| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Location | York, England |
| Established | 1903 |
| Course(s) | Fulford Golf Club |
| Tour(s) | European Tour |
| Format | Match play |
| Prize fund | £40,000 |
| Final year | 1979 |
| Tournament record score | |
| Score | 10 and 8 Henry Cotton (1932) |
| Final champion | |
 Des Smyth | |
| Location map | |
  Fulford GC Location in England  Fulford GC Location in North Yorkshire | |
The British PGA Matchplay Championship was a match play golf tournament that began in 1903 and ran until 1979. Between 1903 and 1969, the event was sponsored by the now defunct British newspaper the News of the World,[1] and was commonly known by the paper's name. Initially organised as the championship of British professionals, the event came to include invited players from other countries – in particular from around the Commonwealth (it was won on four occasions by Australia's Peter Thomson, a record number of victories shared with Dai Rees and James Braid). On occasion, American professionals also took part, notably in 1949 when eight members of the victorious U.S. Ryder Cup side accepted invites to the event, Lloyd Mangrum reaching the semi-finals.
For many years, the event had the richest prize fund in British golf, and certainly in the pre-First World War era, can be considered to have been a "major" championship of its day, as at the time, the British professionals were considered the best players in the world – in 1907 the four semi-finalists were the Great Triumvirate of Harry Vardon, J. H. Taylor and James Braid, along with Ted Ray, who would go on to win both the British and U.S. Opens.
After World War II, the event provided several notable British and Irish players, like Christy O'Connor Snr, Eric Brown and Dave Thomas, with their greatest triumphs, and also became a showcase for the matchplay strength of Neil Coles, who was at least a semi-finalist eleven times in eighteen years, a remarkable achievement considering the field normally comprised 64 and on occasion 128 players.
The tournament was also often notable for remarkable runs to the later stages by veteran players – Max Faulkner was a semi-finalist in 1967 aged 51 and reached the quarter-finals three years later, and in 1969 Dai Rees reached the final aged 56. However, following the establishment of the British PGA Championship (at stroke play) in 1955, the matchplay version lost some of its importance, and the matchplay format fell out of favour with sponsors, who could not guarantee that the final day would feature any "big-name" players to attract a television audience, nor either that the matches would finish at times to coincide with limited scheduled slots for live transmission. The tournament remained an official money event on the European Tour from its first season in 1972, but was discontinued following the 1979 event when a replacement sponsor could not be found after Sun Alliance moved to supporting the stroke play championship instead.[1][2] The last champion was Irishman Des Smyth, who beat a youthful Nick Price in the final.
- ^ a b "Matchplay's days could be numbered". Reading Evening Post. Reading, England. 3 August 1979. p. 28. Retrieved 10 June 2020 – via British Newspapers Archive.
- ^ "Now Euro stars chase record £1.8m in circuit cash bonanza". Coventry Evening Telegraph. Coventry, England. 20 December 1979. p. 33. Retrieved 10 June 2020 – via British Newspapers Archive.