Firm friends Ian Poulter and Justin Rose are hoping that the strength of that friendship can inspire them to victory in the Omega Mission Hills World Cup at Mission Hills Golf Club in China from November 22-25.
Poulter and Rose served their golfing apprenticeships together as room-mates on the European Challenge Tour over eight years ago and have subsequently driven each other to the pinnacle of the game with 13 professional victories between them.
Now safely ensconced inside the top 50 on the Official World Golf Ranking, Poulter and Rose have achieved world class consistency in 2007 and are hoping their impeccable standards will help them emulate Paul Casey and Luke Donald’s 2004 victory to bring the Omega Mission Hills World Cup back to England.
“It’s a great opportunity to play with Justin and it would certainly be nice to win the World Cup,” said Poulter. “Justin has come close and the England side has been strong for a number of years. It will be an exciting week and to pair up with Justin in what could, hopefully, be a pairing next September at The Ryder Cup as well. We will have a bit of fun out on the course at Mission Hills.
“We have been friends since the Challenge Tour. I bumped into him when I was first reserve at the French Open and he was on the putting green. We got chatting and then started rooming together on the Challenge Tour. We have been very good mates for eight years now. We are neighbours in Lake Nona and play quite a few practice rounds together when we are over there together. It’s going to be brilliant at Mission Hills and more than anything it will be great fun.”
Rose said: “I’m really looking forward to the World Cup. Ian and I go way back and to have the chance to represent my country with one of my good friends is going to be exciting. The friendship that we have will hopefully create the right atmosphere for us to play good golf – that’s what we are hoping for anyway.”
The 2007 Omega Mission Hills World Cup will launch a new and exciting era in the history of the event first played in 1953 as the Canada Cup. The event is set to continue through 2018, and most probably beyond, at Mission Hills following the signing of an agreement which brought the prestige watch manufacturer Omega together with the Club which introduced the game of golf to China by first hosting the World Cup in 1995.
John Jay Hopkins, the noted Canadian industrialist, brought to reality a dream that golf could promote goodwill between nations with the inaugural World Cup played in Montreal in 1953 then called the Canada Cup and re-titled The World Cup in 1967.
The International Federation of PGA Tours will, as custodians, oversee the 53rd edition of the event as it unfolds less than one year before the staging in Beijing of the Olympic Games at which Omega has a unique role as Official Timekeeper.
ABOUT OMEGA
The prestige watch manufacturer OMEGA was founded in Switzerland in 1848 and since then has continually set the pace in the many fields of watchmaking, from sports timekeeping and design awards to watches for professional use in space or underwater. OMEGA is closely associated with a world of achievements including the conquest of space, timekeeping at 22 Olympic Games and numerous precision records as well as the launch in 1999 of the revolutionary Co-Axial calibre, one of the 20th century’s major innovations in mechanical watchmaking designed with the English master watchmaker George Daniels. OMEGA will be Official Timekeeper for the Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Olympic Games.
--------------
ABOUT MISSION HILLS GOLF CLUB, CHINA
Founded in 1994, Mission Hills Golf Club, China, seeks to create ‘International Goodwill through Golf.’ The Club occupies over 15 square kilometres of land and boasts 12 signature courses designed by golf legends from five different continents.
The Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, José Maria Olazábal, Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Zhang Lian-Wei, David Leadbetter, Greg Norman, Jumbo Ozaki, Vijay Singh, Annika Sorenstam and David Duval. Each course is reflective of the designers’ style, offering unique risk / reward challenges to the player. As a complete golf destination, the Club houses a five star hotel and world class spa and was voted Best Golf Resort in Asia by readers of Asian Golf Monthly in 2006 and Golf Resort of the Year in the Rest of the World category in 2005 by the International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO). In May 2004, the Club was accredited by the Guinness World RecordsTM as the World’s Largest Golf Facility, making a name for itself in the world of premier golf through its exceptional ability to deliver an unsurpassed level of service excellence. Mission Hills is the proud venue of the OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup for the next consecutive twelve years (2007 – 2018).
--------------
ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL GOLF ASSOCIATION
Established by Canadian industrialist John Jay Hopkins in 1953, the International Golf Association has pursued the mission of "International Goodwill through Golf" for over fifty years. As the owner of the World Cup name, IGA has sanctioned the world's most prestigious international team golf competition throughout six decades. IGA is governed by its Board of Directors, comprised by Chairman Jonathan S. Linen (Advisor to the Chairman, American Express), Deane R. Beman (Former PGA TOUR Commissioner), J. B. McCoy (Retired Chairman, Bank One Corporation) and Bill Souders (Former Executive Vice-President and Director, Xerox Corporation).
--------------
ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF PGA TOURS
The International Federation of PGA Tours, formed in 1996, was created to enhance the competitive structure of professional golf worldwide while preserving the traditions and strengths of the six member Tours. The member Tours are the Asian Tour, European Tour, Japan Golf Tour, PGA TOUR, PGA Tour of Australasia and Southern Africa Tour. The Canadian Tour and the Tour de las Americas are Associate Members of the Federation. Three major initiatives were outlined: the formation of the International Federation of PGA Tours; joint sanctioning by the members of the International Federation of PGA Tours of significant competitions for the game's top players; and a structure for a generally accepted worldwide ranking system.
For further information, contact:
