Finland, Canada Qualify for World Cup

Filed in archive Golf News on September 28, 2008

Courtesy: Europeantour.com

The World Cup of Golf will be the next international team tournament when Mission Hills in China hosts the event again this November.

Finland, Portugal and Canada qualified at the World Cup European qualifier at the Sierra Golf Club in Wejherowo, Poland on Sunday.

Finland is represented by Roope Kakko and Mikko Korhonen, two relative unknowns even on the European Tour. Each has played just three tournaments on the European Tour and both finished well down the field.

Tiago Cruz and Ricardo Santos will represent Portugal while Wes Heffernan and Graham DeLaet, both of whom play the Canadian Tour are heading to Mission Hills on behalf of Canada.

None of these guys is a top ranked player; in fact, they're all in the early stages of their careers.

You may recall that last year, Scotland won thanks to fine play by Colin Montgomerie and Marc Warren who edged out a couple of guys named Boo Weekley and Hunter Mahan in a playoff.

Weekley and Mahan didn't do too badly at the Ryder Cup, did they?

By the way, it was Canadian businessman John Jay Hopkins who began the tournament way back in 1953 to promote international goodwill. Then it was called the Canada Cup. Spalding sold a line of golf balls in Canada by the same name. In 1967, the name was changed to the World Cup.

It's always fun to get a foreign "take" from the media on events like the Ryder Cup. Most of us get either the British or the American viewpoint.

But here's the vantage point of one columnist from the New Zealand Herald newspaper. I particularly chuckle over how he called the British commentators "stuffy".