Created in November 2005 but as the first fixture in the European Tour's 2006 season, the HSBC Champions was established to pull in the world's best golf golfers to compete in an elite season-opening event and forms the bedrock of HSBC's global golf programme. To date the tournament has produced 5 different winners from 5 separate nations over its illuminating and continuing 6 year history.

In 2009 the event was granted the World Golf Championship status it richly deserved and moved towards the end of the season giving the event even more significance and reflecting the growing reputation of this prestigious tournament. With this heightened stature came an elevated prize fund of $7million, the most lucrative since the event's beginnings and a large chunk of the $35million that have cumulatively been played for since IMG and HSBC conceived the event in 2005. These riches on offer have helped make the HSBC Champions one of the most highly regarded events sanctioned by all the Tours (PGA, European, Sunshine, Asian and PGA Tour of Australasia).

Since the inaugural event the HSBC Champions has continued to be played at Sheshan International Golf Club in Shanghai, China, and over the years some remarkable scoring has taken place.

On April 25th 2012 it was announced that the 2012 edition of the WGC-HSBC Champions would take place at the world famous Mission Hills Guangdong, China.  In a fitting tribute to the late David Chu, the man behind the Mission Hills development, the WGC-HSBC Champions was scheduled to take place on the 7,320-yard Olazabal Course and move away from Sheshan International Golf Club for the first time in the event's history.

Below you will find a list of the past winners and a selection of note-worthy scores and performances that have been posted in previous tournaments.

2005   David Howell
2006   Y E Yang
2007   Phil Mickelson
2008   Sergio Garcia
2009   Phil Mickelson
2010   Francesco Molinari

2011   Martin Kaymer

2012   Ian Poulter

Martin Kaymer, 26 years and 306 days (2011)

60 (-12), Brandt Snedeker (2012) *

63 (-9), Daisuke Maruyama (2009), Rory McIlroy (2009), Ernie Els (2009), Louis Oosthuizen (2011), Martin Kaymer (2011)

267 (-21), Ian Poulter (2012) *

268 (-20), David Howell (2006), Martin Kaymer (2011)

3 shots, David Howell (2006), Martin Kaymer (2011)

Kenneth Ferrie, hole 6, round 2 (2006)
Ernie Els, hole 6, round 2 (2009)
Richard Green, hole 4, round 2 (2010)

Branden Grace, hole 5, round 3 (2012)

* Achieved at Mission Hills Guangdong, Olazabal Course