Wednesday 23 November 2016 14:29, UK
Chris Wood and Andy Sullivan agreed that the lure of representing England in this week's World Cup of Golf was impossible to resist despite both players having to postpone their holidays.
The Ryder Cup stars were scheduled to take an extended break from the game following the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, but they have changed their plans to compete at the superb Kingston Heath course in Melbourne.
But Danny Willett, who had chosen Lee Westwood as his partner, opted to pull out to protect his suspect back and Wood was the next highest-ranked player to be given the option of teeing it up with Justin Rose unavailable.
Wood decided to bring in Sullivan rather than retain Westwood for the competition, a move that prompted the latter to express his disappointment during the European Tour finale last week.
Wood responded on Sunday by hinting that Willett was in the wrong for choosing Westwood in the first place, with four other English players higher up in the world rankings.
"I went down the rankings and I did it in as fair a way as I could," Wood said after his final round at the Jumeirah Golf Estates. "There wasn't this much fuss when Danny jumped myself, Tyrrell Hatton, Fitzy (Matt Fitzpatrick) and Sully to get to Lee.
"I totally understand Lee's frustration, you're ready to go, but myself and Sully are hungry to go and play and surely that's what you want."
And on their arrival in Australia, Wood and Sullivan insisted they were happy to interrupt their breaks as they bid to become only the third English pair to win the event after David Carter and Nick Faldo in 1998, and Paul Casey with Luke Donald 12 years ago.
"I was having six weeks off just to chill out a little longer," said Sullivan. "But I'm not sure how many World Cups I'm going to be invited to play, so when you get the opportunity to come and play, the only answer I was going to give was yes."
Wood added: "I had a holiday planned with my wife, so she went home instead of being on holiday with me in Dubai. I had to deal with that gently!
"But the chance to play in a World Cup and the golf courses down here are so good. These sort of sandbelt courses I could play for the rest of my life, so the opportunity to come down here and play, I'm always going to take it.
"We've got a height difference to overcome for the week, but it will be great. We both play the same ball so it will be pretty easy for us. We've both had pretty good years, both played Ryder Cup. So this is a great end to the season for both of us."
Wood and Sullivan are one of only two teams featuring two players ranked inside the world's top 50, the other being the American Ryder Cup pairing of Rickie Fowler and PGA champion Jimmy Walker.
Thomas Pieters, the leading points scorer on his stunning debut at Hazeltine, plays alongside former Ryder Cup star Nicolas Colsaerts for Belgium, while the home nation are represented by Adam Scott and Marc Leishman.
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