It's official: HSBC Champions now a WGC event

It was no secret that the HSBC Champions in November was to become a World Golf Championship event; PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem had inadvertently revealed as such when he said this to Reuters in December: "In today's world, a lot of players go over and play two events in Asia -- the HSBC, which will now become a world golf championship, and also the Barclays Singapore event."

On Monday, it became official, when the International Federations of PGA Tours announced that the Shanghai event would join the WGC fold.

'It is an event that symbolizes the amazing progress of golf in Asia and its new World Golf Championships status underlines how firmly China has established its place on the global golf calendar," Tiger Woods said in this pgatour.com story. "I enjoy playing around the world when possible, and having a WGC event in China is very important to the global growth of the game."

Woods already had committed to playing in the HSBC Champions as well as the Australian Masters the following week.

-- John Strege