Columnist Peter Benton: 24 nations to compete at World Golf Championships

Peter Benton

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2003 | 10:24 a.m.

Peter Benton's golf column appears Wednesday.

The 18 exempt nations for the upcoming 2003 World Golf Championships World Cup have been announced, as have those nations which earned entry into this tournament via qualifying.

This $4-million event, which features two-man teams from 24 nations around the world, will be Nov. 11-16 at The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort on Kiawah Island, S.C.

Shigeki Maruyama and Toshi Izawa from Japan are the defending champions, winning last year's event by two strokes.

Players qualified for this year's 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.

The remaining six teams in the field were determined by qualifiers in Singapore and Mexico. Myanmar, India, China and Hong Kong all qualified at the Nations Cup Sept. 18-21 in Singapore. Chile and Mexico, the final two teams, were determined at a second Nations Cup qualifier, Oct. 8-11 in Nueva Vallarta, Mexico.

Nations and players competing are as follows:

Argentina -- Eduardo Romero and Angel Cabrera.

Australia -- Stuart Appleby and Stephen Leaney.

Chile -- Felipe Aguilar and Roy Mackenzie.

China -- Wen-Chang Liang and Wen-gen Zheng.

Denmark -- Thomas Bjorn and Soren Kjeldson.

England -- Paul Casey and Justin Rose.

France -- Thomas Levet and Raphael Jacquelin.

Germany -- Alex Cejka and Marcel Siem.

Hong Kong -- Derek Fung and James Stewart.

India -- Digvijay Singh and Gaurav Ghei.

Ireland -- Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley.

Japan -- Shigeki Maruyama and Hidemichi Tanaka.

Mexico -- Alejandro Quiroz and Antonio Maldonado.

Myanmar -- Kyi Hla Han and Win Aung.

New Zealand -- Michael Campbell and David Smail.

Paraguay -- Carlos Franco and Marco Ruiz.

Scotland -- Paul Lawrie and Alastair Forsyth.

South Africa -- Trevor Immelman and Rory Sabatini.

South Korea -- K.J. Choi and S.K. Ho.

Spain -- Ignacio Garrido and Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Sweden -- Fredrik Jacobson and Niclas Fasth.

Trinidad and Tobago -- Stephen Ames and Robert Ames.

United States -- Jim Furyk and Justin Leonard. (Tiger Woods and Davis Love III were unavailable.)

Wales -- Phillip Price and Bradley Dredge.

FLORIDA STORIES: Last week's Miccosukee Championship, the final full-field event on the 2003 Nationwide Tour, had several storylines that will play out this week in Florida.

It was the last chance for players to move into the top 50 on the money list and earn a berth into this week's Nationwide Tour Championship in Prattville, Fla.

Of most interest may be the season-ending money list and the implication it has on players for the 2004 season.

Here is the status players earn by finishing in various positions on the money list:

1-20: Receive their P.G.A. Tour cards.

21-35: Advance to the final of the PGA Tour Qualifying.

36-70: Advance to the second stage of the PGA Tour qualifying tournament.

1-55: Fully exempt members of the 2004 Nationwide Tour.

55-100: Conditional members of the 2004 Nationwide Tour.