Ogilvy critical of the WGC series

US Tour news: There is a certain irony in the decision to move the WGC Accenture World Matchplay Championship from La Costa - its home since 1999 with the exception of one year - to the Dove Mountain South course at Gallery GC, Tucson, Arizona from next year in search of a more favourable climate in February.

This year the La Costa layout at Carlsbad has been swathed in sunshine, unlike many of the previous years when torrential rain often reduced the largely flat layout to a soggy mess. In moving organisers believe they will be reducing the risk of inclement weather marring the the event. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem explained: "There were a variety of factors, but I think the two leading ones probably, one was weather, consistent weather. We had a lot of golf to play this week. Generally speaking the weather has cooperated. But we had, on balance, a little better weather conditions in Tucson.

"Secondly, in terms of, frankly, the best use of our premium championships in terms of where they're played, we just finally concluded it didn't make sense to play two of them, a World Golf Championship, with all the best players in the world, and the invitational at Torrey Pines, which attracts also a stellar field, in the same market. At the end of the day it wasn't something we thought we should continue."

The decision to move it somewhere else in America and in doing so, to pay little more than lip service to the fact these tournaments are supposed to come in under the global banner of a World Golf Championship, seems a little incongruous.

Several players during the week refused to be drawn on the subject with the exception of Geoff Ogilvy, who defeated David Love 3 and 2 in Sunday's final. The Australian was forthright when asked whether he believed the prestigious WGC events fulfilled their remit of moving the best players around the world to compete on different continents.

"I don't have anything good to say about it (the WGC series). No, it doesn't move around like it should to be honest with you . . . I thought the idea at first was World Golf Championships, I mean that suggests they're going to be played everywhere, and they tend to not be played in very many places."

Finchem tried to be selective when the same question was put to him. "We would like to see World Golf Championships played around the world, and we have seen that the first eight years. I think we've played on five different continents. Today the World Cup continues to be played this past year in Portugal, and this coming year in Barbados as part of the World Golf Championships."

The American failed to add this particular tournament doesn't attract too many of the world's top golfers. He added: "We may add another WGC. I think the fundamental, however, is not that. The fundamental is to bring to the world via incredible television capability, to 145 countries, all the best players in the world playing. The reality is that Sergio Garcia is seen when he's played in a WGC by more people than typically any other event he plays, regardless of where it is.

"Ernie Els gets more global television exposure when he plays here this week than he does when he plays in China or Hong Kong. So it sounds good to say if you played more places you'd reach more people, but the reality is that that's not always the case.

"The second part of that is these championships are staged at an elite level. They're staged at a level that can pay for worldwide television . . . at a level that can pay significant prize money . . . and at a level that certain things are done on-site for the fans. That costs money. The American marketplace is best suited to generate those kind of resources."

The WGC must therefore be about money and television and the ideal of spreading the game and making the top players more accessible is likely to continue only through the medium of television. It also reinforces the belief that Ireland, through Mount Juliet, was lucky indeed, even though the tournaments were televised and superbly attended. The unspoken reason may lie elsewhere, in that it's down to the fact many of the US players will not travel abroad, or at the very least will be selective.

The evidence, using just the Accenture World Matchplay championship, can be gleaned from the 2001 tournament staged in Melbourne. It was by design rather than accident it returned to the US given the number of top players that didn't travel.

In the consolation match played over one round at Carlsbad, Zach Johnson beat fellow American Tom Lehman by one hole to secure third place.