Swedes Win World Cup of Golf

Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson closed with a 9-under-par 63 to give Sweden the victory in the 2008 World Cup of Golf in Shenzhen, China.

Four shots behind the leaders at the start of the day, the Swedes altered the landscape with a sizzling front-nine of 31 in the alternate-shot format to tie third-round leader, Spain, with Miguel Angel Jimenez and Pablo Larrazabal. On the back nine Karlsson and Stenson continued their hot streak, notching four more birdies. The twosome ended up at 27-under-par 261, splitting the winner's share of $1.7 million and giving Sweden its second World Cup triumph.

The Spaniards settled for second with a 70. Third-round co-leader Australia, with Brendan Jones and Richard Green, finished tied for third after a 76. Matching the Aussies was Japan's team of Ryuji Imada and Toru Taniguchi, who closed with a 68.

Led by Per-Ulrik Johansson and Anders Forsbrand, Sweden's previous World Cup victory came in 1991. But Karlsson, ranked No. 6 in the world, and the 12th-ranked Stenson lived up to their billing at Mission Hills by saving their best for the final round.

"It means a great deal to win for the country," Karlsson said. "This has always been an event in Sweden that's been big. It's quite a new country for golf, and to play for your country is great. I just hope this tournament can keep getting better by the years. If you look on the trophy, there's many impressive pairings on there. I hope we can look back on it in the future and say the same about us playing here."

"It's a great honor to play for your country, and obviously even better when you win," added Stenson. "So we have had a fantastic week. Sweden only won it once before in 1991. So it was about time that we changed that and got our name up there again, and I hope we can continue."

The victory concludes a banner year for Swedish golf and Karlsson, who a few weeks ago became the first Swede to win the European Tour's Order of Merit. He said the team knew a low round in the challenging foursomes format was possible after Spain produced a 63 Friday.

"We thought it might be our turn today. We knew we needed to play better than yesterday. It was important for us to pick up a few shots early which we did," said Karlsson, who was making his third World Cup appearance but first with Stenson as a partner.

Jimenez and Larrazabal couldn't duplicate their earlier low round. "We didn't hole the putts today, and I missed the fairway on the par-5s and we needed to make birdies on the par-5s," said Jimenez. "That's the game. We just didn't make under par and didn't win."

Larrazabal, the European Tour's 2008 Rookie of the Year added: "We didn't play like the first and second rounds, but still it was a good performance and a great tournament for us. But you know, I wanted so badly to go home with the trophy, and I'm a little bit sad now."

The American team of Ben Curtis and Brandt Snedeker finished alone in ninth after closing with a 73.

Final Results

261: Sweden (Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson) 65-67-66-63 $1.7 million
264: Spain (Miguel Angel Jimenez, Pablo Larrazabal) 64-63-67-70 $900,000
270: Japan (Ryuji Imada, Toru Taniguchi) 66-68-68-68, Australia (Richard Green, Brendan Jones) 63-68-63-76 $429,000
272: Germany (Martin Kaymer, Alex Cejka) 62-69-68-73 $230,000
273: England (Ian Poulter, Ross Fisher) 69-74-63-67 $200,000
274: South Africa (Rory Sabbatini, Richard Sterne) 70-70-67-67, Thailand (Prayad Marksaeng, Thongchai Jaidee) 69-73-64-68 $155,000
275: USA (Ben Curtis, Brandt Snedeker) 64-69-69-73 $125,000
276: Chile (Felipe Aguilar, Mark Tullo) 67-76-66-67, France (Gregory Havret, Gregory Bourdy) 68-75-62-71, Philippines (Angelo Que, Marciano Pucay) 67-72-65-72 $96,667
277: Portugal (Tiago Cruz, Ricardo Santos) 67-73-67-70, Canada (Graham Delaet, Wes Heffernan) 64-71-69-73, Denmark (Soren Hansen, Anders Hansen) 65-75-64-73 $70,333
278: Ireland (Graeme McDowell, Paul McGinley) 65-68-68-77 $64,000
280: India (Jeev Mikha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa) 67-72-70-71, China (Liang Wen-chong, Zhang Lian-wei) 69-75-64-72 $61,000
281: Scotland (Alastair Forsyth, Colin Montgomerie) 68-73-68-72, Italy (Francesco Molinari, Edoardo Molinari) 70-73-64-74 $57,000
282: Finland (Roope Kakko, Mikko Korhonen) 69-70-68-75 $54,000
283: Guatemala (Pablo Acuna, Alejandro Villavicencio) 69-76-66-72, New Zealand (Mark Brown, David Smail) 65-75-68-75 $51,000
284: Chinese Taipei (Lin Wen-tang, Lu Wen-teh) 68-75-69-72 $48,000
285: Wales (Bradley Dredge, Richard Johnson) 69-77-68-71 $46,000
287: Korea (Bae Sang-moon, Kim Hyung-tae) 68-70-71-78 $44,000
288: Mexico (Daniel De Leon, Osca Serna) 66-77-71-74 $42,000
294: Venezuela (Miguel Martinez, Raul Sanz) 71-74-75-74 $40,000