Putting the 'World' into 'World Golf Championships'

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Australia's Geoff Ogilvy has some very good reasons why Asian golf fans should be thrilled about getting a World Golf Championship and Geoff Ogilvy should know, because the 32-year-old world No. 10 is the second-most successful golfer in the 11 years of WGC play.

His reasons? You could count them off, but you'd run out of fingers. There are 16 in total, and they're the number of times, in just 30 starts that Tiger Woods has won a WGC title.

"Tiger's made a habit of winning them," states Ogilvy simply. "Whenever big players win tournaments it raises their status to a whole new level."

True, when Tiger wins the world takes notice, but this year, of all years, is different. This is the year, 2009, when golf changed more in 12 months... some might say more than in all the other years put together... and turned itself from what critics would claim is a rich gentlemen's pastime into a truly global sport.

"Giving WGC status to an Asian tournament would be a remarkable shift of focus for world-class tournament golf in any year, but when you add all of the other landmarks it's hard to think of another top-level sport that has had such a quantum shift in such a short period," declared HSBC's Giles Morgan whose Shanghai-based HSBC Champions event has the honour of taking its place among the top table of tournament golf.

"Yang Yong-Eun becoming Asia's first Major winner is an event of seismic proportions for the sport, which on its own would have had an enormous impact on the sport's evolution. You only have to look at Korea's "Dragon Ladies" super-generation which has emerged 10 years after Se-Ri Pak's first Major to see that. Yet, all of this could pale into comparison if golf's Olympic status is confirmed. The long-term effects of that could be like every emerging and developing golf market getting its first Major winner all in the same year."

The impact might be felt in China as much as anywhere else. While the sport is growing exponentially there, it is yet to be fully embraced and accepted in the way that for example tennis is. Olympic status will change that, as it will presumably bring the government of the sport into the mainstream of the State General Administration for Sport. Yet as Tiger himself recently pointed out, it's not as if golf is starting from nothing.

"There are more tournaments right now in China than there are in Great Britain!" the world number one said.

"I just think that it is a wonderful market for us to go to and it's certainly booming. It is unbelievable the amount of golf courses there are under construction in China and how many people are now playing the game."

All of this comes at a time when the players themselves are becoming more internationally minded. Phil Mickelson's 2007 HSBC Champions win was the first significant international win of a career that, certainly at its prime had been focused almost entirely in the United States and Europe. It's significant that Shanghai will see "Lefty" and his long-term nemesis Tiger lock horns for the first time in the same tournament in Asia.

"Golf needs to grow internationally and to be able to move a World Golf Championship to China especially is terrific because it will hopefully increase the interest and increase the exposure of the game of golf throughout the country and we need to get the young kids in China interested in the game, start them playing so that they can continue to develop and grow the game internationally."

Intriguingly the volatility of the top of the official world rankings, Tiger excepted of course, also seems to suggest something of a generational shift with the precocious Woods' age group, including England's Paul Casey and Spain's defending HSBC Champions Sergio Garcia, now in their early 30s and approaching their peak. Meanwhile a heady international mix of 20-somethings, including Columbian Camilo Villegas, Korean-American Anthony Kim and German Martin Kaymer stand seemingly one big win away from crashing into the top ten.

Tournament organizers are expecting the vast majority of the world's top 20 to be in Shanghai and the overall quality of the field comprised almost exclusively of this year's big tournament winners will the highest ever seen outside the golf heartlands.

Anyone still searching for a reason to get excited could do worse than listen Englishman Paul Casey, who had charged up to number three in the world this year until a rib muscle injury slowed his progress.

"It's Asia's Major!" he beamed.

"It really is a phenomenal golf event. It's world class. It's great to expand the game of golf and expose new people to the best players in the world. The tournament has always been world class and Shanghai is one of the greatest cities I've ever been to. It's important that this happened. I'm glad it happened while I'm playing the game of golf, because I think it's exciting, and I think it would be pretty sweet to be the first person to win a WGC event in China as well!"