(Photo: Mission Hills Group)


Nov 21, 2008

In 1953 when the inaugural Canada Cup and International Golf Championship took place in Montreal, Canada, it was a relatively low-key event with just seven nations taking part.

Since then, it has grown into the greatest world team event in the game of golf, where teams of two players representing 24 countries compete for the prestigious title on some of the finest courses around the globe.

The tournament has been graced by the greatest names in the history of the game. Some winners: Peter Thomson and Kel Nagle (winners for Australia in 1954); Ben Hogan and Sam Snead (winners for America in 1956); four-time winners Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer (for America in 1963-64 and 1966-67); Gary Player and Harold Henning (winners for South Africa in 1965); Tiger Woods and David Duval (U.S. winners in 2000), Japan's Shigeki Maruyama and Toshi Izawa(Japan's winners in 2002), Trevor Immelman and Rory Sabbatini (for South Africa in 2003) and Paul Casey and Luke Donald (English champs in 2004).

It was no coincidence that the first event was held in Montreal, as the Canada Cup and International Golf Championship was the brainchild of John Jay Hopkins, whose name is carried in honor on the trophy that will be presented to the winning team. Hopkins could justifiably be called the founding father of international golf. He was president of General Dynamics Corporation, a company he originally formed, and chairman of its subsidiary, Canadair?hence the Canada Cup.

In those first two tournaments, Argentina, led by Roberto de Vicenzo and Antonio Cerda, won in Montreal, while Australia's Peter Thomson and Kel Nagle won in Quebec in 1954.

In the third year, the competition went to Hopkins' home club at the Columbia Country Club, in Washington D.C., where the U.S. team of Ed Furgol and Chick Harbert emerged victorious.

It was at the fourth running of the Canada Cup and International Golf Championship, in 1956, held at the Wentworth Club, one of England's most traditional and prestigious courses, that the event first received worldwide acclaim.

The greatest crowds ever seen at a golf tournament flocked to the Surrey Club to see Hogan and Snead carry off the Cup for the U.S. Hopkins later proclaimed proudly, "The event has come of age."

Hopkins had seen his lifetime's ambition come to fruition. "Golf is a civilized and a civilizing game," he once said. "It's a game for good neighbors. It has the spice of good competition, while imposing the highest moral restraints."

Hopkins was a keen golfer, who played the game for the friendship and companionship it offered. He wasn't a particularly good player, although he could hit the ball huge distances. But his enthusiasm was all-embracing. Born the son of a Presbyterian preacher in Santa Ana, Calif., in 1893, he graduated from the University of California-Berkeley and entered Harvard University in 1916. He enrolled in the U.S. Naval Reserve in the middle of the World War I and returned to Harvard after the war to complete his degree.

After working as a lawyer in New York and Los Angeles, he finally became president of General Dynamics Corporation, a company responsible for the creation of the first nuclear submarine.

Hopkins' devotion to golf led him to invent the International Golf Association in New York in 1952 with the slogan, "International Goodwill Through Golf."

It may sound corny in today's world where success is everything, but Hopkins believed he could make a difference to how the world worked through the medium of golf.

"It is my hope that the International Tournament will serve through the spirit of the game to bind people together. The thousands, and hopefully, ultimately millions who watch these sportsmen must inevitably recognize the common bond that links all nations."

Hopkins selected the venue for the 1957 event during a 1955 visit to the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Tokyo, Japan. Sadly, he died before he could see the Japanese pair of Torakichi Nakamura and Koichi Ono win the tournament for Japan and create another piece of golf history.

The tournament became known as the World Cup of Golf in 1967, and in 2000 it became one of the World Golf Championships events. When the World Cup went back to Japan, to the Taiheiyo Club's Gotemba Course, in 2001, it produced one of the most dramatic finishes in its long and illustrious history. That year, four teams went into a sudden-death playoff.

South Africa, New Zealand, Denmark and the USA put on a show of epic proportions before Retief Goosen and Ernie Els finally emerged victorious for South Africa at the second extra hole.

Since then, Japan won in 2002, South Africa was again victorious in 2003, England won in 2004 and the team of Stephen Dodd and Bradley Dredge captured the John Jay Hopkins Cup in Portugal in 2005. The last two winners have been the German team of Bernhard Langer and Marcel Siem in 2006 and the Scottish team of Colin Montgomerie Marc Warren in 2007.

In 2007, The International Federation of PGA Tours announced that OMEGA enhanced its involvement in golf with the signing of an agreement to become title sponsor of the Omega Mission Hills World Cup. The 12-year contract, concluded at The European Tour's headquarters at Wentworth, England, announced Mission Hills Golf Club, China, to host the Omega Mission Hills World Cup through to the year 2018. The event, although sanctioned by the International Federation of PGA Tours, no longer falls under the umbrella of the World Golf Championships.

During the more-than 50 years of the competition, 15 different nations have been the proud possessors of the John Jay Hopkins Cup. Nicklaus has been a part of the most victories with six. Nicklaus' four-time playing partner Palmer has the next highest number of wins with five. Fred Couples and Davis Love III equaled the record of team wins by Nicklaus and Palmer by winning four titles in consecutive years between 1992 and 1995.

The legacy Hopkins left the game of golf is immense. As Tim Finchem, Commissioner of the PGA TOUR says, "The World Cup of Golf has held an esteemed position within the golf world for decades. It has done as much to promote golf around the world as any event in the sport."

Over the past half century, the World Cup has been encouraged and supported by presidents and prime ministers who realize the importance of the event and the value it provides in bringing nations together and creating greater understanding around the world.

As Matsutaro Shoriki, a kindred spirit of Hopkins who helped take the World Cup to Japan in 1957, succinctly put it, "If the people of the world learn to play with each other, they will know better how to live with each other."

Over the years, the Board of Directors of the International Golf Association has always boasted leaders from the business and golf world among its ranks. The current Chairman is Jonathan Linen, past Vice-Chairman at American Express. Other current board members include long-time commissioner of the PGA TOUR Deane Beman, former Corporate Executive with Xerox Bill Souders, past CEO of BankOne J.P. McCoy and Tim Finchem, current Commissioner of the PGA TOUR.

With support from the International Golf Association, title sponsors such as OMEGA and Mission Hills, and the guidance of the International Federation of PGA Tours, The Omega Mission Hills World Cup is poised to set the standard for international team competitions for years to come.