The top eight players available from four different regions, the United States, Europe, Japan, and the "Rest of the World", were selected from the Sony Rankings.
The regional tournaments were played at various times (February to August) throughout the year at different courses in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.
The semi-finals and finals were played in late December 1995 and early January in 1997 and 1998 at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, United States.
The first WGC event, the 1999 WGC-Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship took place in February 1999.
The format changed to a 64-man tournament played over one week with the field is drawn from the Official World Golf Rankings.