Sanctioned and organized by the International Federation of PGA Tours, the World Cup of Golf is a 72-hole stroke play team event for professional players that pits 2-man teams from different nations against each other in a 4-day contest. The competition format has evolved into playing day one and three as four-ball (better ball), with second and final days designated for foursomes (alternate shot).

It all started as the Canada Cup at Beaconsfield Golf Club in Quebec back in 1953, when the Argentinean pairing of Roberto de Vicenzo and Antonia Cerda overcame six other teams to win the inaugural event. American industrialist John Jay Hopkins founded this tournament with the intention of using the event as a sporting platform for promoting international goodwill.

The man who implemented the broadening of golf's international profile was tournament director Fred Corcoran, who took over operating the 3rd edition of the Canada Cup when it was held at Columbia Country Club in Maryland. Corcoran had promoted and directed PGA events during the 1930s and 1940s (also helping to establish the LPGA and the Golf Writers Association of America) and he’d go on to mastermind the running of the World Cup until he passed away in 1977.

After fourteen annual editions of the Canada Cup, the competition became known as the World Cup in 1967, with 40 teams participating in the end of season golfing spectacular at Club de Golf Mexico, competing for the John Jay Hopkins trophy. Twenty-four World Cups further on (there were no contests held in 1981 or 1986) the event became the World Cup of Golf in 1993 at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Florida.

Finally, seven years later at Buenos Aries Golf Club, the 46th World Cup in 2000 became a World Golf Championship event with twenty-four teams taking part and this was when the format of play was modified from the combined aggregate score of each team determining the overall winner to the current format. In 2007, it lost its WGC status and reverted back to the IFPT, with the original John Jay Hopkins trophy back up for grabs.

From 2011, the World Cup became a biennial affair and some might say it initially lost its way a little. The emphasis changed from team competition to individual scoring in 2013 at Royal Melbourne but that set-up was dispensed with at both the 2016 and 2018 events at Kingston Heath and Metropolitan. Just what the organizers were thinking about at the 57th edition in 2013 is anybody’s guess.

There had been an individual component to the competition actually, going right back to day one. The International Trophy was awarded on forty-five occasions up until 1999 and multiple winners include Jack Nicklaus (3 times) and four other players with two victories: Roberto de Vicenzo, Johnny Miller, Gary Player and Ian Woosnam.

In terms of the main team award, Team USA has won nearly 50% of all the World Cup matches ever held with 24 first place awards as at 2020. Both Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer teamed up to win four of those team titles, as did Fred Couples and Davis Love III. Jack and Arnie also won another two events partnered with different players.

Royal Melbourne Golf Club has hosted the World Cup four times so far (1959, 1972, 1988 and 2013) and the tournament was played three years consecutively on the Olazábal course at Mission Hills in Dongguan, China from 2007 to 2009. Four other clubs have staged the event twice: The Jockey Club in Buenos Aries (1962, 1970); Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina (1997, 2003); Olgiata Golf Club in Rome (1968, 1984), Puerto Rico’s TPC Dorado Beach (1961, 1994).

You will not find the venue for the 1970 event listed below as Real Sociedad Hipica Espanola Golf Club has since moved to another location in Madrid. Three other World Cup courses are also absent from our listings: Dinah Shore course at Mission Hills Country Club in California (1976), the Pierre Marques golf course in Acapulco (now called Turtle Dunes Country Club) (1982) and Tokyo Yomiuri (1966).