Paraguay flying high

JUDGING by the conversations Ive had with those who watched Sky Sports coverage of this years Womens World Cup at Sun City, the golfing public enjoyed the tournament as much as I and the participants did.

In a world where many of our professional sportsmen get paid fortunes for performing their sport, and often seeming miserable whilst theyre doing it, it was a breath of fresh air to witness Julieta Granada and Celeste Troche of Paraguay win this years event.

Celeste and Julieta quite clearly were having a great time, and not just because they were winning.

With final positions on the LPGA, LET or world rankings determining which nations would participate, Julieta clinched Paraguays place by her spectacular victory in the 2006 LPGA play-offs at The ADT in November.

You may recall that in winning, Julieta became the first lady golfer ever to pick up a m cheque!
While Julietas fantastic rookie season on the LPGA Tour came as no surprise given her sparkling amateur career, with the unheralded Celeste as her partner Paraguay were not really among the favourites to take the title.

Celeste held a conditional card on the LPGA in 2006, which only allowed her seven starts. Without excelling in those seven events, she has no status on the 2007 LPGA Tour and nowhere to play save for sponsors invitations.

In Sun City, Celeste not only supported her younger more illustrious partner well, but often outplayed her. Certainly her putting was the more consistant and reliable of the Paraguyans.

Paraguays victory, and their obvious delight at winning such a prestigous event, reminded me of the the joy that Karen Stupples exuded when winning The Weetabix at Sunningdale in 2004.

It will be interesting to see what effect their victory has in their home country which only has six golf courses!

From the moment Celeste birdied the 10th in the final round to open up a six-shot margin over the USAs Juli Inkster and Pat Hurst as well as Italy, Korea and Scotland, Paraguays victory never seemed in doubt.

It could be argued the switch in format from playing individually with the two scores added together on the last day to playing that format on day one and playing a betterball on the last day made the leaders harder to catch.

But I think Tania Fourie, the tireless and effervessent Tournament Director got it right.

Tania is one of the most enthusiastic people that Ive ever met in the world of golf, and the success of the Womens World Cup is in large part due to her persistence and commitment to bring world-class ladies golf to South Africa.

As well as the USA, England had one of the strongest teams on paper, represented by European No 1 in 2006 Laura Davies and Trish Johnson.

Laura, who is always worth listening to when it comes to advice on who to put a bet on, fancied the French team, represented by Gwladys Nocera and Stephanie Arricau, but neither England nor France played to their potential.

Of the Home Nations, Scotlands Janice Moodie and Mhairi McKay played some wonderful golf to finish in a tie for fourth with Italy.

Janice and Mhairi only knew that they would be playing in the World Cup after the Phillipines withdrawal on the Monday of tournament week.

Considering Janice hadnt played competetively since last May due to the birth of her son Craig and Mhairis driving was poor, the two Scots did brilliantly.

I hope that their performance will give them both confidence for the forthcoming season.

For many years the Gary Player course at Sun City was ranked as the best course in South Africa.

Having played there on many occasions, I can vouch for its difficulty with Kikuyu grass lining most of the fairways and the surrounds to the greens.

Add to that the extremely high temperatures and coming off a winter break, and it is easy to see why everyone but the Paraguayans struggled at some point throughout the week.

What I can say without doubt is that the Womens World Cup is a huge success.

It is played at a world-class venue, has a top-quality field and in this years winners has surely launched two stars of womens golf for the future.

My congratulations to Tania and her team for organising such a wonderful event long may it continue!