File under ‘as if we didn’t already know.’ The PGA Tour will end the World Golf Championships’ series, according to Golfweek.

Ironically the WGCs were launched by the PGA Tour in 1999 to offset Greg Norman’s attempt to form a world tour and will now be ending due to Norman’s LIV Golf tour.

The WGCs originally launched with three events (Championship, Invitational, Match Play) and expanded to four tournaments in 2000 with the launch of the ‘World Cup’ – a team event, which was eventually replaced by the ‘Champions’ tournament.

The idea was to bring together the world’s best players with limited fields, no cuts and larger purses (sound familiar?).

The WGC-Champions, contested in Shanghai, China, has not been played since 2019 due to the communist country’s COVID-19 restrictions, while the WGC-Invitational and WGC-Championship were removed from the tour schedule after 2021. Only the Match Play event remained in 2022 but that will end after the 2023 edition.

“As we navigate the many moving parts related to the structural changes to the 2024 PGA Tour schedule, discussions are ongoing in regards to the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play beyond this year,” said the PGA Tour in a statement to Golfweek.

“We remain focused on putting on an incredibly successful 2023 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play event for our fans and we expect to announce details about the future of the event when they are available.”

According to a report by Golf Digest, Austin CC apparently demanded more money from the tour to host the annual match play event which “did not go over well at tour headquarters.”

• WGC Series was a four-tournament elite series offering richer purses, limited fields and no cuts.
• Tournaments included Championship, Invitational, Match Play and Champions.
• Dell signed a four-year extension in 2019 which runs through 2023.
• Austin CC has hosted the Match Play event since 2016 with Dell as the title sponsor.
• Houston apparently wants to move from the fall series to a spot in the spring rotation and could be a replacement.
• Houston is also eyeing a spot on the LIV Golf league schedule for 2024.