Scots duo Knox and Laird aim to conquer the world in Melbourne
AND Scotland have won the World Cup. No, that’s not a wild prediction for future fitba’ success after wins over the mighty Albania and Israel. We were merely recalling the year that Scotland were on top of the golfing world in 2007.
The alliance of Marc Warren and Colin Montgomerie scored the country’s first, and as yet only, success in the World Cup in China. This week, the tartan twosome of Russell Knox and Martin Laird will be trying to emulate the feat in Melbourne as the event marks its 65th anniversary.
Back in its formative years, the World Cup, originally known as the Canada Cup, was one of the most venerated in the game and its list of champions read like the Encyclopaedia of Well Kent Golfing Giants.
Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus teamed up regularly and won four times, Kel Nagle and Peter Thomson triumphed for Australia, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead forged a formidable double act.
But nowadays the big hitters of the global scene tend to give it a wide berth. But with a prize fund of some $7 million it’s still nice work if you can get it.
For the Scottish duo of Knox and Laird, it’s a chance to reprise a pairing that dovetailed pretty nicely on the PGA Tour earlier this season when they finished seventh in the Zurich Classic team event.
“I would say Martin is probably the highest ball-hitter on tour whereas I am probably one of the lowest ball-hitters,” said Knox. “Martin plays everything left-toright while I play the majority of my shots right-to-left. I am very straight off the tee and he is maybe not as straight, so we compliment each other extremely well. Or at least we did when we last played together.”
All will be revealed this weekend.