England and Ireland favourites in China
BY Bruce Young | Asian Tour | 2009 Omega Mission Hills World Cup | Preview | 25 Nov 2009
Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby will represent Australia in this week’s Omega Mission Hills World Cup in Southern China, Australia still seeking its first win since the format for the event was revised in 1999.
The event is being played over the Jose Maria Olazabal designed layout, built in 2003 and one of 12 courses at the Mission Hills complex.
Now a combination of foursomes and fourball over the four days rather than the previous combined strokeplay, the event involves 28 two man teams and the Australians on paper stand a chance of taking the title.
Appleby has arguably his worst year since joining the PGA Tour in 1997 but there were signs at the recent JBWere Masters that things were getting a little better. Allenby on the other hand has had a fine season despite not winning and the two friends are likely to gel well together.
The favourite is likely to be the English team of Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher, both having completed outstanding seasons internationally. The vagaries of combined team golf are to a certain extent and unknown but going on their current form they deserve to be the favourites.
The team that should vie for favouritism with the English is the Northern Irish pair of Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy. McIlroy’s year speaks for itself and while McDowell has not been anywhere near as spectacular he has played solidly enough to offer valuable support to his 20 year old partner.
The disappointment of the event is that the Americans will field a team hardly well below the best they have to offer. Nick Watney and John Merrick are fine players and could well win the event but they are hardly representative of the best the USA has to offer, especially when considering that Watney is the 31st ranked player in the world and Merrick 139th. It downplays the importance of the event to a large extent.
The Italian team of Francesco and Edoardo Molinari arrives in China in great form. Molinari defeated Robert Karlsson last week in a playoff for the Dunlop Phoenix event in Japan and brother Francesco has just completed his best ever season in Europe. Their understanding of each other’s games may well play a part in their chances this week.
Defending champions Sweden (Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson) are also considered chances especially now that Karlsson has begun to play better after an eye injury concern.
The tournament gets underway on Thursday with the Fourball.
