Jim Furyk will be a match-play captain again, this time against the world.
The PGA Tour Champions announced this week that the inaugural World Champions Cup Dec. 7-10 at the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton will bring together 50 and over players from the U.S., Europe and an International team for three days of match play.
The European captain will be Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland and the International captain Ernie Els of South Africa. Furyk and Clarke are past Ryder Cup captains and Els captained the 2019 International Presidents Cup team. All three will be playing captains.
The event will be aired on ABC and ESPN. Peter Jacobsen, a seven-time PGA Tour winner and TV golf analyst will be the chairman.
“The World Champions Cup is a tremendous addition to the game of golf and the PGA Tour Champions schedule,” said Miller Brady, president of PGA Tour Champions, in a statement. “This competition will give fans a new and unique opportunity to see the game’s greatest stars compete against one another on a global stage. Ernie, Jim and Darren are worldwide ambassadors for golf, and it will be thrilling to watch them and their teammates compete for the chance to win the inaugural World Champions Cup.”
Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland during the first day of The Senior Open Presented by Rolex at Sunningdale Golf Club on July 22, 2021, in Sunningdale, England. (Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images)
The format will be doubles and singles lasting nine holes for each match, for a total of 24.
Each of the teams will have five additional players, all active PGA Tour Champions members. Automatic invitations for each team will be extended to the top two point-earners in the WCC’s career-based rankings, with two additional positions going to Chairman’s picks.
The final spots for Team USA, Team Europe and Team International will be play-in positions based on the year-end Charles Schwab Cup standings.
The Concession Golf Club was named for Jack Nicklaus’ famous gesture of conceding the final putt in the 1969 Ryder Cup to Tony Jacklin of England, resulting in the first tie in the event’s history. Nicklaus and Jacklin collaborated on the design of the course, which hosted the PGA Tour’s 2021 World Golf Championships-Workday Championship and the 2015 Men’s and Women’s NCAA Division I championships.
Furyk, won 17 times on the PGA Tour and has played in seven Presidents Cups and nine Ryder Cups. He was the U.S. Ryder Cup captain in 2018.
“I am honored to lead Team USA onto the global stage that the World Champions Cup represents,” Furyk said in a statement. “It has been such a treat being part of Team USA at different stages throughout my career. I look forward to having the chance to captain Team USA and compete against Ernie and Darren, with whom I walked fairways for more than 20 years.”
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