Teams confirmed for Golf's World Cup

The 28 teams who will have the honour of representing their countries in next month’s Omega Mission Hills World Cup in China have now been confirmed, with the host nation represented by Liang Wen-chong and Zhang Lian-wei. The 28 nations, comprising 18 exempt countries, the host nation and nine qualifiers, will line up on the Olazábal Course at Mission Hills in China from November 27-30, all hoping to win the lions’ share of the $5.5 million prize fund. Liang, the reigning Asian Tour Number One, is again challenging for the Asian Tour Order of Merit title following his impressive victory in the Hero Honda Indian Open last weekend, and in partnership with Zhang will be hoping to improve on their joint 11th place finish last year and break in to the top ten for the first time in the World Cup. Liang and Zhang will be looking to follow China’s record-breaking feat at the recent summer Olympic Games. China topped the medal standings with its greatest haul of gold medals ever and expectations of their sporting heroes are now at an all-time high. "As Chinese, we are all very proud of our country’s glorious achievements at the recent Olympic Games. It’ll be fantastic if we can raise the standards and profile of golf on the global stage, very much like what our other fellow country sportsmen have done," said Liang. Zhang is also relishing the opportunity to raise the stature of golf in the country. "The Olympics games have shown to the world how high the level of our sporting excellence is today. Together with all our Chinese players, we hope to do the same for golf." The United States Team has also been confirmed with US Ryder Cup player and the 2003 Open Champion Ben Curtis joining forces with Brandt Snedeker. Both players will be making their debuts in the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in China looking to go one better than the US Team of 12 months ago, when Boo Weekley and Heath Slocum finished runners-up after a play-off with Scotland. Snedeker said: "I am very excited to be playing with Ben and representing our country in this event. In our sport you do not get the opportunity too many times to compete for your country and this is going to be a thrill for me. I look forward to it and hope we can represent the United States well. I was disappointed I did not make this year's Ryder Cup team and this opportunity will provide a good alternative this year. I think it will also be a good experience as I work hard to reach my goal of making the next Ryder Cup team and perhaps The Presidents Cup team next year." Scotland, of course, will be defending champions following their victory over the Olazábal Course when Colin Montgomerie and Marc Warren made amends for their play-off defeat a year earlier to take the title. Montgomerie is back on the Scottish team and will have a new partner in Alastair Forsyth this year. The Swedish Team are the top seeds with a formidable partnership of Henrik Stenson and the in-form Robert Karlsson, the current European Tour Number One and winner of his last two events. Karlsson said: "I am really looking forward to playing with Henrik and representing Sweden. We have only had one chance to play together before, in The Ryder Cup, and that worked well. I think it will be a good pairing and hopefully it will work out well. It is always important to play for your country and with the new format of the Omega Mission Hills World Cup it is good fun and I am definitely looking forward to it." The 28 nations were finalised following last week’s Marriott Venezuela Playa Grande Nations Cup where Guatemala’s Alejandro Villavicencio and Pablo Acuña secured victory over Mexico and Venezuela with all three teams securing a ticket for China. The 28 nations and teams who will compete in the 2008 Omega Mission Hills World Cup are:-
Australia (Richard Green, Brendan Jones) Canada (Wes Heffernan and Graham DeLaet) Chile (Felipe Aquilar, Mark Tullo) China (Liang Wen-chong, Zhang Lian-wei) Chinese Taipei (Lin Wen-Tang , Lu Wen-Teh) Denmark (Søren Hansen, Anders Hansen) England (Ian Poulter, Ross Fisher) Finland (Roope Kakko and Mikko Korhonen) France (Gregory Havret, Gregory Bourdy) Germany (Martin Kaymer, Alex Cejka) Guatemala (Pablo Acuña, Alejandro Villavicencio) India (Jeev M Singh, Jyoti Randhawa) Ireland (Graeme McDowell, Paul McGinley) Italy (Francesco and Edoardo Molinari) Japan (Ryuji Imada, Toru Taniguchi) Korea (Bae Sang-moon and Kim Hyung-tae) Mexico (Oscar Serna, Daniel De León) New Zealand (Mark Brown, David Smail) Philippines (Angelo Que and Mars Pucay) Portugal (Tiago Cruz and Ricardo Santos) Scotland (Alastair Forysth, Colin Montgomerie) South Africa (Rory Sabbatini, Richard Sterne) Spain (Miguel Angel Jiménez, Pablo Larrazabal) Sweden (Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson) Thailand (Prayad Marksaeng, Thongchai Jaidee) USA (Ben Curtis, Brandt Snedeker) Wales (Bradley Dredge, Richard Johnson)