ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf Leaderboard, Preview, TV Times

Soren Kjeldsen and Thorbjorn Olesen defend the World Cup of Golf for Denmark

(Image credit: Getty Images)

By Fergus Bisset published 20 November 18

Thorbjorn Olesen and Soren Kjeldsen team up this week as they defend the ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf for Denmark.

ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf Leaderboard, Preview, TV Times

28 countries will be represented at the 2018 World Cup of Golf as 56 players tee it up at The Metropolitan Golf Club, Melbourne, Australia. Denmark defends and a strong field has assembled.

The World Cup of Golf will feature 28 two-man teams competing over 72 holes of strokeplay in a mixed format event. The first and third rounds will be fourball and the second and fourth rounds will be foursomes.

This tournament was founded by Canadian industrialist John Jay Hopkins. It began life in 1953 as the Canada Cup but its name changed to the World Cup in 1967.

Over the years there have been some superb winning teams: In 1956 Ben Hogan and Sam Snead took the title, Jack Nicklaus together with Arnold Palmer were victorious four times in the 1960s, Fred Couples and Davis Love III won the event four times consecutively from 1992 to 1995 and Tiger Woods won in back to back years around the Millennium with Mark O’Meara then David Duval. The USA is the most successful nation in the event’s history with 24 wins in total.

The last time the tournament was contested Denmark were winners. Thorbjorn Olesen and Soren Kjeldsen finished four clear of French duo Victor Dubuisson and Romain Langasque.

England is being represented this week by Ian Poulter and Tyrrell Hatton, Scotland’s pairing is Russell Knox and Martin Laird, Wales have Bradley Dredge and Stuart Manley and team Ireland is Shane Lowry and Paul Dunne.

The weather forecast is a little mixed. It might well rain on the first couple of days before clearing for the weekend.

Venue: The Metropolitan Golf Club, Melbourne, Australia Date: Nov 22-25 Course stats: par 72, 7,308 yards Purse: $7,000,000 Defending champions: Denmark (-20)

How to watch the ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf

TV Coverage: Thursday 22 – Sky Sports Golf 1am Friday 23 – Sky Sports Golf from 1am Saturday 24 – Sky Sports Golf and Sky Sports Main Event from 1am Sunday 25 – Sky Sports Golf from 1am

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Teams to watch:

Belgium – The pairing of Thomas Pieters and Thomas Detry looks super strong. Pieters is coming back into form and Detry has been playing some good stuff recently. If they get it going, they could shoot some low numbers.

Australia – The home pairing of Marc Leishman and Cam Smith will be well supported. They should have a good chance.

China – Haotong Li and Ashun Wu… Just two very good players, both of whom have been on good form.

Key hole: 18th. It’s a 475 yard par-4 that plays into the prevailing wind. It’s dead straight but with bunkers protecting the right side, a leaked tee shot could find the hazard. A pin on the left of the green adds to the difficult as the temptation from the tee will be to get as close to those bunkers as possible.

Fergus Bisset

Fergus is a golf obsessive and 1-handicapper. Growing up in the North East of Scotland, golf runs through his veins and it was concentrated by his time at St Andrews university studying history. He went on to earn a post graduate diploma from the London School of Journalism. Fergus has worked for Golf Monthly since 2004 and has written two books on the game; "Great Golf Debates" together with Jezz Ellwood of Golf Monthly and "The Ultimate Golf Book" together with Neil Tappin (also of Golf Monthly)... Fergus once shanked a ball from just over Granny Clark's Wynd on the 18th of the Old Course that struck the St Andrews Golf Club and rebounded into the Valley of Sin, from where he saved par. Who says there's no golfing god?