Tiger Woods, the top-ranked player on the Official World Golf Ranking, has announced that David Duval will be his partner in the World Golf Championships – EMC World Cup at Buenos Aires Golf Club in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 7-10.
Woods won the individual title and teamed with Mark O’’Meara to capture the team title in last year’’s World Cup. The event becomes part of the World Golf Championships series this year and will no longer feature an individual competition.
The EMC World Cup – sponsored by EMC Corp., the world leader in information storage – is one of four tournaments worldwide that make up the World Golf Championships. This will be the third time that the tournament, which began in 1953 as the Canada Cup and was won by the Argentine duo of Roberto De Vincenzo and Antonio Cerda, will be held in Argentina. The event was held there in 1962 and 1970.
Players qualified for this year’’s EMC World Cup by virtue of their standings in the Official World Golf Ranking. The highest ranked available players representing 18 countries automatically qualified for the event. Each Federation member determined its own criteria for the selection of the highest ranked player’’s partner. In addition, six team will become eligible via regional qualifying competitions in October.
Another big change for this year’’s EMC World Cup is the format. In past years, the format called for the cumulative stroke total of the two players to make up the team’’s score. There also was an individual competition contested. Beginning with this year’’s event in Argentina, the individual portion of the competition has been eliminated and there will be two days each of Foursomes and Fourball.
This year’’s EMC World Cup will be the final of four World Golf Championships events to be contested in 2000. The Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship, held in February at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California, USA, finished with Darren Clarke defeating Tiger Woods in the final. The NEC Invitational was played in August at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, USA, with Woods successfully defending his title. The American Express Championship will again be held at Valderrama, Spain, on November 9-12 with Woods the defending champion.
As a professional, Woods has won tournaments in the United States, Germany, Scotland, Spain and Thailand. The EMC World Cup will mark his first tournament in South America. Woods has broad experience in team competition. While an amateur, he represented the United States in the 1994 US World Amateur Team Competition and the 1995 Walker Cup. Since he turned professional in 1996, Woods has been on the United States team for the 1998 Presidents Cup, 1998 Dunhill Cup, 1999 World Cup and the 1997 and 1999 Ryder Cups.
Duval has represented the United States in the 1996 and 1998 Presidents Cup and 1999 Ryder Cup, and as an amateur in the 1991 Walker Cup. Both players will be part of the United States team in The Presidents Cup when it is held October 17-22 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Prince William County, Virginia, USA.
Tickets to the 2000 EMC World Cup are available in Argentina through Ticketek at (54) 11-4323-7200 or on the internet at www.ticketek.com.ar.
It was recently announced that the 2001 EMC World Cup would be contested in Gotemba City, Japan at The Taiheiyo Club’’s Gotemba Course.
