Golf

Belgium keep their cool to take World Cup title

Thomas Pieters and Thomas Detry held on for victory despite a late Australia charge

Thomas Detry and Thomas Pieters of Belgium celebrate after winning the World Cup of Golf at the Metropolitan Golf Club in Melbourne. Photo: William West/Getty Images

Sun Nov 25 2018 - 11:40

Belgium’s Thomas Pieters and Thomas Detry held off a late run from the Australian team on home turf to win the World Cup of Golf.

The Belgian pair started the day with a five-shot lead at the Metropolitan Golf Club in Melbourne and carded a four-under round of 68 to secure the title.

It was a rare uneven round from the pair who were three under at the turn but dropped three shots on the back nine to finish 23 under for the tournament.

The Australian pairing of Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman had a clean final round and rose three places up the leaderboard with a 65, but their second-day 76 meant the pair could only tie for second on 20 under.

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They were joined by Mexico’s Abraham Ancer and Roberto Diaz who went round in six under on Sunday.

Reigning champions Denmark, represented by Thorbjorn Olesen and Soren Kjeldsen, rose seven places with a 65 and were tied for fourth on 17 under alongside Canada.

England duo Tyrrell Hatton and Ian Poulter finished eighth on 15 under after a 70 on Sunday, three shots ahead of Irish pair Shane Lowry and Paul Dunne on 12 under, while Scotland’s Russell Knox and Martin Laird went round in 73 to finish tied 14th.

Collated final round scores & totals in the ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf, Metropolitan GC, Melbourne, Australia (Par 72):

265 Belgium (Thomas Pieters/Thomas Detry) 63 71 63 68

268 Mexico (Abraham Ancer/Roberto Diaz) 67 70 65 66, Australia (Marc Leishman/Cameron Smith) 62 76 65 65

271 Canada (Adam Hadwin/Nick Taylor) 68 73 64 66, Denmark (Soren Kjeldsen/Thorbjorn Olesen) 63 77 66 65

272 Korea (Byeong Hun An/Si Woo Kim) 62 72 68 70, Italy (Andrea Pavan/Renato Paratore) 65 71 66 70

273 England (Tyrrell Hatton/Ian Poulter) 62 74 67 70

274 Sweden (Alexander Bjork/Joakim Lagergren) 65 74 64 71

276 India (Anirban Lahiri/Gaganjeet Bhullar) 64 72 70 70, Ireland (Shane Lowry/Paul Dunne) 64 76 65 71, France (Alexander Levy/Mike Lorenzo-Vera) 66 73 68 69

277 China (Ashun Wu/Haotong Li) 66 76 68 67

278 Scotland (Russell Knox/Martin Laird) 67 71 67 73, Thailand (Kiradech Aphibarnrat/Prom Meesawat) 67 78 67 66

279 United States (Kyle Stanley/Matt Kuchar) 66 79 66 68, Wales (Bradley Dredge/Stuart Manley) 70 73 66 70

280 South Africa (Dylan Frittelli/Erik van Rooyen) 66 76 66 72, New Zealand (Ryan Fox/Mark Brown) 65 76 69 70, Finland (Mikko Korhonen/Mikko Ilonen) 66 75 68 71

281 Spain (Adrian Otaegui/Jorge Campillo) 68 74 64 75

282 Malaysia (Gavin Green & Ben Leong) 63 73 72 74

287 Japan (Satoshi Kodaira/Hideto Tanihara) 66 79 70 72

289 Venezuela (Jhonattan Vegas/Joseph Naffah) 65 82 67 75, Netherlands (Joost Luiten/Daan Huizing) 69 82 68 70

290 Germany (Martin Kaymer/Max Kieffer)68 81 68 73

295 Zimbabwe (Scott Vincent & Benjamin Follett-Smith) 72 84 66 73

307 Greece (Peter Karmis/Alexander Tranacher) 66 87 68 86