Undignified demise looms for Dunhill Cup
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Your support makes all the difference.What may prove to be the last Alfred Dunhill Cup in its present format begins here today. Although an announcement about the future of the event will not be made until the weekend, the suggestion is that instead of the Nations Cup of golf, it will transmute into a celebrity pro-am tournament using the Old Course, Carnoustie and the new Kingsbarns links just outside St Andrews.
What may prove to be the last Alfred Dunhill Cup in its present format begins here today. Although an announcement about the future of the event will not be made until the weekend, the suggestion is that instead of the Nations Cup of golf, it will transmute into a celebrity pro-am tournament using the Old Course, Carnoustie and the new Kingsbarns links just outside St Andrews.
Quite what the attraction of watching the stars of screen and non-golfing sports wrapped up in waterproofs and woolly hats attempting to swing a club in lashing rain, gales and single-figure temperatures - the conditions that spoilt yesterday's pre-tournament pro-am - is a secret known only to the sponsors.
But then they have had more success in getting Kevin Costner, Samuel L Jackson and Michael Douglas - Catherine Zeta Jones narrowly failed a last-minute audition for the Welsh side - to cross the Atlantic in recent years than Americans with a single-figure world golf ranking.
Next week's Presidents Cup match is apparently to blame, with most of the United States players either taking the week off or preparing in the sunshine of Las Vegas. For the first time the Americans are not seeded, although all three are major champions. Tom Lehman, the 1996 Open champion, is a respectable 12th in the world, but Larry Mize, the '87 Masters champion, is 126th, and John Daly, the '95 Open champion over the Old Course, is 424th.
England, missing the World Match Play champion Lee Westwood, and Ireland, lacking Darren Clarke, are also unseeded. Instead, Scotland, led inevitably by Colin Montgomerie, are the top seeds, along with Argentina - who have Eduardo Romero, Angel Cabrera and Jose Coceres all in form - defending champions Spain, who have had to replace Sergio Garcia with Miguel Angel Martin, and two-time winners South Africa.
Random is not an adjective usually associated with the draw here and Group One has an intriguing look with Scotland, Wales and England brought together with Bernhard Langer's Germany. "There are some keen rivalries there," said Jamie Spence, the England captain.
Since Scotland, as a team, and Montgomerie, individually, have struggled to beat opponents from Paraguay, India and China, the Scottish No 1 was just glad he will not be "doing my golfing ambassadorship with third world countries".
Spence, at 105th in the world, is the highest-ranked player in his team, which also includes Brian Davis and Roger Chapman. The last time England won the event was in 1992 with the supposed B team of Spence, Steve Richardson and David Gilford. They beat Scotland in the final, as they have in all five meetings in the tournament.
"Our team? I think we have picked a better line-up than Kevin Keegan did," joked Spence, an Arsenal fan. "I had a feeling we would get Scotland. No one is expecting us to do very well but anything can happen. It is a great event and a very special week."
Such is the majority feeling among the players here. "It will be sad to lose a team event and the opportunity to represent your country," said Jose Maria Olazabal. For Daly, who won eight of his nine matches in 1993 and '98, "this is my Ryder Cup because I'll never get in the team and they sure won't let me be captain".
The 34-year-old has been enjoying a lower profile recently. He has not had a drink "in a month or two" and hardly gambles since "I don't have the money to do it any more".
DUNHILL CUP DRAW AND TEE-OFF TIMES
Round robin group stages (prefix number denotes seeding; winners of each group qualify for semi-finals)
GROUP ONE (1) Scotland, (8) Wales, Germany, England
GROUP TWO (4) South Africa, (5) New Zealand, France, Ireland
GROUP THREE (3) Spain, (6) Sweden, China, Zimbabwe
GROUP FOUR (2) Argentina (7) Australia, Japan, United States
TODAY'STEE-OFF TIMES (seeded positions in brackets):
GROUP TWO
South Africa v France
09.30 D Frost v J-F Remesy 09.40 R Goosen v R Jacquelin 09.50 E Els v T Levet
New Zealand v Ireland
10.00 G Turner v D Smyth 10.10 G Waite v P Harrington 10.20 M Campbell v P McGinley
GROUP FOUR
Australia v United States
10.30 S Leaney v J Daly 10.40 N O'Hern v L Mize 10.50 P O'Malley v T Lehman
Argentina v Japan
11.00 E Romero v T Nishikawa 11.10 A Cabrera v I Aoki 11.20 J Coceres v T Watanabe
GROUP THREE
Spain v China
11.30 M A Jimenez v Wu Xiang-bing 11.40 M A Martin v Zhang Lian-wei 11.50 J M Olazabal v Liang Wen-chong
Sweden v Zimbabwe
12.00 P Sjoland v M McNulty 12.10 P-U Johansson v T Johnstone 12.20 M Gronberg v N Price
GROUP ONE
Wales v England
12.30 I Woosnam v R Chapman 12.40 P Price v B Davis 12.50 D Park v J Spence
Scotland v Germany
13.00 G Orr v B Langer 13.10 A Coltart v T Gogele 1320 C Montgomerie v S Struver
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