TOUR NEWS:WHAT ON earth has happened to the World Cup? This year's version of the team event takes place at Mission Hills in China this week; but, despite a prize fund offering €1.25 million to the winning two-man team — a sum which defies the current global economic doom and gloom — the pity is that most of the really big guns in the sport have opted to stay away. Again!
Indeed, most of golf's superpowers will be fielding weakened teams. The one exception, it must be said, are Sweden who have their two top-ranked players, Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson, flying the flag.
Elsewhere, though, it is a case of the sport's top players turning their backs on an event that in recent years has failed to capture their imaginations for whatever reasons. Slow play? Faraway venues? Who knows?
What is certain is that the United States, Spain, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, England and Korea, are all competing without their top players, while Argentina are not represented at all after both Andres Romero and Angel Cabrera made themselves unavailable.
In the case of the USA, no fewer than eight players passed up on the opportunity to represent their country before Ben Curtis - who will team up with Brandt Snedeker, and could conceivably win the four-day tournament which is no longer a part of the World Golf Championships - accepted the challenge.
Who's missing?
The USA have no Tiger Woods (who admittedly has a valid excuse given his injury), but Phil Mickelson, Anthony Kim, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Stewart Cink, Kenny Perry and Justin Leonard all opted not to take up their options to play as the chance was handed down the order like a hot potato.
Declining to play in the World Cup is not just an American trait: Sergio Garcia decided not to play for Spain. Pádraig Harrington opted out for Ireland. Geoff Ogilvy for Australia . . . Ernie Els for South Africa . . . Lee Westwood for England . . . KJ Choi for Korea . . . Mike Weir for Canada. All of which would indicate something is awry with its timing, coming as it does when most players have put away their clubs (at least competitively) for the winter.
With so many of the sport's top exponents missing, it all means a very open contest.
And, certainly, the winners of this event in recent times - Wales in 2005, Germany in 2006 and Scotland in 2007 - would indicate that it is more wide open for the fact so many of the top players are staying away.
Nobody could accuse Paul McGinley of lacking desire when it comes to the World Cup. This will be McGinley's 11th time to represent Ireland in the competition (having teamed up with Harrington to win in 1997), and he will partner Graeme McDowell on this occasion. The pair will play alongside Philippines duo Mars Pucay and Angelo Que for Thursday's opening round.
The McGinley-McDowell partnership is one that could very well contend, but, given his recent form, the real pity is that Rory McIlroy's burst up the world rankings came too late to secure an automatic place on the team. Ironically, the rules governing team selection were changed this year which meant that McDowell - once Harrington gave up his option - was obliged to ask the next available player off the world rankings at the time (early October).
Since then, McGinley has slipped to 100th in the world rankings while McIlroy has improved with each passing week to his current career high position of 50th.
These are exciting times for the 19-year-old Northern Ireland player and, given the structure of the world rankings, he is unlikely to fall out of the top 50 by December 31st when the initial invitation list for the US Masters is drawn up.
"Rory's a very nice guy with a mature head on his shoulders and has the game to be a serious contender on tour for a long time . . . he is certainly on the right track. We all know that this guy is a serious talent," observed McDowell.
McIlroy, runner-up in the Hong Kong Open on Sunday, is now into a two-week break before finishing his year's work by playing the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the South African Open before Christmas.
To remain in the world's top 50 and earn an early invite to Augusta, the mathematics indicate that two top-30 finishes in the South African events would be sufficient.
Given his recent form, though, his expectations are likelier to be loftier than that.
Elsewhere this week, Gareth Maybin is the only Irish player in the field for the Australian Masters in Melbourne.
WORLD CUP TEAMS
Australia: Richard Green, Brendan Jones.
Canada: Graham Delaet, Wes Heffernan
Chile: Felipe Aguilar, Mark Tullo.
China: Liang Wen-tang, Lu-Wen-the.
Denmark: Soren Hansen, Anders Hansen.
England: Ian Poulter, Ross Fisher.
Finland: Roope Kakko, Mikko Korhonen.
France: Gregory Havret, Gregory Bourdy.
Germany: Martin Kaymer, Alex Cejka.
Guatemala: Pablo Acuna, Alejandro Villaviecencio.
India: Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa.
Ireland: Graeme McDowell, Paul McGinley.
Italy: Edoardo Molinari, Francesco Molinari.
Japan: Ryuji Imada, Toru Taniguchi.
Korea: Bae Sang-moon, Kim Hyung-tae.
Mexico: Daniel De Leon, Oscar Serna.
New Zealand: Mark Brown, David Smail.
Philippines: Mars Pucay, Angelo Que.
Portugal: Tiago Cruz, Ricardo Santos.
Scotland: Alasdair Forsyth, Colin Montgomerie.
South Africa: Rory Sabbatini, Richard Sterne.
Spain: Miguel Angel Jimenez, Pablo Larrazabal.
Sweden: Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson.
Thailand: Prayad Marksaeng, Thongchai Jaidee.
Venezuela: Miguel Martinez, Raul Sanz.
USA: Ben Curtis, Brandt Snedeker.
Wales: Bradley Dredge, Richard Johnson.
Rankings
European Tour Race to Dubai
1 Sergio Garcia (Spa) €650383
2 Oliver Wilson (Eng) €485617
3 Peter Hanson (Swe) €239548
4 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) €219708
5 Francesco Molinari (Ita) €170610
5 Rory McIlroy (NIrl) €170610
7 Henrik Stenson (Swe) €166245
8 Adam Scott (Aus) €126830
8 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) €126830
10 Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) €116684
13 Graeme McDowell (NIrl) €84688
17 Padraig Harrington (Irl) €67428
17 Peter Lawrie (Irl) €67428
World Ranking
1 Tiger Woods (USA) 13.48pts
2 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 8.49
3 Phil Mickelson (USA) 7.80
4 Pádraig Harrington (Irl) 7.39
5 Vijay Singh (Fij) 7.32
6 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 5.21
7 Camilo Villegas (Col) 5.20
8 Ernie Els (Rsa) 4.88
9 Anthony Kim (USA) 4.78
10 Lee Westwood (Eng) 4.76
31 Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 2.98
50 Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 2.35
64 Darren Clarke (NIrl) 2.03
100 Paul McGinley (Irl) 1.51
2008 USPGA Tour (US unless stated)
1 Vijay Singh (Fiji) $6,601,094
2 Tiger Woods $5,775,000
3 Phil Mickelson $5,188,875
4 Sergio Garcia (Spain) $4,858,224
5 Kenny Perry $4,663,794
6 Anthony Kim $4,656,265
7 Camilo Villegas (Colombia) $4,422,641
8 Padraig Harrington (Ireland) $4,313,551
9 Stewart Cink $3,979,301
10 Justin Leonard $3,943,542
11 Robert Allenby (Australia) $3,606,700
12 Jim Furyk $3,455,714
13 Ryuji Imada (Japan) $3,029,363
