Americans stage a surprise victory at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup of Golf title
Legendary Tiger Woods might have left the top slots on the leaderboard in international golf, but Americans, surely have the best of the players in the world. They proved it yet again at the Mission Hills World Cup of Golf last week when the US Team of Matt
Kuchar and Gary Woodland, came from behind to lift the coveted title. The final day proceedings proved to be stunning success for the Americans as they kept up to the promise and delivered yet an inspiring round to surge to the top. There victory, however,
can also be attributed to the lopsided round of the Irish duo who was the favourites of the event.
"We really clicked. It's fantastic to win for the U.S.," said Woodland.
Meanwhile Kuchar, the top ranked American player in the event, insisted that he had no doubts about his choice of Woodland for the title.
“I chose Gary, thinking that he would team up well with me, we would have the best shot of winning this title, and he played fantastic this week,” he said. “I have no doubt that he was the best player in the field, and for me, it was a lot of riding his
coattails, trying to keep encouraging him to keep it going, because he played some great golf. And I'm fortunate and really, really excited that I picked him.”
Interesting, also is the fact, that both Woodland and Kuchar were making their debuts here at Mission Hills Resort in Hainan, China and were adamantly unaware of the course layout and its requirements. They lifted the Omega Mission Hills World Cup of Golf
title after a mammoth 11 years after the American Team of Woods and David Duval won back in 2000.
Also one of the surprise performers of the day, the English Team surged to the top of the leaderboard, but they required at least four teams to play sloppy final round in order to help them win the title. Justin Rose and Ian Poulter, two of the top ranked
Englishmen carded eight birdies and a splendid eagle and dropped just one shot in the day. They finished as joint runners up alongside Germany.
Germans Martin Kaymer and Alex Cejka, who were also teammates in the last event, relied heavily on their previous day’s outstanding performance and pulled in just three birdies in the day to finish for joint second. Team Ireland, Graeme McDowell and Rory
McIlroy suffered a penalty stroke at sixth hole and were never able to bounce back to claim the title. They led the event for two consecutive days on the weekend.
Team Australia, the first round leaders, pulled in a round of 69 on the final day, to share the third place with Netherland, Ireland and Scotland. South African duo of Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, who forged their way in contention on the third
day with a massive 61, dropped to an outright 12th, with a sloppy round of 74 on the final day.
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