The World Cup

I have to admit, I'm no longer certain what the governing body or sponsoring organization is for the World Cup. Is it still the International Federation of PGA Tours? That's the group behind the World Golf Championships (WGC) tournaments, of which the World Cup used to be one. But not anymore.

The World Cup's Web site has a countdown calendar that stopped working 23 days ago. And most of its links are broken.

Wonder what the future holds for this event, which once - when Nicklaus and Palmer were teaming up to play it - was held is great esteem. I suppose it's secure for at least 12 years, given that title sponsor Omega signed a contract of that duration.

Still some pretty good teams playing, however. England is represented by Ian Poulter and Justin Rose; South Africa by Retief Goosen and Trevor Immelman. Boo Weekley and Heath Slocum are the U.S. team. The U.S. hasn't won since 2000, when the team must have looked as daunting to its competition as those Nicklaus-Palmer pairings in the '60s and '70s: Tiger Woods and David Duval.

Must be hard for the Aussie duo of Nathan Green and Nick O'Hern to play this tournament opposite the MasterCard Masters (a k a, the Australian Masters) in Melbourne. Every other "name" Australian golfer is there.

(Update: The PGA Tour has a much better Web site for the tourney here, and it is covered with the logos of the six full members of the International Federation of PGA Tours, so I guess that organization is still the governing group. I also learned from the PGA Tour's site that the host course, Mission Hills, has a Cinnabar.)