Golf: Day, Scott head powerful Australian team for World Cup

[August 15, 2016]    (Reuters) - Current world number one Jason Day and former world number one 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 November 23-27.

International team members Jason Day (R) and Adam Scott of Australia stand on the first green during the four ball matches of the 2015 Presidents Cup golf tournament in Incheon, South Korea, October 9, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

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.

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.

The highest ranked player from each of the 28 participating countries has until August 26 to select his playing partner, with Watson among those yet to announce his team mate.

The announcement by the PGA Tour on 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.

(Reporting by Andrew Both, editing by Neil Robinson)

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