Arnold Palmer was the first winner of the World Match Play Championship when it was launched at leafy Wentworth in Surrey in 1964 and the new event could hardly have been given a better start.

The Championship was the brainchild of innovative agent Mark McCormack, founder of the powerful IMG company, who saw this as one of the ways his clients could showcase their talents.

The charismatic Palmer had been his first signing and his victory ensured the event hit the ground running.

There had been been a gap in the market for a World Match Play Championship since at least 1958, when the fourth of the Majors, the US PGA, switched to strokeplay.

It soon became firmly established, with its huge prize fund attracting the world's top players and the format regularly throwing up memorable matches.

Palmer won again in 1967 and the two years in between fell to South African legend Gary Player, who ended up with five victories, the same number as Severiano Ballesteros and two fewer than the most prolific winner, Ernie Els.

It was 23 years before a British golfer won the tournament, but when the breakthrough came, it opened the floodgates.

Ian Woosnam's victory in 1987 was followed in successive years by success for Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo and Woosnam again. Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood and Paul Casey are also on the roll of honour.

Originally 12 players were involved in the World Match Play Championship each year, four of them seeded to receive a bye to the quarter-finals, though this was upped to 16 in 2004.

However, the event was not without its problems. Sometimes the top Americans were absent, and with no sponsor the 2008 tournament was scrapped. It resumes in 2009, but it will be in Spain rather than at its long-time home, Wentworth.