Dunne to make World Cup debut alongside Lowry
Paul Dunne
Paul Dunne will make his debut alongside leading qualifier Shane Lowry in the ISPS HANDA Melbourne World Cup of Golf at The Metropolitan Golf Club in Melbourne from November 21-25.
World No 85 Lowry was the leading available Irish player and he chose Dunne, ranked 91st in the world, as his partner.
Lowry and Graeme McDowell finished ninth behind Denmark in the last edition of the event at Kingston Heath in 2016.
Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith will tee it up for hosts Australia for an event which clashes with Thanksgiving in the US, meaning Kyle Stanley and 2011 winner Matt Kuchar will represent the Americans.
England’s Ian Poulter will make his sixth appearance after being chosen by Tyrrell Hatton — a possible Ryder Cup pairing next week, perhaps — with South Africa’s Branden Grace selected by fellow Presidents Cup veteran and 2011 Masters champion Charl Schwartzel.
Ireland hasn’t won the World Cup since Pádraig Harrington and Paul McGinley triumphed in 1997, though McDowell and Rory McIlroy came close in 2009, when they finished joint runners-up with Sweden behind Italy’s Edoardo and Francesco Molinari.
Ireland's first triumph came 1958, when Harry Bradshaw and Christy O’Connor won the Canada Cup in Mexico.
The 59th staging of the event will see the 56-player field vie for the largest prize-money purse in Australian golf, with $US7 million on offer.
The 72-hole stroke play team format will feature fourball play in the first and third rounds and foursomes in the second and final rounds.
In 2016, Danes Soren Kjeldsen and Thorbjorn Olesen shot a final-round 66 in foursomes at Kingston Heath to win Denmark’s first World Cup of Golf title by four strokes over the United States, China and France.
Denmark currently holds the men's amateur and professional world titles following their victory in the Eisenhower Trophy at Carton House earlier this month.
ISPA HANDA Melbourne World Cup of Golf
Confirmed teams as of 20 September 2018
*Bold denotes first World Cup of Golf appearance
Rank Country Top Player Partner
Australia — Marc Leishman/Cameron Smith
England — Tyrrell Hatton/Ian Poulter
United States — Kyle Stanley/Matt Kuchar
Thailand — Kiradech Aphibarnrat/Prom Meesawat
South Africa — Branden Grace/Charl Schwartzel
Denmark – Thorbjorn Olesen/Soren Kjeldsen
Japan — Satoshi Kodaira/Hideto Tanihara
Korea — Byeong Hun An/Si Woo Kim
China — Haotong Li/Ashun Wu
Canada — Adam Hadwin/Nick Taylor
Scotland — Russell Knox/Martin Laird
Belgium — Thomas Pieters/Thomas Detry
Sweden — Alexander Bjork/Joakim Lagergren
New Zealand — Ryan Fox/Danny Lee
Venezuela — Jhonattan Vegas/Joseph Naffah
Spain — Adrian Otaegui/Jorge Campillo
Ireland — Shane Lowry/Paul Dunne
France — Alexander Levy/Michael Lorenzo-Vera
Austria — Bernd Wiesberger/Matthias Schwab
India — Shubhankar Sharma/Anirban Lahiri
Netherlands — Joost Luiten/Daan Huizing
Finland — Mikko Korhonen/Mikko Ilonen
Mexico — Abraham Ancer/Roberto Diaz
Germany — Martin Kaymer/Maximilian Kieffer
Italy — Andrea Pavan/Renato Paratore
Zimbabwe — Scott Vincent/Benjamin Follett-Smith
Malaysia — Gavin Kyle Green/Ben Leong
*Argentina — Emiliano Grillo (WD)
*Emiliano Grillo was a late withdrawal. The replacement country and players will be announced in the coming days.
