The Volvo World Match Play Championship is the current name of an annual match play men's professional golf tournament. From 2009 the event will be played at the Finca Cortesín Golf Club in Casares near Málaga, Spain, having previously been played at Wentworth Club near London. The event is traditionally played in the autumn, usually in October but sometimes in September, and is an official money event on the European Tour.
The tournament was founded by sports agent, Mark McCormack, as a showcase for the players he managed. The inaugural event in 1964 was won by Arnold Palmer, who was McCormack's first client. The calibre of the winners has consistently been very high, with the majority of the tournaments being won by players who have been ranked in the top two in the Official World Golf Ranking or its predecessor Mark McCormack's world golf rankings.
In 2003, the tournament was given a major overhaul. Greatly increased sponsorship was secured from the largest British based bank, HSBC, and the winner's prize was increased to £1 million, which was then easily the largest in world golf (although the Nedbank Golf Challenge had had a $2 million first prize from 2000-02). In 2004, the field was increased to sixteen players, all of whom need to play eight rounds of golf to win, to eliminate the advantage previously given to seeds. A qualifying system based primarily on performances in the four majors, replaced the invitations of the past. World ranking points were allocated to the event (for the first time since 1999), and the championship became an official money European Tour Order of Merit event - not however the actual prize money, as the first prize is far higher than for the other events on the tour, but scaled down amounts intended to be more proportionate. In recent years Americans have tended to decline their invitations. In 2005, no Americans took part at all, and with stalwart Ernie Els injured and Vijay Singh and Sergio García also absent, the field was one of the weakest seen at the event, with just one player from the world top ten. The 2006 event had a considerably stronger field with six of the world's top ten players headed by the world's top two ranked players Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk. But in January 2007 HSBC activated a break clause in its ten year contract and withdrew from sponsorship after the 2007 even.
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