It could be that after an unbroken run of 44 years at Wentworth there will be no World Match Play Championship this year.

Bank giants HSBC, who during their five-year involvement raised the first prize to a world record £1million, ended their sponsorship last October when Ernie Els stretched his record number of titles to seven.

An announcement is expected tomorrow, but it is understood that the event might wait until next season for a re-launch.

Arnold Palmer was the inaugural winner in 1964, Gary Player and Seve Ballesteros each captured it five times, Jack Nicklaus was the 1970 champion and others with their name on the trophy include Hale Irwin, Greg Norman, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo, Lee Westwood and Paul Casey.

Tiger Woods appeared twice, losing in the final to Mark O'Meara in 1998 and going out in the first round to Shaun Micheel two years ago.

It has had six different sponsors over the years, but HSBC introduced a qualifying system based on the four majors. Each time, however, there were a number of high-profile withdrawals.