Stars hail WGC's leap into Asia as golf's landmark moment

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Last month's announcement that, for the very first time, long-term rivals and current World No. 1 Tiger Woods and World No. 2 Phil Mickelson will be competing side-by-side on Asian soil, confirmed beyond all doubt that November's World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in Shanghai will be a landmark moment for the sport.

The addition of Asia's first Major winner Yang Yong-Eun -- also the only Asian to have won the HSBC Champions -- into the world-class field adds to the sense that 2009 will go down in history as the year that Asian golf truly took a step onto the global stage.

"This is the line in the sand," said three-time Major winner Padraig Harrington, another to have confirmed his place in the field at Sheshan.

"When we look back in 10 years and talk about the development of golf in Asia and the globalization of golf in to Asia this will be the moment we look at," insisted Harrington, the 2007 and 2008 (British) Open Champion.

Those sentiments were backed up by 19-year-old phenomenon Danny Lee, who is almost certain to be the youngest player in Asia's first WGC event.

"It's historical," declared the Korean-born New Zealander, who booked his place in Shanghai when he became the European Tour's youngest ever winner by claiming the Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth, Australia as an amateur earlier this year. "It's a major event. It's a really special thing."

"For sure it is going to be an historic moment," agreed Jeev Milkha Singh, the Indian star whose win on the Japan Tour's 2008 Golf Nippon Series JT Cup gets him into the field at Sheshan.

"The first WGC tournament, the HSBC Champions in China, speaks that golf is big in Asia and the world recognizes and that's why it's coming to China. It is growing really fast in China, plus the course, with the atmosphere from the crowds that come out to watch the tournament is growing and is going to get bigger and bigger in years to come," said the 37 year old whose wins on three different tours last year typify the ever-increasing globetrotting nature of golf.

Meanwhile former US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy argued that the WGC's move to China is just as significant for the golf world in general, pointing out that the potential size of the Asian market dwarfs anything the sport can currently claim. "More people can watch the WGC-HSBC Champions than can watch the Players Championship or any other big tournament in the US. It's hard to comprehend for us but it's true, because of the numbers in that time zone," said the 32-year-old Australian, who this year claimed his third WGC title in four seasons when he won the Accenture Match Play Championship.

"The exposure for golf is pretty cool and it's cool for China that they're going to get to see players like Tiger and Phil and Sergio and Retief and all these people on a regular basis. That can only help golf as a sport in China. Golf is big enough to thrive globally and this is a big step in that direction for sure."

Even among players who have typically played all their golf in the United States there is solid support for taking a WGC event outside golf's heartlands of America and Great Britain and Ireland for the first time since 2002.

"We should be playing around the world; especially Americans. We get kind of spoiled playing the PGA Tour and that's all we're really exposed to," said Sean O'Hair, the winner of the PGA Tour's Quail Hollow Championship in May.

"For me, it's good for me, it's good for my golf game and it's a good experience to go over and play sport all around the world. From what I hear, not just in China, but in Japan and everywhere, Asian's love golf. It's huge in Asia. Us Americans we love our golf, but I think they're crazy about it!"

Like the Texas-born O'Hair, Dustin Johnson, the winner of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, says he is looking forward to taking his place in the field in China, although the 25-year-old South Carolina native admits that he is not well-traveled enough to truly realize that Asia's first WGC event has such historical significance.

"I never really thought about it like that, but it definitely makes sense. You know I grew up here (in the US) and played golf here all my life, so travelling abroad and playing abroad is something a little bit new to me," Johnson admitted. "Guys from Europe are used to playing all over there and they understand it a little more and understand what it means for golf a little better than some of us. They have a little more knowledge about what's going on than some of us."

Current World No. 3 Paul Casey, who was enjoying the most successful season of his career until a chest-muscle injury forced him out of the recent WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship, typifies the reaction among players more familiar with a globetrotting routine.

"If you look back in history the four Majors weren't what they are now," Casey added.

"For example, the PGA Championship changed from match play to stroke play, I think, in 1959. It's not that long ago. Fifty years ago it was different. Who is to say that it couldn't be different in another 50 years from now? Things are not going to happen overnight, but we might have five majors in the future! An Olympic gold medal might be valued on an equal level to a Major championship! It might be valued even more in 50 or 100 years time, we just don't know. But if you don't make those moves now then we will never find out. 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!"