Monday 28 November 2016 11:56, UK
Richard Kaufman looks back on another successful World Cup of Golf in Melbourne and pays tribute to champions Denmark, and the quality of the Kingston Heath Golf Club.
In a way, I was pretty pleased it didn't come down to a shoot out between Australia and England. After all, I was pretty out-numbered in the commentary box. But it never looked like coming down to that as Marc Leishman and Adam Scott never got going until it was too late to challenge, while Andy Sullivan and Chris Wood fell away in round three.
The main winners of this World Cup were team Denmark as well as Kingston Heath Golf Club. What a great setting for this event, and if you've never been to this part of the world before, it is golfing heaven.
I had a little whizz around prior to arriving to the course for the final round and in a loop that was just 10 minutes in the car, I got to see the world-famous Royal Melbourne and a couple of the other courses that are part of the Melbourne sandbelt. At a glance, all looked like great layouts.
Of course, I got to see Kingston Heath in greater detail and it's fantastic. Not long by modern standards, but it is a classic golf course where you can plot your way round. There are holes where you can take anything from a six-iron to a driver dependent on your strategy. The bunkering is magnificent and the tight run-off areas around the greens mean the players' short games are really tested.
I know it was in the middle of the night back home, but hopefully you got to see some of the action. Denmark were deserved winners, although a hotter putter from Rickie Fowler and some steadier play from Jimmy Walker, and the USA might have been able to put even more pressure on.
But who couldn't be happy for the Danes? Thobjorn Olesen and Soren Kjeldsen are two very different type of players but given what I said about this course, you can see why it worked for them. Both played extremely well, and for Kjeldsen, this was right up his alley.
He described Thorbjorn as the flashy player in their partnership, while describing his reliability from tee to green as: "I'm like the trains, always on time". He obviously doesn't get too many trains in the UK!
Since turning 40, Kjeldsen has been superb. A top-10 at the Masters this year was testament to his skills. As for his partner in Melbourne, he has real potential, doesn't he? I mentioned it in commentary but it's interesting after just missing out on the Ryder Cup, he took up the offer to be a buggy driver for Thomas Bjorn at Hazeltine National. It was obviously a positive experience!
He also changed his clubs just prior to his win in Turkey where, like at Kingston Heath, he had a big lead heading into the final round which then got cut to one, before surging away again. It was also interesting that, despite having played so well in Turkey, he had a new putter in the bag this week. But as his putt showed on 18 to put the cherry on the icing on the cake, it worked out pretty well for him.
It was very much a team effort and I like this format, where there is no individual prize - the organisers of golf at the Olympic Games should take note. It was no surprise to see the likes of Alex Noren and Hideki Matsuyama in teams that finished high up the leaderboard. What a few months those boys have had.
And Victor Dubuisson is back to the player who played such a big part in the 2014 Ryder Cup. Like France, China had their best World Cup finish and the pair of Wu Ashun and Li Haotong were great fun. Li, in particular, has the game that can be a hit anywhere.
He says his next goal is to get into the top 50 of the world. If he plays like this, it won't take him long.
