World Cup of Golf - Honour and Glory

Pride and passion will very much be the main theme at the ISPS HANDA Melbourne World Cup of Golf later this month. Asia’s leading golfers will be aiming to bring honour and glory to their respective nations

India’s Anirban Lahiri

Team competitions often bring out the best from athletes, especially when they proudly put on the national flag to represent their countries. Such a privilege can evoke an overflow of passion, competitive spirit and pride that subsequently create a wonderful theatre for sports fans to enjoy and celebrate.

In golf, the opportunity to represent your country in team competition is few and far in between as the professional circuits, from the PGA TOUR to the domestic tours around the world, regularly see golfers battling it out for individual honours on a weekly basis.

Later this month though in Melbourne, Australia, some 56 of the finest golfers will team up to represent 28 countries to vie for one of the most prized team trophies, the World Cup of Golf.

It is a team competition rich in history and tradition where past winning teams include great names such as of Ben Hogan/Sam Snead, Peter Thomson/Kel Nagle, Arnold Palmer/Jack Nicklaus, David Duval/Tiger Woods, Davis Love III/Fred Couples and Ernie Els/Retief Goosen.

For the Asian nations, the ISPS HANDA Melbourne World Cup of Golf at The Metropolitan Golf Club from November 22 to 25 will offer another grand stage to showcase the growing strength and depth of the game in the Far East.

Since the event’s inauguration in 1953, which was initially known as the Canada Cup, Asian nations have been crowned World Cup of Golf champions on three occasions. Torakichi Nakamura and Koichi Ono of Japan winning on home soil in 1957, followed by Chinese Taipei’s Lu Liang-huan and Hsieh Min-nan in Melbourne in 1972 and later a second Japanese triumph by Toshi Izawa and Shigeki Maruyama in Mexico, 2002.

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