Colin Montgomerie is out to become the first player since Tiger Woods to retain the Omega Mission Hills World Cup, which starts today.
The 45-year-old, partnered by Marc Warren, helped Scotland to beat the US in a playoff last year to take the World Cup back to the home of golf for the first time.
He returns for his 10th appearance at the tournament alongside Alastair Forysth.
PHOTO: AFP
“It took a long time for Scotland to win the World Cup so winning in the playoff at Mission Hills was a wonderful feeling. very, very special,” Montgomerie said.
“I am looking forward immensely to defending the title with Alastair this time around,” he said.
Swedes Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson are the strongest pairing on paper, ranked sixth and 12th in the world, but rankings do not always count for much in team events.
“We have only had one chance to play together before in the Ryder Cup and that worked well,” said Karlsson, this year’s European order of merit winner.
The US have been champions 23 times in the various manifestations of the event over the 54 years since it started as the Canada Cup, but have not won since Tiger Woods and David Duval retained the trophy for their country in 2000.
Boo Weekley and Heath Slocum came as close as a third playoff hole last year and 2003 British Open champion Ben Curtis and Brandt Snedeker will represent the US this time around.
“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,” Snedeker said.
Rory Sabbatini was a winner with Trevor Immelman in 2003, one of two occasions the South Africans have triumphed this decade, and he will be back for another crack with Richard Sterne.
Among the other two-man teams representing 28 countries are England’s Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher, India’s Jeev Milkha Singh and Jyoti Randhawa and Taiwan’s Lin Wen-tang and Lu Wen-teh.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
RSS