By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : South Korea, the Philippines and Italy will join India and hosts China in the Omega Mission Hills World Cup in China.
South Korea’s Bae Sang-moon and Kim Hyung-tae won the Fortis International Challenge by three strokes Sunday as they led the Philippines and Italy into the World Cup.
Bae and Kim carded a superb six-under-par 66 in the final round foursomes at Kota Permai Golf and Country Club to overhaul Angelo Que and Mars Pucay of the Philippines, who carded a 70.
Italy’s Francesco Molinari and Edoardo Molinari edged out the luckless Nigerian duo of Oyebanji Gboyega and Odoh Andrew Oche after closing with a 68 for the third and final ticket to the World Cup in November.
India and Thailand qualified on the basis of their players’ world rankings. Jeev Milkha Singh and Jyoti randhawa will form the Indian pair, while Thongchai Jaidee and Prayad Marksaeng will represent Thailand. China come into the competition as the hosts.
In the Kuala Lumpur qualifiers, hosts Malaysia and Singapore finished a joint fifth to miss the boat to China after rounds of 69 and 71 respectively.
The South Koreans were thrilled to qualify for their maiden World Cup appearance after a superb performance in which they sank six birdies against no bogeys for a four-day score of 20-under-par 268.
For Filipino Que it has been great success this year. He won the Philippine Open on the Asian Tour earlier in the year and then qualified for a maiden Major appearance at the British Open. And now comes the World Cup.
The teams that have already qualified for the World Cup are: Australia (Richard Green, Brendan Jones), Chile (Felipe Aquilar, Mark Tullo), Denmark (Soren Hansen, Anders Hansen), England (Ian Poulter, Ross Fisher), France (Gregory Havret, Gregory Bourdy), Germany (Martin Kaymer, Alex Cejka), India (Jeev M. Singh, Jyoti Randhawa), Ireland (Graeme McDowell, Paul McGinley), Japan (Ryuji Imada, Toru Taniguchi), New Zealand (Mark Brown, David Small), Scotland (Alastair Forysth, Colin Montgomerie), South Africa (Rory Sabbatini, Richard Sterne), Spain (Miguel Angel Jimenez, Pablo Larrazabal), Sweden (Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson), Taiwan (Wen-Tang Lin, Wen-Teh Lu), Thailand (Prayad Marksaeng, Thongchai Jaidee), United States (To be decided), Wales (Bradley Dredge, Richard Johnson).