The Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf was a 32-man match play golf tournament played from 1995 to 1998. It was the predecessor tournament to the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.[1]
The top eight players available from four different regions, the United States, Europe, Japan, and the "Rest of the World", were selected from the Sony Rankings. Each region played three rounds of match play to determine the regional winner to send to the finals. The regional tournaments were played at various times (February to August) throughout the year at different courses in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.
The semi-finals and finals were played in late December (1995) or early January (1997 and 1998) at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.[2] All matches were played over 18 holes except the final which was played over 36 holes. The purse each year was US$3,650,000 with $1,000,000 going to the winner.
The World Golf Championships were formed in 1999 and Andersen Consulting remained as the sponsor of the match play championship. The format changed to a 64-man tournament played over one week. The field is drawn from the Official World Golf Rankings. Andersen Consulting became Accenture in 2001 and remains the event's sponsor.
| Year | Player | Country | Runner-Up | Score | Third Place | Fourth Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Barry Lane | England | David Frost | 2 up | Mark McCumber | Masahiro Kuramoto |
| 1996/7 | Greg Norman | Australia | Scott Hoch | 1 up | Hisayuki Sasaki | Sam Torrance |
| 1997/8 | Colin Montgomerie[3] | Scotland | Davis Love III | 2 up | Ernie Els | Hajime Meshiai |