The PGA Tour has announced that China’s HSBC-WGC Champions tournament will be elevated to full World Golf Championships (WGC) status from 2013, with HSBC signing a three-year extension through 2015 as title sponsor of the event.

Sunday’s announcement will see the HSBC Champions become part of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup schedule, with money earned counting as official money on the Tour, and the winner earning a three-year exemption on the Tour, with the opportunity to join the organisation if he is a non-member. The HSBC Champions will also award full FedExCup points, plus the 10% premium awarded by all WGC events compared to a regular PGA Tour tournament. The total purse will also increase from US$7 million to $8.5 million.

These changes bring the HSBC Champions in line with the other three World Golf Championships played in the United States. The event, held in China since 2005, had been granted WGC status in 2009 but was below the level of the Cadillac, Accenture and Bridgestone Invitational events. Considered some of the most prestigious and important events on golf’s calendar, the World Golf Championships were developed to bring the world\'s best players together. In 2012, Ian Poulter triumphed as the HSBC Champions was staged at the Olazabal Course at Mission Hills Golf Club Guangdong. The event will return to Shanghai permanently at the Sheshan International Golf Club from 2013, where it was staged for seven years between 2005 and 2011.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said: “HSBC has made an incredible commitment to this event, the World Golf Championships as a whole and the development of golf in Asia on a global scale, and we\'re excited that today’s announcement further elevates the HSBC Champions in a way that matches the prominence and prestige of the event\'s title sponsor. Some of the world\'s best players have won the HSBC Champions in its short but impressive history, and as an official PGA Tour event and part of the FedExCup beginning in 2013, that trend will only be enhanced.”

HSBC’s global head of sponsorship and events, Giles Morgan, added: “This is a genuine landmark moment for HSBC and its sponsorship of golf. As we approach our 10th year as a major international sponsor of this great game, it seems entirely fitting that we are making this highly significant announcement. This is not so much a renewal as a rebirth - it\'s a new dawn for HSBC Champions and for Asian golf which is now right at the top table of world golf. When we first came to China in 2005, our ambition was to create a world-class international golf tournament in an emerging market. Eight years on and the HSBC Champions, complete with full FedExCup points and an increased prize fund, is up there with the very best, and today\'s announcement represents a major step forward for golf in China.”