBC could bump a player in the top 30 on the U.S. money list with a week left in the season, costing the latter a possible Masters berth. Or bump a lower-tier player out of the top 125 completely.
But setting aside the qualifiers and myopic view for a more global perspective, for the U.S. tour to have finally stick a permanent toe in overseas waters is historic. The WGC events have been staged exclusively in the States for three years, for which the tour "has received no small amount of criticism," Votaw admitted. The WGCs have hardly been worldly.
"The word in the name says it all," Garcia said. "I am not saying they should all be around the world. Obviously the U.S. is the key and deserves some of the big tournaments, but it's nice to have a few sprinkled around."
Players who have competed at the HSBC event, which will be staged in Shanghai through 2010 at minimum, said the tournament is definitely ready for prime time. From that standpoint, upgrading it to WGC status was simple -- a pedigree had already been established.
"They are, without a doubt, ready for it," Trevor Immelman said. "I think it will be huge. It's definitely been an event that has been on the radar for a while. It's a great city, a global city, and there's much less of a language barrier than people would think."
That said, it will be interesting to eyeball how many American tour regulars venture to Asia, located 12 time zones from the East Coast. Moreover, if the HSBC doesn't offer an official U.S. win and the money doesn't count, that certainly lessens the luster for some.
Here's another potential complication for the marquee types: As a U.S.-sanctioned event, players no longer will be allowed to accept appearance fees, as Woods has done twice in the past.
"I don't think the guys are going to travel," Retief Goosen said. "I think it will be pretty much the same sort of field we have seen there in the past -- mostly European, with the Chinese and a few American players. I can't see Tiger and them going all the way there to play that.
"Tiger and Phil [Mickelson] used to go play it because they got a $2 million appearance fee, and we won't see that anymore. I think that might change some guys' minds to go.
"It was a pretty big purse before, with $5 million, now going up to $7 million. Maybe the $2 million they were going to give to Tiger is now extra prize money."
Nice zinger, mate.
In another development, Votaw said that the HSBC this fall won't have any Stateside competition, unlike the three other WGCs staged earlier in the year. Three so-called "opposite events" are held those weeks for rank-and-file players who don't qualify for the limited-field WGC events, which number fewer than 80 players. The Shanghai event will have a projected field of 78 players, Votaw said.
The week of the HSBC, scheduled as an off week by the PGA Tour when the 2009 schedule was first released, was being considered for a possible new tournament in Sea Island, Ga. However, the sponsorship picture on that front remains muddled, so there will be no competing event.
"I don't now that we've made a formal statement on that front, but the HSBC, that's what's going into that slot," Votaw said. The HSBC could produce some collateral damage in the States for those tournaments already relegated to the second-tier Fall Series. The Viking Classic in Mississippi precedes the HSBC and the Children's Miracle Network Classic at Disney World follows, representing the final two events on the PGA Tour schedule.
Already light on stars because they follow the conclusion of the FedEx Cup series, the Fall Series duo could suffer even more of a talent drain because of the geography involved with the China trip.
"There is no argument that can be made that it helps those tournaments," Cink conceded.
Cink, a Ryder Cup regular, has played at Disney several times over the years and says traveling 12 time zones to enter the U.S. season finale after playing in Shanghai would prove difficult and then some.
"It would be almost impossible to do both," Cink said.
But the news this week centers on the bigger global picture, clearly, and possibly, quite rightly. Still, it didn't seem fathomable that a star-starved tournament like Disney, which has been around since 1971, could become even more marginalized.
But Cink said the HSBC, conceivably, could eventually be relocated on the calendar and thus get reassessed as far as earning official status for U.S. concerns.
"We will continue to look at it, for sure," Cink said. "Maybe if the date changes, or it becomes a highly successful event that everybody supports. We'll have to wait and see."
Anthony Kim, a U.S.-born player of Korean heritage who has played in several Asian locales, including the HSBC, said the response on the civilian end can already be written. It will be a smash hit.
"The Asian golf world is so hungry to invite players from the PGA Tour, any tour, the European Tour, to come over and showcase their talent," Kim said. "Any time we have the opportunity to go over there and grow the game, it can do nothing but help."
