The 1st through 3rd annual World Golfers Championships were held at the magnificent, unique resort in West Palm Beach, Florida, the PGA National Resort and Spa.
PGA National Resort has hosted more major golf championships than any other resort in the USA. PGA National has 5 tournament-ready courses designed by Nicklaus, Palmer, the Fazios and Karl Litten and is just minutes away from the Palm Beaches of Southern Florida.
World Golfers Championship was played at The Champion, then ranked top 10% difficult courses in America and home of the infamous Bear Trap, The Palmer (or The General), a links-style course, The Haig, PGA National’s first course and The Squire, Tom and George Fazio’s “thinking man’s course.”
The Champion, hole 18The Champion, the most storied of all the PGA National courses, was the site of the 1983 Ryder Cup, the 1987 PGA Championship, as well as the permanent home for the PGA Seniors’ Championship from 1982-2000. Today it features the Honda Classic!
The Haig was the first course opened for play at PGA National Resort. Walter Hagen, the course’s namesake, suggested that others should “stop and smell the roses.” In tribute, rose bushes bloom at the 150 yard markers on the course.
The Squire holes 10, 11 and 12The Squire is named after the immortal Gene Sarazen, the first golfer ever to win the professional Grand Slam.
Tom and George Fazio refer to The Squire as “the thinking man’s course,” requiring golfers to test their accuracy with fairway woods and/or long irons off many tees and precise short iron shots into the greens.
The Palmer was the last of the original four courses built at PGA National.
Opening early 1984 it was designed by our very own Patron Arnold Palmer and reminds golfers of its Scottish roots with routing links, undulating fairways, numerous grass bunkers and the shared common green by Holes 8 and 12.
The Palmer hole 18
At the inaugural World Golfers Championship Volvo celebrated its lengthy association with professional golf, followed by open “Round Table” discussions about business in Russia hosted by Boris Pankin, former Minister of the USSR, who was a strong supporter when Sven Tumba officially introduced the game of golf to the former Soviet Union.
The 2nd annual World Golfers Championship covered the importance of Sports in Businesses with speakers such as Bill Christian, Olympic Gold Ice Hockey, Rolf Edling, Olympic Fencing Champ, Ingemar Johansson, World Heavyweight Boxing Champ and Lou Nanne, Olympic Ice Hockey Champ, Walter Bush, President, USA Hockey, René Fasel, President Int’l Ice Hockey Federation, Austin Sealy, Int’l Olympic Committee, Olof Stenhammar, CEO, Stockholm 2004 Olympic Bid Committee and Art Berglund, Int’l Ice Hockey Federation.
At the 3rd annual World Golfers Championship our motto ““Sport Promotes Friendship & Business” was in focus with the theme Interaction of Sport, Business & Diplomacy. Karl Stenström, Chairman of Perstorp Corporation introduced speaker Count Wilhelm Wachtmeister, fm Swedish Ambassador to the USA, who shared his experiences from World Leaders, Celebrities and Sports People.
1995-1997 World Champions
World Team Champions
1997 USA: Kent Berg, Johan Rosen
1996 NOR: Roar Wist, Michael Jeansson
1995 GER: Jürgen & Claudia Rassmann
World Individual Champions
1997 GER: Ken Starck
1996 GER: Claudia Rassmann
1995 CHN: Cui Zhiqiang
Two-person Scramble
1997 USA: Tim Christian, Harold Machen
1996 BRZ: Kalle & Christian Stenström
1995 SWE: Tomas Persson, Gunnar Andersson