Oct. 19, 2004 – Seven of Europe’s Ryder Cup heroes return to the exciting cut and thrust of team golf next month when the 2004 World Golf Championships – World Cup is staged at Real Club de Golf de Sevilla in Spain from November 18-21.
A total of 24 nations are represented in the fifth edition of the WGC – World Cup, in which the dynamic Spanish pairing of World Number ten, Sergio Garcia, and Number 16, Miguel Angel Jiménez, bid to become the first home country to lift the title since the event came under the umbrella of the World Golf Championships.
Garcia became Europe’s talisman during the record-breaking Ryder Cup victory over the United States at Oakland Hills Country Club in Michigan last month, accumulating a personal haul of four and a half points out of five while Jiménez contributed a vital point with Darren Clarke in the Friday Fourballs.
Jiménez has won four titles on The European Tour International Schedule in 2004 while Garcia has also been in devastating form, capturing two titles on the US PGA Tour. Last weekend, Garcia captured the Mallorca Classic in Majorca while Jiménez` lost on the last green to Lee Westwood of England in the semi-finals of the HSBC World Match Play Championship.
Two other countries competing in Seville will field ‘all-Ryder Cup’ partnerships. Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley will represent Ireland for the eighth time, having won the World Cup under its old format in 1996.
Harrington, the highest ranked player in the field at eighth in the world, and McGinley, both won their Ryder Cup singles to help Europe record their biggest margin of victory over the USA in Detroit.
England’s Ryder Cup rookies, Paul Casey and Luke Donald, link up for the first time after contributing to Europe’s cause at Oakland Hills. Casey, partnered by Justin Rose last year, finished second behind South Africa and will be anxious to go one better in tandem with Donald, a two-time champion on The European Tour this year.
Frenchman Thomas Levet, who won his Ryder Cup singles against Fred Funk, resumes his partnership with Raphaël Jacquelin, aiming to improve of their impressive third place finish at Kiawah Island in 2003.
South Africa will again be represented by last year’s successful combination of European Tour star, Trevor Immelman, and Rory Sabbatini, who plies his trade on the US PGA Tour.
The United States, winners of the inaugural WGC – World Cup in 2000, go into action with Scott Verplank partnering former US PGA Champion, Bob Tway.
