Korea earn entry into World Cup in Barbados

Korea's Hur Suk-ho and Charlie Wi have earned direct entry into the World Golf Championships-Barbados World Cup in December through the Official World Golf Ranking.

They will be joined in the 24-team event by Singaporean duo Mardan Mamat and Lam Chih Bing, who qualified for the US$4 million event two weeks ago in Malaysia.

The 18 exempt nations, along with the players representing the host nation, for the Barbados World Cup, scheduled from December 7-10 at Sandy Lane Resort's Country Club Course, were announced on Monday.

The World Cup, which features two-man teams from 24 nations around the globe, will be broadcast worldwide to more than 140 nations with a potential audience of 220 million homes, will receive 12 hours of coverage in the United States on ESPN and ABC.

This will be the first time that Hur, known better as S.K. Ho, and Wi, currently second on the Asian Tour's UBS Order of Merit, will play together in the World Cup since it became part of the World Golf Championships series in 2000.

In 2002, Hur, presently ranked 78th in the world, partnered Choi Kyung-ju and finished third.

The Barbados World Cup field features a number of players who have represented their countries in recent international team competitions. There are eight players who competed last week in the Ryder Cup, including England’s Luke Donald and David Howell; Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley of Ireland; Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie; Henrik Stenson of Sweden and Stewart Cink and J.J. Henry of the United States.

In addition, five players in the field competed in the most recent Presidents Cup competition. Included in this list are Angel Cabrera of Argentina, Mark Hensby of Australia, Canada’s Mike Weir, Tim Clark of South Africa and Cink.

Bradley Dredge and Stephen Dodd of Wales are the defending champions and will be back to defend the title they won last year at the Victoria Clube de Golfe in the Algrave region of Portugal. Their victory was the first by Wales in the competition since 1987.

England, represented by Donald and Howell will attempt to recreate their strong play of the past two years. In 2004, Donald and Paul Casey won the John Hopkins trophy in Sevilla, Spain, and Donald and Howell finished runner up to Wales last year in Portugal.

Ireland will again be represented by Harrington and McGinley for the 11th consecutive year. The 1997 World Cup of Golf champions have four top-10 finishes in six playings as a World Golf Championships event.

The United States, which has won this competition a record 23 times, will be represented by four-time PGA TOUR winner, Cink and Henry, the world’s 37th-ranked player.

Players qualified for this year’s World Cup by virtue of their standings in the Official World Golf Ranking as of Sept. 11. The highest-ranked available players representing 18 countries automatically qualified for the event.

The host nation of Barbados will be represented by Roger Beale Jr. and James Johnson. This will mark Barbados’ first appearance in the event since it became a part of the World Golf Championships series in 2000.

This will be the first time a World Golf Championships event, including the historic World Cup, has been played in Barbados, and only the third time it has been held in the Caribbean. Puerto Rico was the host of the 1961 and 1994 World Cups.

The Hon. Noel Lynch, Minister of Tourism, commented: “We are delighted with the announcement of the teams and to have so many Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup players competing. Hosting the World Cup in Barbados is all about showcasing our beautiful Island on television internationally. The network coverage on ABC and ESPN in the USA and the coverage in a further 140 countries assures us of that. It will be the biggest televised event Barbados has ever hosted until the World Cup of Cricket next year”

The following are the 18 exempt nations and the team representing Barbados listed alphabetically:

Argentina(Angel Cabrera/Andres Romero)
Australia (Mark Hensby/John Senden)
Barbados (Roger Beale, Jr. /James Johnson)
Canada (Mike Weir/Jim Rutledge)
Colombia (Camilo Villegas/Manuel Merizalde )
Denmark (Thomas Bjorn/Soren Hansen)
England (Luke Donald/David Howell)
France (Raphael Jacquelin/Jean Van De Velde)
Germany (Bernhard Langer/Marcel Siem)
Ireland (Padraig Harrington/Paul McGinley)
Japan (Toru Taniguchi/partner TBA)
Scotland (Colin Montgomerie/Marc Warren)
South Africa(Tim Clark/Rory Sabbatini)
South Korea (Hur Suk-ho/Charlie Wi)
Spain(Miguel Angel Jimenez/Gonzalo Fernandez))
Sweden (Henrik Stenson/Carl Pettersson )
Trinidad & Tobago (Stephen Ames/Robert Ames)
United States (Stewart Cink/J.J. Henry)
Wales (Stephen Dodd/Bradley Dredge)

Singapore and Italy both qualified at the World Cup qualifier, Sept. 13-16 at Seri Selangor Golf Club in Kuala Lumpur.

Singapore (Mardan Marmat/Lam Chih Bing)
Italy(Francesco Molinari/Emanuele Canonica)

The final three teams will be determined this week at the Nations Cup qualifier at Tierra del Sol Golf Club in Aruba.

September 26, 2006

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