Cink & Johnson to represent US in World Cup

Four-times PGA Tour winner Stewart Cink and Zach Johnson will represent the United States at next month's WGC-World Cup in Portugal, organisers have said.

Ryder Cup player Cink and Johnson will be chasing a record 24th Cup title for the U.S. at Victoria Clube de Golfe in Vilamoura from November 17 to 20.

World number one Tiger Woods and U.S. PGA champion Phil Mickelson were among eight Americans who turned down invitations to compete in the fourth and final WGC (World Golf Championships) event of the year.

Cink, the world number 23, was the ninth highest available U.S. player and chose Johnson, ranked 46th, as his partner.

The 29-year-old Johnson became last year the second rookie in PGA Tour history to surpass $2 million in earnings in his first season.

Under World Cup rules, the leading 18 available players of different nationalities in the world rankings on September 19 automatically qualified their countries for this year's event.

Each of those players could select their partners, as long as they were also ranked in the world's top 100. If that was not possible, the next highest-ranked golfer was offered the spot.

Other team line-ups completed this week included Australia (Mark Hensby and Peter Lonard), Denmark (Anders Hansen and Soren Hansen) and India (Jyoti Randhawa and Arjun Atwal).

Japan's Yasuharo Imano has said he will play in Portugal with a partner yet to be confirmed.

Defending champions England will be represented by world number 15 Luke Donald, who chose fellow Ryder Cup player David Howell.

Donald and Paul Casey earned England a one-shot victory over home favourites Sergio Garcia and Miguel Angel Jimenez in Seville, Spain last year after firing an eight-under-par 64 in the last-day foursomes.

The 19 nations confirmed for the 2005 World Cup are: England, Argentina, Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Portugal, Scotland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Wales and the U.S.

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