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Team Singapore on a World Cup mission

Singapore’s Lam Chih Bing and Mardan Mamat have promised to put Singapore’s golf on the world map and cap another year of sporting excellence for the island nation at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup which tees off on Thursday.

Lam Chih Bing and Mardan Mamat

Singapore has earned a sterling reputation internationally by successfully hosting the inaugural Asian Youth Games and F1 night race this year. With fellow sportsmen also making their mark on the international stage, a good showing this week will cast the spotlight back on the emerging sports scene in the country.

“Our table tennis girls have proven that Singaporeans can create an impact on the world stage with their silver medal victory at last year’s Beijing Olympics,” said Lam.

“I think coming into the World Cup, both Mardan and I have been playing reasonably well of late so we would both like to go out there and hopefully impress like how our compatriots have done,” added the one-time Asian Tour winner.

Lam and Mardan are making their fourth World Cup appearance after winning the qualifiers in August.

Their latent combination was for all to see when they finished atop the leaderboard and earned one of the three coveted places to this week’s contest alongside the Philippines and Pakistan from the qualifiers.

Singapore’s best finish at the World Cup was in 1984 when the partnership between Lim Swee Wah and Lim Kian Tiong led to the island nation to a tied-10th place.

However, Mardan hopes to continue his rich vein of form from last week where he finished in equal third in Cambodia and improve Singapore’s track record at the World Cup.

“I’m improving on my putting and my partner Chih Bing is in a good form this year so we’re in good hands. We’ve been playing in such team events since our amateur days and we know how each other play,” said Mardan.

The Singaporeans will be up against some of the world’s finest players including world number seven Henrik Stenson of Sweden and his partner, Robert Karlsson, as well as world number eight Sergio Garcia and his partner for Spain, Gonzalo Fernanez-Castaño.

Meanwhile Korean ace, Yang Yong-eun who made history by becoming the first Asian Major winner at this year’s US PGA Championship is another marquee name representing Korea alongside Charlie Wi this week.

“The World Cup is different as we are representing our country. It’s also nice to be playing alongside my best buddy on the US PGA Tour and I’m looking forward to not just making an impression on the course but also coming back to Asian and meeting my fans who have been very supportive of me,” said Yang.

Other nations amongst the favourites to take the Omega Mission Hills World Cup are Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, England’s Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher, the Australian pairing of Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby, Denmark’s Søren Hansen and Søren Kjeldsen, Germany’s Martin Kaymer and Alex Cejka, the US team of Nick Watney and John Merrick and the South African pairing of Rory Sabbatini and Richard Sterne.