Women’s World Cup of Golf Preview

I don’t usually preview unofficial events but the real golf doesn’t start for another month and we do get to see this on TV this weekend. I wonder what weird combination of video-audio-tape edit we’ll get from TGC this time.

Julieta Granada and Celeste Troche return to Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, South Africa to defend their title at the Women’s World Cup of Golf. Team Paraguay won last year’s four-round tournament by seven shots over Team USA. The event begins Friday, with all three rounds being televised on tape-delay by Golf Channel.

Gary Player Country Club is hosting its third straight WWC. The course is a par-72, 6466 yards. The tournament will utilize two different formats. On Friday, the teams will play four-ball (each player plays her own ball and the best score of the two is entered as the team score). On Saturday, the teams will play foursomes (each team plays one ball with teammates alternating shots). In Sunday’s final round, the teams will play four-ball again.

Paraguay, the United States (Juli Inkster/Pat Hurst), Australia (Lindsay Wright/Nikki Garrett), South Africa (Ashleigh Simon/Laurette Maritz) and Wales (Becky Brewerton/Becky Morgan) all return their same twosomes from last year. The overall field looks a bit stronger this year – Sweden brings in Sophie Gustafson and Maria Hjorth (an upgrade from Helen Alfredsson and Carin Koch), Catriona Matthew is in for Scotland, Brazil is in attendance with Angela Park, and Canada is here with Lorie Kane and Alena Sharp.

Of course I’ll make a prediction! You wouldn’t expect any less, would you? I’ll take Sweden to win, USA to place, and Korea (Ji-Yai Shin/Eun-Hee Ji) to show.