Current world No. 1 Jason Day and former world No. 1 Adam Scott will form a powerful two-man Australian team for the World Cup of Golf in November. They will be playing at home in the 58th staging of the event, to be held at Kingston Heath in Melbourne from Nov. 23-27. Day and Scott will be defending champions, after winning the event at Royal Melbourne in 2013. The World Cup was not played in 2014 or 2015. "The victory at the 2013 World Cup of Golf was a kick-start to a phenomenal stretch of golf for me," Day said. "I really can't imagine a better scenario than to represent Australia in our home country, with one of my good mates at Kingston Heath, one of my all-time favorite courses." Other highly ranked players committed to taking part include American Bubba Watson, English pair Danny Willett and Lee Westwood, Japanese ace Hideki Matsuyama and Scottish talent Russell Knox. Willett, whose form has tailed off since his remarkable win in the first major of the season in April, earned the right to choose his partner because he is the highest-ranked Englishman who said he would compete in Australia. "It's a different format this time so I'm really looking forward to playing with Westy," said Willett, who finished 37th in the golf tournament at the Rio Olympics. "He's played in nine Ryder Cups and has unbelievable experience of foursomes and fourballs, so I couldn't have picked a better partner," added the 28-year-old. The highest ranked player from each of the 28 participating countries has until Aug. 26 to select his playing partner, with Watson among those yet to announce his teammate. World No. 6 Bubba Watson will lead the US charge. "I've been wanting to make the World Cup of Golf team for a while," Watson said. "I love the team format, it is different to other events that we play and I know it will be a great experience." The announcement by the PGA Tour Monday of some of the prominent participants comes one day after Briton Justin Rose clinched the Olympic men's golf gold medal. Day and Scott were among a number of highly ranked players who skipped Rio. Day cited fears of contracting the Zika virus, while Scott was the first player to announce he would not play, because he does not think golf belongs in the Olympics.
