The WGC-NEC Invitational is one of the annual World Golf Championships for male professional golfers. It is sanctioned and organized by the International Federation of PGA Tours and the prize money is official money on both the PGA TOUR and the PGA European Tour. The event was established in 1999, and was a sucessor to the "World Series of Golf", which was also sponsored by NEC.
The WGC-NEC Invitational
The current event has field of about seventy-five players, which is roughly half that for a standard professional golf event. Basically, invitations are issued to the top few dozen golfers in the world. The specific eligibility criteria are as follows.
- Playing members of the last named United States and International Presidents Cup teams.
- Playing members of the last named United States and European Ryder Cup teams.
- If not otherwise eligible, players ranked among the top 50, including any players tied for 50th place, on the Official World Golf Rankings as of Monday of tournament week.
- If not otherwise eligible, tournament winners of worldwide events since the prior year's NEC Invitational with an Official World Golf Ranking Strength of Field Rating of 100 points or more.
- If not otherwise eligible, the winner of one selected tournament from each of the following tours: Australasian Tour, Southern Africa Tour, Asian PGA and Japan Golf Tour.
All of the events up to 2004 were held in the United States, all of them except the 2002 edition at the Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.
The World Series of Golf
Up until 1998, there was a tournament called the World Series of Golf, which was also played at Firestone Country Club for many years, and sponsored by NEC. It was founded as a four man invitational event in 1962, but later became a PGA Tour event, and eventually one of the leading events on the Tour. For many years a victory in the World Series of Golf gave a golfer a ten year exemption on the Tour, which was the same as was granted for a victory in a major championship at that time, and twice as long as is given even for winning a major now. The field consisted of the winners of all the high status men's professional golf tournaments around the World in the previous twelve months. This was quite different from the criteria for the WGC-NEC Invitational listed above, but produced much the same sort of global field.
WGC-NEC Invitational winners
World Series of Golf winners
External link
Official site