Four Tours World Championship

(Redirected from Kirin Cup (golf))

The Four Tours World Championship was an annual professional golf tournament that was played from 1985 to 1991. It was played between teams representing the four main professional tours: the American PGA Tour, the PGA European Tour, the PGA Tour of Australasia and the Japan Golf Tour. In 1985 and 1986 it was called the Nissan Cup, in 1987 and 1988 it was called the Kirin Cup while from 1989 to 1991 it was called the Asahi Glass Four Tours World Championship.[1]

Each team played the other three teams in the group stage. The leading two teams then played a final, with the other two teams playing for third and fourth places. There were six players on each team. Each match consisted of six singles matches, decided by medal match play over 18 holes.

Winners

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Team

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Year Venue Winners Points Runner-up Points Third Fourth Total
purse ($)
Winner's
share ($)
Asahi Glass Four Tours World Championship
1991 Royal Adelaide Golf Club Europe 8 Australasia 4 Japan United States 1,150,000 480,000
1990 Yomiuri Country Club Australasia United States Europe Japan 1,150,000 480,000
1989 Yomiuri Country Club United States 6 Europe 6 Japan Australasia 1,030,000 390,000
Kirin Cup
1988 Kapalua Resort, Bay course United States 8 Europe 4 Australasia Japan 1,000,000 360,000
1987 Yomiuri Country Club United States 10 Europe 2 Australasia Japan 950,000 360,000
Nissan Cup
1986 Yomiuri Country Club Japan 8 Europe 4 Australasia United States 900,000 300,000
1985 Kapalua Resort, Bay course United States 10 Europe 2 Japan Australasia 750,000 300,000

Two points were awarded for a win, one point for a halved match. In 1989 United States won the championship with an aggregate score of 404 to Europe's 416. In 1990 the final was cancelled because of rain. Both teams had scored 20 points in the three group matches which meant that the result was decided on aggregate scores. Wayne Levi did not complete his first match because of an injury and hence the United States score was uncountable and Australasia were declared the winners.

Individual Trophy

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Year Winner Country Score Margin of victory Runner-up
Nissan Cup
1985 Sandy Lyle   Scotland 267 3 strokes   Curtis Strange
1986 Tsuneyuki Nakajima   Japan 270 2 strokes   Bernhard Langer
Kirin Cup
1987 Tom Kite   United States 272 1 stroke   Payne Stewart

Summary

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Team Wins 2nd 3rd 4th
United States 4 1 0 2
Europe 1 5 1 0
Australasia 1 1 3 2
Japan 1 0 3 3

1985

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Sandy Lyle won the individual event with a score of 267 for his four rounds, three ahead of Curtis Strange

Source: [2][3][4]

Teams

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The teams were:

Seve Ballesteros was on the original European team but withdrew and was replaced by Ian Woosnam

1986

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Tsuneyuki Nakajima won the individual event with a score of 270 for his four rounds, two ahead of Bernhard Langer.

Source: [5]

Teams

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The teams were:

1987

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Teams

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The teams were:

1988

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Teams

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The teams were:

1989

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Teams

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The teams were:

1990

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Teams

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The teams were:

1991

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Teams

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The teams were:

References

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  1. ^ "Past Champions – Former Events – Four Tours Championship". European Tour. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014.
  2. ^ "Golf – Cup teams". The Times. 12 October 1985. p. 26.
  3. ^ "Golf – Absent Ballesteros casts a shadow on team cup event". The Times. 6 November 1985. p. 23.
  4. ^ "Lyle brightens the gloom". The Glasgow Herald. 11 November 1985. p. 7.
  5. ^ "Japan take all the bows". The Glasgow Herald. 10 November 1986. p. 10.