Byline: DEREK LAWRENSON the world of golf
THE news that tennis is thinking of starting a World Cup must have been received with a wry smile at European Tour headquarters at Wentworth, and Lace wigs beyond. For I can reveal that the golfing version, which has been staged every year bar one since 1953, will not go ahead this season.
For the last three years the event has been held at Mission Hills in China as part of a projected 10-year commitment.
But the storm clouds gathered almost as soon as the Molinari brothers sank the winning putt for Italy last November, with Tenniel Chu, son of Dr David Chu, the founder of Mission Hills, directing considerable wrath towards the Americans who, as usual, had sent a shadow team.
wholesale colthing'With other countries there is never an issue with sending their top players and they never receive appearance money,' said Chu.
'Year after year you invite the same target list of American players and for a million and one reasons they don't come. You want to say, "Is there not more to life than money?"' So, is there any hope of staging a World Cup that lives up to the name, one that follows the pattern of practically every other sport and attracts the best players from every nation? I understand that an announcement in Dubai in a fortnight will see the event repositioned as a biennial occasion, held in non-Ryder Cup and non-Olympic years in what looks like one final hope of pleasing everyone.
Whether it will be at Mission Hills once more is presently unclear but the likelihood is that if it does survive it will move
embroidered patches around the globe, as it used to do.
Will going biennial prove the answer? I fear it will not make any difference to America, South Africa and Australia, who are usually the three worst culprits when it comes to undermining the event's credibility.
From 2016, the leading players will also be representing their countries at the Olympics, so how are you going to get them to a World Cup? As one selfish sport to another -- tennis, be warned.
CAPTION(S):
Final winners? Molinari brothers
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