Many of the world’s great champions, including the course designer José Maria Olazábal of Spain, will be among the 18 confirmed countries competing in the 2007 Omega Mission Hills World Cup at Mission Hills Golf Club in China from November 22-25.
The Olazábal signature course, which carries the stamp of the 1994 and 1999 Masters Champion, will be the venue for the $5,000,000 event which sees a total of 28 nations battle it out for the prestigious title and the imposing World Cup Trophy.
Today’s 18 countries will be joined by a further ten teams following qualifying competitions in Asia and Latin America from September 27-30.
Three Major Champions will tee up in the Omega Mission Hills World Cup along with a host of global winners, with Olazábal confirmed as Spain’s Number One along with Retief Goosen of South Africa and Mike Weir of Canada.
Goosen, the two-time US Open Champion, and 2003 Masters Champion Weir, will announce their partners in due course. However Olazábal has selected his close friend, Miguel Angel Jiménez, to represent the Spanish flag.
Jiménez came close to World Cup success three years ago when Spain finished runner-up, one shot behind England, over another Olazábal-designed course, Real Club de Golf Sevilla, in his home country.
Goosen has already experienced the thrill of victory in the World Cup when South Africa secured a dramatic play-off victory over Denmark, New Zealand and the United States in Japan in 2001.
Goosen and Zhang Lian-wei of host country China are both making a sentimental return to Mission Hills, 12 years after representing their respective countries in the 1995 World Cup. South Africa and China finished eighth and 27th respectively that year and will be determined to secure a higher placing this time around.
Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie, the eight-time European Tour Order of Merit winner, will join forces with Marc Warren in an attempt to go one better than last year in Barbados when the same partnership lost out to Germany in a sudden-death play-off.
Justin Rose has invited his close friend, Ian Poulter, to represent England, who were successful in 2004 and prior to that in 1998. Rose, in tandem with Paul Casey, finished second behind South Africa at Kiawah Island in 2004 while Poulter’s only previous appearance was at the Taiheiyo Club in Japan in 2001.
The host nation, China, will be represented at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup by the older generation in Zhang – the first Chinese golfer to win on The European Tour – and the younger generation in Liang Wen-Chong, the most recent player from China to win on The European Tour earlier this season in Singapore.
The United States will be represented by Arron Oberholser and Sean O’Hair while 2005 winners, Stephen Dodd and Bradley Dredge of Wales, are reunited in a bid to wrest back the trophy.
Confirmed countries and partners (where applicable) are:
Argentina: Andres Romero and Ricardo Gonzalez
Australia: Nick O’Hern
Austria: Markus Brier
Canada: Mike Weir
China: Liang Wen-Chong and Zhang Lian-wei
Denmark: Anders Hansen and Søren Hansen
England: Justin Rose and Ian Poulter
France: Raphaël Jacquelin and Gregory Havret
Finland: Mikko Ilonen and Pasi Purhonen
Germany: Martin Kaymer and Alex Cejka
India: Jyoti Randhawa and Gaurev Ghei
Japan: Hideto Tanihara
Scotland: Colin Montgomerie and Marc Warren
South Africa: Retief Goosen
Spain: José Maria Olazábal and Miguel Angel Jiménez
Sweden: Robert Karlsson and Peter Hanson
United States: Arron Oberholser and Sean O’Hair
Wales: Stephen Dodd and Bradley Dredge
The 2007 Omega Mission Hills World Cup will launch a new and exciting era in the history of the event first played in 1953 as the Canada Cup. The event is set to continue through 2018, and most probably beyond, at Mission Hills following the signing of an agreement which brought the prestige watch manufacturer Omega together with the Club which introduced the game of golf to China by first hosting the World Cup in 1995.
John Jay Hopkins, the noted Canadian industrialist, brought to reality a dream that golf could promote goodwill between nations with the inaugural World Cup played in Montreal in 1953 then called the Canada Cup and re-titled The World Cup in 1967.
The International Federation of PGA Tours will, as custodians, oversee the 53rd edition of the event as it unfolds less than one year before the staging in Beijing of the Olympic Games at which Omega has a unique role as Official Timekeeper.
ABOUT OMEGA
The prestige watch manufacturer OMEGA was founded in Switzerland in 1848 and since then has continually set the pace in the many fields of watchmaking, from sports timekeeping and design awards to watches for professional use in space or underwater. OMEGA is closely associated with a world of achievements including the conquest of space, timekeeping at 22 Olympic Games and numerous precision records as well as the launch in 1999 of the revolutionary Co-Axial calibre, one of the 20th century’s major innovations in mechanical watchmaking designed with the English master watchmaker George Daniels. OMEGA will be Official Timekeeper for the Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Olympic Games.
ABOUT MISSION HILLS GOLF CLUB, CHINA
Founded in 1994, Mission Hills Golf Club, China, seeks to create ‘International Goodwill through Golf.’ The Club occupies over 15 square kilometres of land and boasts 12 signature courses designed by golf legends from five different continents.
The Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, José Maria Olazábal, Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Zhang Lian-Wei, David Leadbetter, Greg Norman, Jumbo Ozaki, Vijay Singh, Annika Sorenstam and David Duval. Each course is reflective of the designers’ style, offering unique risk / reward challenges to the player. As a complete golf destination, the Club houses a five star hotel and world class spa and was voted Best Golf Resort in Asia by readers of Asian Golf Monthly in 2006 and Golf Resort of the Year in the Rest of the World category in 2005 by the International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO). In May 2004, the Club was accredited by the Guinness World RecordsTM as the World’s Largest Golf Facility, making a name for itself in the world of premier golf through its exceptional ability to deliver an unsurpassed level of service excellence. Mission Hills is the proud venue of the OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup for the next consecutive twelve years (2007 – 2018).
ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL GOLF ASSOCIATION
Established by Canadian industrialist John Jay Hopkins in 1953, the International Golf Association has pursued the mission of "International Goodwill through Golf" for over fifty years. As the owner of the World Cup name, IGA has sanctioned the world's most prestigious international team golf competition throughout six decades. IGA is governed by its Board of Directors, comprised by Chairman Jonathan S. Linen (Advisor to the Chairman, American Express), Deane R. Beman (Former PGA TOUR Commissioner), J. B. McCoy (Retired Chairman, Bank One Corporation) and Bill Souders (Former Executive Vice-President and Director, Xerox Corporation).
ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF PGA TOURS
The International Federation of PGA Tours, formed in 1996, was created to enhance the competitive structure of professional golf worldwide while preserving the traditions and strengths of the six member Tours. The member Tours are the Asian Tour, European Tour, Japan Golf Tour, PGA TOUR, PGA Tour of Australasia and Southern Africa Tour. The Canadian Tour and the Tour de las Americas are Associate Members of the Federation. Three major initiatives were outlined: the formation of the International Federation of PGA Tours; joint sanctioning by the members of the International Federation of PGA Tours of significant competitions for the game's top players; and a structure for a generally accepted worldwide ranking system.
For further information, contact:
Communications Division
The European Tour
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Email: media@europeantour.com
James Cramer
PGA TOUR
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Fax: +1 904 273 3582
Email: jcramer@pgatourhq.com
Tracey Robertson
Communications Department
Mission Hills Golf Club
Tel: +86 755 2802 0888
Fax: +86 755 2802 5751
Email: traceyrobertson@missionhillsgroup.com
OMEGA
OMEGA International Press Office
Tel: +41 (0) 32 343 92 11
Fax: +41 (0) 32 343 97 15
Email: press@omega.ch
Gordon Simpson
Director of Communications
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