LONDON, Oct 4: This year’s World Cup of Golf two-man team competition has managed to attract only four of the game’s top 20 players because of its tight scheduling, organisers have announced.

The World Cup, the fourth and final World Golf Championship (WGC) event of the year, will be held next month immediately after the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship and right before the Ryder Cup-style Presidents Cup in South Africa.

Of the world’s top 20, the only players taking part are the American duo of US Open champion Jim Furyk (world number five) and Justin Leonard (15), Ireland’s Padraig Harrington (10) and South Korea’s K.J. Choi (16).

“We understand the sensitivities that time of year and scheduling put upon the players,” Jack Warfield, vice-president of championship management for the PGA Tour, said in a statement.

“In light of this busy schedule, we are extremely happy to have first-time major champion and US Open winner Jim Furyk accept as captain of the US team.

“We are also very pleased to have Justin Leonard...who was part of the American team the last time the World Cup was held at Kiawah (in 1997), round out the U.S. squad.”

Many of the world’s leading players are competing in both the Tour Championship and the Presidents Cup and prefer to take a week’s break in between the two events.

As a result, former world number one Nick Price of Zimbabwe, Canada’s US Masters champion Mike Weir and twice major winner Vijay Singh of Fiji have decided to miss the $3-million World Cup, costing their countries a place in the event.

Other absentees include Tiger Woods and Davis Love, ranked one and four in the world, former US Open champions Ernie Els and Retief Goosen of South Africa, Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke, Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie and Spaniard Sergio Garcia.

The World Cup, being staged for the 49th time, will be played on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island in the United States from Nov 13-16.

There will be 24 teams, of which 18 gain automatic exemption with their players qualifying via individual world rankings.—Reuters