England well placed to defend in Portugal
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2005 World Cup | Preview | 16 Nov 2005
The World Golf Championship – Algarve World Cup of Golf, which starts on Thursdayy at the Arnold Palmer designed Victoria Club de Golfe at Vilamoura on the Algarve in southern Portugal, brings to an end the World Golf Championship events for 2005.
The tournament, which was revamped in 2000 to bring it into line with the other WGC events introduced a year earlier, now focuses more on the combination of the two players who will represent each country rather than on the individual skills of a player.
Two days of Foursomes and two days of Four-ball is the format used, providing a greater opportunity for a star team to win rather than a team of stars.
The Victoria Club de Golfe has been opened for just over a year and is one of five courses at Vilamoura, which is situated some thirty minutes from Faro in the south of the country. Bentgrass L-93 is used on the greens but the fairways and tees are Bermuda 419.
The defending champion is England although this year they will be missing one of their winning combination from last year. Luke Donald has chosen the very much in form David Howell to partner him in 2005, meaning that Paul Casey will not get the chance to defend. Given the current form of Howell, however, they will not suffer from Casey’s absence.
The Spaniards finished just one shot behind England last year and they field the same combination in 2005 with Sergio Garcia and Miguel Angle Jimenez no strangers to this part of the world.
The tried and true combination of Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington have proven in the past that they are exactly that. The pair won the equivalent World Cup at Kiawah Island in 1997 although of course that was under another format but last year in Spain they combined to finish third behind three shots behind England.
South Africa’s team of Tim Clark and Trevor Immelman look a strong chance. Clark has played beautifully in recent weeks and has been exposed to formats of this type of late at the Presidents Cup. Immelman appears to be the type of character who would give all for a cause such as his country. Last year Immelman finished fourth with Rory Sabbatini and won with that same player in 2003.
Peter Lonard and Mark Hensby will represent Australia and while both have been somewhat out of form these past few months, they are good enough players to feature at some stage. They have contrasting games and personalities so their combination will be watched with interest.
Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and Niclas Fasth have both had outstanding seasons in 2005. For Stenson this will be his first time at the event but in 2003, Fasth combined for 7th with Frederik Jacobsen. Both have had such good years in 2005 that they may well feature.
Traditionally the Americans are the first considered in terms of favouritism but the two who made themselves available are hardly representative of the best America can offer. Zach Johnson and Stewart Cink are fine players in their own right but it is a sad reflection on the game and the on the tournament that the United States’ leading players and those of several other countries did not make themselves available.
The only other country which could perhaps be considered a chance is Argentina whose team of Angel Cabrera and Ricardo Gonzalez went close in New Zealand in 1998 and then when Romero teamed with Cabrera, were second to the US in 2000 in Buenos Aires.
Thursday and Saturday see the Four-ball format in use while on Friday and Sunday the Foursomes are used.
The tournament carries prizemoney of US$4 million with the winning team earning US$1.4 million.
Photo – Anthony Powter
