Golf: NZ misses out on entering team in World Cup… again

Michael Campbell

New Zealand will again be conspicuously absent when golf's World Cup is staged in Barbados in December.

New Zealand missed the two-man teams event for the first time since 1953 last year when scheduling clashes ruled out this country's leading candidates.

Much the same has happened again, with world No 27 Michael Campbell withdrawing from contention to ensure his presence at the Australian PGA Championship at Coolum, one of just six major events on the Australasian PGA Tour's calendar.

That left the Professional Golfers' Association in a quandary, just three years after Campbell and David Smail combined to finish in a tie for second at the World Cup in Japan.

"We've found it very hard to find players for the World Cup this year," said chief executive Garth Stirrat yesterday.

Because this country's second best player, Smail, is ranked at No 148, New Zealand were not assured of exempt entry to the World Cup and needed to send a team to the Asian qualifying tournament a fortnight ago in Malaysia.

"None of the players wanted to go to it," said Stirrat, who pointed out that the Malaysian event clashed with the first stage of the Japanese Tour qualifying school as well as the Golf Tour New Zealand Wairakei Open.

"We had no option. We were not exempt, we did not send a team to qualifying so we haven't got a team to represent us at the World Cup.

"They [players] were willing to attend it but unfortunately it clashed with more important playing commitments that they've got."

Stirrat said the stature of the World Cup - which New Zealand hosted in 1998 at Gulf Harbour - was nothing like it once was.

"Countries are not allowed to select their own players, you can only make selections for your team on the basis of world rankings."

- NZPA