The Omega Mission Hills World Cup

In its first year as host, Mission Hills' Olazabal Course was universally lauded by participants and media alike. Its namesake, the two-time Masters champion, collaborated with Schmidt-Curley Design to create a well-bunkered and dramatically contoured layout. As public relations director Stephen Reynolds puts it, "Memorable holes abound, like the par-5 15th, featuring 26 bunkers, and the long par-4 18th finishing in the shadows of the massive Dongguan Clubhouse." If it sounds like something straight out of the Scottish Highlands, it couldn't be further away.

Stretching across the rolling hills of Shenzhen and Dongguan in southern China, Mission Hills is China's highest rated golf club, and the largest golf club in the world according to the Guinness World Records. The property is home to 12 resort and championship courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, Annika Sorenstam, Ernie Els, Jose Maria Olazabal, Vijay Singh, David Leadbetter, David Duval, Jumbo Ozaki and Zhang Lian Wei.

Mission Hills is also a luxury resort, featuring four clubhouses, three spas, two five-star hotels, three golf academies (including golf schools from world renowned instructors David Leadbetter and Cindy Reid), 51 tennis courts and numerous fine dining establishments serving cuisine from around the world. It has hosted more than 50 international tournaments, including the 1995 World Cup of Golf and the Tiger Woods China Challenge in 2001.

After changing it's name from the Canada Cup in 1967, the event became known simply as the World Cup. It will be known as the Omega Mission Hills World Cup through 2018.

The 2008 Omega Mission Hills World Cup will offer a purse of $5.5 million, an increase of $500,000 from 2007. It is a four-day team event featuring a four-ball (better-ball) format on days one and three, and a foursomes (alternate shot) format on days two and four. The depth of the field isn't quite as powerful as the Open Championship or the Player's Championship, but the truly international field is a great display of the rising popularity of golf around the world, even though, as some would say, it is presently stagnant in the West.

To date, here are the exempt teams and qualifiers for this world golf event event to be held November 27-30:

Australia (Richard Green, Brendan Jones),

Chile (Felipe Aquilar, Mark Tullo),

Denmark (Soren Hansen, Anders Hansen),

England (Ian Poulter, Ross Fisher),

France (Gregory Havret, Gregory Bourdy),

Germany (Martin Kaymer, Alex Cejka),

India (Jeev M. Singh, Jyoti Randhawa),

Ireland (Graeme McDowell, Paul McGinley),

Italy (Francesco and Edoardo Molinari)

Japan (Ryuji Imada, Toru Taniguchi),

Korea (Bae Sang-moon, Kim Hyung-tae)

New Zealand (Mark Brown, David Small),

Philippines (Angelo Que, Mars Pucay)

Scotland (Alastair Forysth, Colin Montgomerie),

South Africa (Rory Sabbatini, Richard Sterne),

Spain (Miguel Angel Jimenez, Pablo Larrazabal),

Sweden (Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson),

Taiwan (Wen-Tang Lin, Wen-Teh Lu),

Thailand (Prayad Marksaeng, Thongchai Jaidee),

United States (To Be Determined),

Wales (Bradley Dredge, Richard Johnson).

Two more qualifying events, one in Poland (September 25-28) and another in Venezuela (October 7-10), will complete the field.

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