Are we facing the twilight of the World Golf Championships? The WGC They were installed on the world calendar, as we know them today, 22 years ago (since 1999) and there is no doubt that they have brought shine to top-level golf season after season, as well as undoubted prestige to all its champions. But times change and the strategy of the alliance PGATour/European Tour Today it is going on other paths in which the WGC are running out of space. Thus, suddenly, almost without eating or drinking it, it turns out that the edition that begins tomorrow from WGC Fedex St. Jude Invitational will be the last one. Of course, world golf dresses up to say goodbye, because of the world top 50 only missing Number One, Jon Rahm, and Number 44, Christiaan Bezuidenhout.
We are looking, therefore, for the last winner of this tournament, recent and direct heir to the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, the only World Championship that has been held every year, from 1999 to the present day, since the WGC HSBC has been played since 2009 , what was now the Mexico Championship was canceled in 2001 due to bad weather and the WGC Match Play was not played last year (2020) due to the pandemic.
It will therefore be the 23rd edition of this WGC and only one player has been present in the previous 22 and will also be in this week’s. There is only one ‘brave’ who will say goodbye to this appointment with a full number of participations and it could not be other than Phil Mickelson. It is yet another example of his incredible consistency in excellence, as well as his persistent ambition, tenacity and, of course, his talent and overwhelming capacity for work.
Much attention to the following data: according to the official records of the World Ranking, the Californian plays his tournament number 705 valid for the world ranking, contested over five different decades (from 1988 to the present day), a true bestiality only within the reach of golf myths.
The name of the second player with the most participation in this WGC is not too surprising. Is about Sergio garcia, which already adds 19 presences and this week it reaches the twentieth (it is the only Spanish in the list of participants). Lee Westwood Y Jim Furyk They come next, with 18 presences, although the English will be this week and the American will not.
Will be able Sergio garcia to dismiss this WGC with a triumph and thus settle the great subject of Spanish golf, which does not treasure any triumph in these World Championships, just now that its survival is seriously endangered? The precedents of Spanish in the TPC Southwind (Memphis, Tennesse), scene of the test since 2019, the year in which WGC Fedex St. Jude took over from WGC Bridgestone, do not invite optimism. For now, Sergio has gone through this par 70 route: in 2019 he finished in 40th place and last year in 35th. In addition, García has also played twice in his career in the Fedex St. Jude Classic at TPC Southwind and in none of them did he manage to make the cut …
Justin thomas defends title and has the possibility of getting a hat trick in this tournament (he won in 2018 and 2020). In fact, only two players have won this WGC more than once. One is the aforementioned Thomas and the other is Tiger WoodsWho else, who has won it eight times, more than a third of the total (no comment: there are no adjectives to qualify such a monstrosity). This week there are seven players in the field who could achieve, just in the year of their extinction, their second triumph in this tournament: Stewart Cink (who won it in 2004), Adam Scott (2011), Rory McIlroy (2014) , Sean Lowry (2015), Dustin Johnson (2016), Hideki Matsuyama (2017) and Brooks Koepka (2019).
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WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational 2021: dates, times and where to watch live on TV
