Wales wins in rain reduced World Cup
BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2005 World Cup | Wrap | 21 Nov 2005
The Algarve World Cup of Golf, which promised so much on day four, suffered a let down when torrential rains and strong winds forced the final day’s play to be abandoned and Welsh team of Stephen Dodd and Bradley Dredge won without venturing out into the cold and wet conditions.
With Wales leading by two from Sweden and England and countries such as France and Denmark not completely out of it, then the last day promised an intriguing battle for the riches that were on offer. After all the winning team would share US$1.4 million and if that was not enough then the prospect of representing your country when winning the World Cup of Golf was an incentive in itself.
It was not to be however as play was called before it even got started on Sunday and when the indications were for even worse on Monday there was no prospect of play being carried over for another day.
Wales had taken the outright lead on Saturday with a third round 61 that edged them ahead of the joint overnight leaders England and Sweden and ultimately that would be good enough to take the title.
The English team of Luke Donald and David Howell did not – in the end – have the chance to defend their title and they were forced to settle for second along with Sweden (Niclas Fasth and Henrik Stenson) with the French team alone in fourth.
Australia was represented by Peter Lonard and Mark Hensby but their run came to an end almost as soon as it started. A brilliant opening round of 60 had them right on the tails of first round leaders England but they went backwards from there and eventually finished 17th.
The winners aside, the performance of the week came in the Friday Foursomes when the Argentine team of Angel Cabrera and Ricardo Gonzalez managed an unbelievable round of 61 in that format. They eventually finished in a share of sixth but they had made their mark.
