Inaugural World Champions Cup Set 

Inaugural World Champions Cup Set

Els, Furyk and Clarke lead respective groups

Bradenton, FL. The World Champions Cup is a first-of-its-kind worldwide workforce golf competitors that might be contested December 7-10, 2023, at The Concession Golf Membership in Bradenton, Florida.

Impressed by the fervour and custom of the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, the World Champions Cup will function Group Worldwide, Group USA and Group Europe squaring off over three days of competitors that may renew among the recreation’s most storied rivalries because the groups battle for worldwide pleasure and world bragging rights. The World Champions Cup is formally sanctioned by PGA TOUR Champions and is ready to air on ABC and ESPN.

The World Champions Cup is an annual three-team, three-day match play competitors that might be contested throughout nine-hole matches that includes workforce codecs and singles play, with factors being earned for every gap gained in every of the occasion’s 24 matches. The workforce with the very best level whole throughout all matches might be topped the champion.

Every of the groups competing within the World Champions Cup will include six gamers, together with the taking part in captains, and all might be lively PGA TOUR Champions members.

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THE CAPTAINS

ERNIE ELS / Group Worldwide

Ernie Els present official PGA TOUR headshot. (Picture by Stan Badz/PGA TOUR)

Els, a South African native, will captain Group Worldwide. The four-time main champion and former World No. 1 was elected to the World Golf Corridor of Fame in 2011. Els touts a powerful resume that features 19 PGA TOUR victories, three PGA TOUR Champions trophies and 47 worldwide wins.

Essentially the most vital of his wins are his two U.S. Open titles (1994 and 1997) and his two wins a full decade aside at The Open (2002, 2012). The Massive Simple has been a member of eight Presidents Cup groups and captained the Worldwide squad in 2019.

JIM FURYK / Group USA

Jim Furyk present official PGA TOUR headshot. (Picture by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR)

Furyk will captain Group USA. Throughout his profession, Furyk has represented Group USA in seven Presidents Cups, 9 Ryder Cups and served as a Ryder Cup captain in 2018.

He’s a 17-time winner on the PGA TOUR, highlighted by profitable the 2003 U.S. Open, and is a three-time winner on PGA TOUR Champions – together with the 2021 U.S. Senior Open.

Furyk reached a profession excessive world rating of second in 2006 and spent 440 weeks ranked within the prime 10 from 1999 – 2016. Furyk can also be the proprietor of the bottom spherical in PGA TOUR historical past, having shot 58 within the fourth spherical of the Vacationers Championship in 2016.

DARREN CLARKE / Group Europe

Darren Clarke present official PGA TOUR headshot. (Picture by Ben Jared/PGA TOUR)

Hailing from Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Eire, Clarke will captain Group Europe. He’s most well-known for his 2011 victory at The Open at Royal St. George’s, the place he completed three strokes away from the sphere.

In 2022 Clarke grew to become the fourth participant in historical past to win each The Open Championship and The Senior Open Championship, defeating Pádraig Harrington by one shot at Gleneagles in Scotland. Clarke has performed on 5 Ryder Cup groups and served as captain in 2016 for Group Europe.

Clarke’s resume consists of victories at two PGA TOUR World Golf Championships occasions and 4 PGA TOUR Champions occasions, in addition to 15 worldwide wins.

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The Concession Golf Membership’s Championship event, April 3, 2022. Picture by Daniel Wagner / WAGNER VISUALS

What prompted you to take part as a captain for the World Champions Cup occasion?

CLARKE: I’m overjoyed to characterize Group Europe as captain for the inaugural taking part in of the World Champions Cup.

I’ve been blessed to be part of many workforce competitions all around the world and it’s really an honor to be chosen as a captain together with Jim and Ernie, two of golf’s all-time nice gamers. That is really a primary of its type world workforce competitors.

FURYK: I’m honored to guide Group USA onto the worldwide stage that the World Champions Cup represents. It has been such a deal with being a part of Group USA at completely different phases all through my profession.

I stay up for having the possibility to captain Group USA and compete in opposition to Ernie and Darren, with whom I walked fairways for greater than 20 years.

ELS: The concept for the World Champions Cup has been a lot of years within the making, and when first introduced with the thought, I undoubtedly wished to be concerned. It’s actually an honor to be a taking part in captain for the internationals.

This type of workforce competitors has given me among the fondest recollections of my profession and I’m positive that is going to be one other particular week. I’m actually wanting ahead to it.

What points of the occasion do you consider will seize the curiosity of each golfers and non-golfers alike?

ELS: I feel golf followers will tune in and luxuriate in seeing us battling one another identical to we’ve in majors, Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups these previous 20-30 years. I feel there’s one thing very interesting about that.

Additionally, the aggressive fireplace that all of us nonetheless have might be very apparent.  All of us need to win and, as each golfer is aware of, whenever you issue within the workforce factor of this occasion and never eager to let your teammates down, that at all times brings an added degree of drama and pleasure to the competitors.

CLARKE: What’s to not like? Golf followers get so excited for the Ryder Cup each different 12 months, and for the Presidents Cup within the years between – the World Champions Cup primarily combines the 2, and it will likely be an annual occasion.

It’s going to be a lot enjoyable getting on the market and competing in opposition to these guys and taking part in with one thing extra on the road than your individual scorecard. Representing Europe has at all times meant a lot to me within the Ryder Cup, and I do know the fellows on Group Worldwide and Group USA really feel the identical manner.

FURYK: The Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup are my favourite occasions that I ever performed in. To characterize one thing larger than your self, to put on the American flag in your sleeve, to be a bunch and play for a workforce is one thing I’ve at all times admired. And we’re bringing that chance again with the World Champions Cup, which I feel followers in every single place will embrace, whether or not they’re on website at Concession or watching on TV around the globe.

I didn’t play rugby, and at 6’2″, 195, I’m the smallest of the captains, so I need no a part of them. However I did play soccer, basketball and baseball rising up and nonetheless have some nice buddies from these groups in my life.

It’s an honor and I’m impressed coming off the Ryder Cup in September as a vice captain, cheering on our workforce. I noticed some wonderful golf from either side. I feel all of us, we loved these occasions.

How have you ever saved the aggressive fires burning all these years?

ELS: I’ve at all times mentioned I like the competitors; it’s what drives me. It’s nonetheless the case right now. It’s simply an innate a part of the skilled athlete’s make-up. It by no means actually leaves you.

FURYK: Now that we’re in our 50s, and I haven’t performed on one in every of these groups since I feel 2014, it’s been 9 years, I miss them, I actually do. I’ve been part of them as a captain or vice-captain, however I miss competing in these, so this chance I feel we’re all grateful for.

I feel the matches are going to be actually pleasant, however they’re going to be extraordinarily aggressive as a result of we’re getting collectively 18 of one of the best gamers on the earth now over the age of fifty. These guys are extremely aggressive, they hate to lose and you’ve got three groups which might be going to need to win the Cup.

CLARKE: It’s fairly easy – I like to win! I’ve been a part of the Ryder Cup eight occasions as a participant or captain, and it has by no means been a problem for me to get enthusiastic about taking part in in an occasion like that.

So I’m thrilled to have one other likelihood to go to battle with my teammates within the World Champions Cup.

Concession Golf Membership is the host website for the occasion. What’s the strongest side of the course and the way do you see your workforce doing on the venue?

ELS: It’s a great-looking course, an excellent check. And it’s fairly becoming that it’s the venue for this new match play occasion, with the title being impressed by Jack Nicklaus’ well-known gesture of conceding the ultimate putt to Tony Jacklin within the 1969 Ryder Cup – one of the iconic moments in our sport; a second that basically sums up the spirit of golf.

We’ve received a robust workforce and I feel we’ve an incredible likelihood at bringing house the trophy.

CLARKE: I feel the course is fabulous. The entire facility’s fabulous. The observe vary, brief recreation space, all the things about it’s fantastic. The golf course has a number of risk-reward holes. There’s a pair stout holes on the again 9 that you simply’re going to need to hit some photographs.

The greens are sectional and really undulating, so for those who get on the fallacious facet of among the slopes with the velocity that they’re going to be at, it’s going to be powerful. You’re going to have alternative to make some birdies with the risk-reward ones.

The very last thing you need to do in a workforce format is to lose a gap to a bogey, however that’s a risk with among the holes we’re going to play. Nevertheless it’s a beautiful venue. It’s going to be very thrilling coming down the stretch there and taking part in these again 9 holes.

FURYK: Jack (Nicklaus) and Tony (Jacklin) did an incredible job designing the course, and it’s a becoming venue for high-level competitors. The PGA TOUR held an occasion there in 2021 and it has hosted the NCAA championships.

I feel it can arrange rather well to offer a problem for all three groups and create alternatives some actually thrilling risk-reward situations. We’ve received an incredible workforce, however the European and Worldwide squads are actually sturdy as properly.

Every of you has had a protracted and distinguished profession in competing in golf on the highest of ranges. What particular second are you most happy with in reaching?

FURYK: Probably the most memorable experiences for me for positive was capturing 58 within the closing spherical of the Vacationers in 2016. However so far as being most proud, I feel I’d need to say my U.S. Open victory in 2003.

Profitable a significant and having my title on that trophy without end is tough to place into phrases. U.S. Open Sunday is at all times Father’s Day – my mom and father have been with us that week and that was my first Father’s Day as a father or mother. Having the ability to share that win with my household was particular.

CLARKE: This may increasingly not come as a shock, but it surely’s undoubtedly The Open Championship in 2011. I had waited so lengthy to win my first main. I felt like after having a number of top-10s in majors early in my profession that I used to be shut, and it took longer than possibly I had anticipated, so it was actually candy.

ELS:  It’s at all times arduous to choose only one second. Possibly my first main win within the 1994 U.S. Open at Oakmont. I used to be solely 24 years of age, I didn’t actually count on to win the U.S. Open so quickly.

That actually was an enormous springboard in my profession; it gave me plenty of confidence and perception that I might win anyplace on the earth.

If you happen to had a mulligan for one particular shot, you want to replay – what’s the shot and circumstances tied to it?

FURYK: In the course of the 2012 US Open on the Olympic Membership, the sixteenth tee on Sunday was moved up about 100 yards. I pulled the fallacious membership off the tee and made a really tentative swing, and hooked it left. That shot led to a bogey and in the end price me the event.

ELS: I don’t actually dwell on issues in that manner. Ifs and buts, they don’t exist in sport.

The World Champions Membership is a workforce occasion. There was motion in recent times, by way of LIV and others, to develop golf into varied workforce codecs of play. How do you see this dimension shifting ahead and what position will the World Champions Cup play on this effort?

ELS: I feel the present construction with most tournaments being conventional stroke play occasions continues to be one of the simplest ways to go for skilled golf, however there’s at all times room for different codecs to exist and thrive.

That’s one of many huge sights of golf, whether or not you’re a participant or a spectator. And I’m excited that we’ll have the ability to play the World Champions Cup yearly. Group golf is plenty of enjoyable and sometimes brings out one of the best within the gamers. We don’t get plenty of probabilities to play workforce golf, so we actually relish it once we do.

FURYK: I’m probably not positive that I can predict the long run and whether or not we’ll see extra workforce golf shifting ahead. There was plenty of change in golf not too long ago.

However I like the format for the World Champions Cup, and I feel it’s terrific that we now have an annual occasion like this that brings collectively all one of the best gamers 50 and older for a novel three-team competitors. I do know guys are actually going to need to win.

CLARKE: The world {of professional} golf has been very fascinating the previous couple of years, with a ton of change and plenty of new concepts. I do know that the World Champions Cup has been in improvement for fairly a number of years, so the thought for this to be a workforce competitors was within the works properly earlier than among the different issues that we’ve seen come up within the golf world not too long ago.

Possibly this can open the door for some extra workforce occasions, however I do like the way in which it’s now, the place occasions just like the World Champions Cup really feel distinctive and particular.

On a private degree — every of you have got gained at the least one main championship. If you happen to might add one other main that you simply didn’t win which one, wouldn’t it be and why?

CLARKE: I assume possibly it will be The Open Championship in 1997 at Royal Troon. I led after the primary two rounds and was inside two photographs of Jesper heading into Sunday. Justin Leonard shot a exceptional 65 within the closing spherical, and Jesper and I completed tied for second.

Had I been capable of win that 12 months, I wouldn’t have felt the identical strain that I did till I lastly gained one 14 years later. Will probably be enjoyable to have Justin and Jesper right here on the World Champions Cup with me. I’m positive we’ll share tales of that Open and most of the different nice battles we’ve had over time.

ELS: I’d need to say The Masters. I had a number of near-misses there and clearly it will have been very particular to win that inexperienced jacket.

FURYK: I might have favored to win all of them, but when I needed to single one out, I’d in all probability say the 2007 U.S. Open. Being so near the place I grew up close to Pittsburgh, it will have been wonderful to win at Oakmont.

I had been in an incredible battle the 12 months earlier than solely to complete tied for second. Oakmont kind of beat everybody up that week, and coming down the stretch on Sunday, each Tiger and I had a shot however neither of us might catch Angel Cabrera. It’s nonetheless one of the memorable experiences of my golf profession.

Ought to senior golf decrease the brink from 50 to a decrease age for eligibility?

FURYK: I feel 50 is the precise age. I gained fairly rapidly a number of occasions as quickly as I grew to become eligible for the PGA TOUR Champions, and also you see that so much with guys who’ve simply hit the age of fifty. So I feel it’s greatest to go away it as it’s.

CLARKE: No, I feel it’s excellent the place it’s. There are many gamers on the PGA TOUR who’re very aggressive properly into their 40s, so I’d be completely satisfied to see the age for PGA TOUR Champions eligibility keep at 50.

ELS: No, I feel 50 is ideal. Gamers are in nice bodily situation for longer as of late, so you may play the common tour properly into your 40s if you wish to.

When folks point out your title what’s the one phrase you hope they use to explain your golf profession and total influence within the sport?

ELS: Individuals will know me as The Massive Simple. That’s superb. The nickname has been connected to me for thus lengthy that I in all probability can’t ever escape it!

Critically, although, I prefer to suppose that I’ll be remembered at the least as a lot for my work with The Els for Autism Basis as I’m for the trophies I gained. That’s the extra significant legacy.

CLARKE: I don’t know, possibly “competitor.” I really feel like for the reason that starting of my profession, each time I’ve gone out on the primary tee in a aggressive occasion,

I’ve been there to win. I feel that definitely confirmed within the Ryder Cup, which we gained 4 of the 5 occasions I performed.

FURYK: Effectively, I feel lots of people in all probability consider me for my uncommon golf swing! I assume that simply goes to indicate you that there’s nobody proper method to swing the golf membership, and I feel I’ve been capable of make my swing work for me all through my profession. I assume possibly I’d say “dedication.”

Golf has plenty of ups and downs, and it’s a recreation that may humble you fairly rapidly. I really feel like I’ve at all times been capable of bounce again from these challenges and been fairly constant all through my profession.

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