2018 World Cup of Golf
# 2018 World Cup of Golf

The 2018 World Cup of Golf (known as the 2018 ISPS Handa Melbourne World Cup of Golf for sponsorship reasons) was a golf tournament that was played from 22 to 25 November at Metropolitan Golf Club in South Oakleigh, Victoria, Australia. It was the 59th World Cup. The format is 72-hole stroke play; the first and third days were four-ball (best ball), and the second and fourth days were foursomes (alternate shot) play.

The Belgian pair of Thomas Pieters and Thomas Detry won with a score of 265, 23-under-par. Australia and Mexico tied for second place, three strokes behind. It was Belgium's first victory in the World Cup.

## Qualification

The 28 nations to compete were determined based on the top-ranked player from each country from the Official World Golf Ranking as of 3 September 2018.

These 28 seeded players selected a partner from the same country ranked in the top 500 of the OWGR. If there were less than five possible choices in the top 500, the seeded player could choose any of the next five players from that country in the rankings, even if they were ranked outside the top 500. The deadline for teams to be finalized was 20 September.

## Teams

The table below lists the teams in order of qualification (i.e. ranking of seeded player on 3 September 2018) together with their World Rankings at the time of the tournament.

| Country | Seeded player | Unseeded player |
| - | - | - |
| Australia | Marc Leishman (21) | Cameron Smith (33) |
| England | Tyrrell Hatton (25) | Ian Poulter (39) |
| United States | Kyle Stanley (30) | Matt Kuchar (29) |
| Thailand | Kiradech Aphibarnrat (36) | Prom Meesawat (488) |
| Denmark | Thorbjørn Olesen (42) | Søren Kjeldsen (231) |
| Japan | Satoshi Kodaira (54) | Hideto Tanihara (165) |
| South Korea | An Byeong-hun (50) | Kim Si-woo (57) |
| China | Li Haotong (40) | Wu Ashun (177) |
| Canada | Adam Hadwin (65) | Nick Taylor (313) |
| Scotland | Russell Knox (67) | Martin Laird (186) |
| Belgium | Thomas Pieters (70) | Thomas Detry (140) |
| South Africa | Dylan Frittelli (75) | Erik van Rooyen (135) |
| Sweden | Alexander Björk (63) | Joakim Lagergren (188) |
| New Zealand | Ryan Fox (89) | Mark Brown (496) |
| Venezuela | Jhonattan Vegas (107) | Joseph Naffah (2012) |
| Spain | Adrián Otaegui (69) | Jorge Campillo (99) |
| Ireland | Shane Lowry (74) | Paul Dunne (106) |
| France | Alexander Lévy (95) | Mike Lorenzo-Vera (115) |
| Netherlands | Joost Luiten (110) | Daan Huizing (320) |
| India | Anirban Lahiri (139) | Gaganjeet Bhullar (137) |
| Finland | Mikko Korhonen (108) | Mikko Ilonen (310) |
| Mexico | Abraham Ancer (60) | Roberto Díaz (742) |
| Germany | Martin Kaymer (159) | Maximilian Kieffer (291) |
| Italy | Andrea Pavan (103) | Renato Paratore (227) |
| Zimbabwe | Scott Vincent (148) | Benjamin Follett-Smith (919) |
| Malaysia | Gavin Green (198) | Ben Leong (397) |
| Wales | Stuart Manley (242) | Bradley Dredge (466) |
| Greece | Peter Karmis (248) | Alexander Tranacher (2012) |

The following players were eligible to be a seeded player but did not commit. The order is based on the World Rankings on 3 September 2018. Five countries with an eligible player did not compete: Argentina, Austria, Chinese Taipei, Chile and Paraguay (withdrew as alternate). They were replaced by Zimbabwe, Malaysia, Wales and Greece.

* Dustin Johnson
* Brooks Koepka
* Justin Thomas
* Justin Rose
* Jon Rahm
* Francesco Molinari
* Bryson DeChambeau
* Rory McIlroy
* Rickie Fowler
* Jordan Spieth
* Jason Day
* Tommy Fleetwood
* Bubba Watson
* Patrick Reed
* Alex Norén
* Paul Casey
* Tony Finau
* Hideki Matsuyama
* Webb Simpson
* Xander Schauffele
* Henrik Stenson
* Patrick Cantlay
* Phil Mickelson
* Tiger Woods
* Rafa Cabrera-Bello
* Sergio García
* Louis Oosthuizen
* Branden Grace
* Emiliano Grillo
* Charl Schwartzel
* Bernd Wiesberger
* Shubhankar Sharma
* Pan Cheng-tsung
* Joaquín Niemann
* Fabrizio Zanotti

## Final leaderboard

Australia, England and South Korea tied for the lead after the first day fourball rounds with 10-under-par rounds of 62. Conditions were difficult for the second day foursomes with rain and gusty winds. Belgium and South Korea led after day 2 on 10-under-par. Mexico had the best round of the day, 70, to lift themselves into 7th place while hosts Australia had a disappointing round of 76 and dropped into a tie for 8th place. On the third day Belgium had their second fourball round of 63 and took a 5-stroke lead, ahead of Italy, Mexico and South Korea. On the final day Australia set the clubhouse lead on 268 after a final round 65. Belgium came to the last with a two-stroke lead. Thomas Pieters put their second shot to four feet, which Thomas Detry holed to give Belgium a three-stroke victory with a final round of 68. Mexico tied with Australia for second place.

| Place | Country | Score | To par | Money (US$) |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Belgium | 63-71-63-68=265 | −23 | 2,240,000 |
| T2 | Australia | 62-76-65-65=268 | −20 | 957,500 |
| T2 | Mexico | 67-70-65-66=268 | −20 | 957,500 |
| T4 | Canada | 68-73-64-66=271 | −17 | 362,000 |
| T4 | Denmark | 63-77-66-65=271 | −17 | 362,000 |
| T6 | Italy | 65-71-66-70=272 | −16 | 252,500 |
| T6 | South Korea | 62-72-68-70=272 | −16 | 252,500 |
| 8 | England | 62-74-67-70=273 | −15 | 185,000 |
| 9 | Sweden | 65-74-64-71=274 | −14 | 140,000 |
| T10 | France | 66-73-68-69=276 | −12 | 102,333 |
| T10 | India | 64-72-70-70=276 | −12 | 102,333 |
| T10 | Ireland | 64-76-65-71=276 | −12 | 102,333 |
| 13 | China | 66-76-68-67=277 | −11 | 82,000 |
| T14 | Scotland | 67-71-67-73=278 | −10 | 74,000 |
| T14 | Thailand | 67-78-67-66=278 | −10 | 74,000 |
| T16 | United States | 66-79-66-68=279 | −9 | 69,000 |
| T16 | Wales | 70-73-66-70=279 | −9 | 69,000 |
| T18 | Finland | 66-75-68-71=280 | −8 | 64,000 |
| T18 | New Zealand | 65-76-69-70=280 | −8 | 64,000 |
| T18 | South Africa | 66-76-66-72=280 | −8 | 64,000 |
| 21 | Spain | 68-74-64-75=281 | −7 | 60,000 |
| 22 | Malaysia | 63-73-72-74=282 | −6 | 58,000 |
| 23 | Japan | 66-79-70-72=287 | −1 | 56,000 |
| T24 | Netherlands | 69-82-68-70=289 | +1 | 53,000 |
| T24 | Venezuela | 65-82-67-75=289 | +1 | 53,000 |
| 26 | Germany | 68-81-68-73=290 | +2 | 50,000 |
| 27 | Zimbabwe | 72-84-66-73=295 | +7 | 48,000 |
| 28 | Greece | 66-87-68-86=307 | +19 | 46,000 |

Rounds 1 and 3 were four-ball (best ball), rounds 2 and 4 were foursomes (alternate shot). Prize money is for the pair.

