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Wales win as weather cancels final round
Wales won the WGC-World Cup after heavy rain and thunderstorms forced the cancellation of Sunday's final round on the Algarve.
Stephen Dodd and Bradley Dredge of Wales had been two strokes ahead of England's Luke Donald and David Howell and Sweden's Niclas Fasth and Henrik Stenson at the end of the third round at the Victoria course on Saturday.
"It was the best rain I've ever watched," joked the 39-year-old Dodd, who won the 2004 China Open and the Irish Open earlier this year.
"It would have been nice to have won over four days but we'll take winning over three days," he told reporters.
"It was a great team effort," said the 32-year-old Dredge, whose only previous tournament victory came at the 2003 Madeira Island Open. "Stephen had a lot of pressure on him and came through," he added in reference to Dodd's birdie at the 17th in the third round and safe par at the last after Dredge had twice found water.
Dodd and Dredge, who were 27-under-par following Saturday's fourball format, collected $700,000 apiece after organisers decided to pay out full prize money for the 54-hole World Golf Championship event.
It was the second World Cup triumph for Wales, who also won in Hawaii in 1987 thanks to the partnership of Ian Woosnam and David Llewellyn.
"We had a picture of Ian and David with the World Cup in our clubhouse at Bryn Meadows, where I played golf as a young man, and I've always said one day that might be me," said Dredge.
"This means the world to us."
Donald, who won the trophy for England last year alongside Paul Casey, took the curtailed finish in his stride.
"Obviously it's disappointing not to get a chance today but that's the way the cookie crumbles," said Donald.
"I've benefited from the weather in the past and you just have to accept what happens."
The last time a World Cup was badly hit by the weather was at Las Brisas, Spain in 1989 when Australians Wayne Grady and Peter Fowler won a 36-hole tournament.
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