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Scotland's Colin Montgomerie and Marc Warren will take the World Cup back to the home of golf for the first time after beating the United States on the third hole of a sudden death playoff in Shenzhen, China, on Sunday.
A fourth par of the day at the 18th proved enough for the Scots to defeat overnight leaders Boo Weekley and Heath Slocum, pick up a cheque for $800,000 (388,000 pounds) each and make amends for their own playoff defeat by Germany last year.
"To come back after a playoff loss last year and win is superb, particularly as my playoff record is rubbish," Montgomerie told reporters after finally getting his hands on the John Hopkins trophy at the ninth attempt.
The Americans had looked set for victory when the Scots twice found the sand on the first extra hole but Warren nailed a 12-foot putt for par and Slocum just missed a seven-foot birdie effort.
Slocum had successfully drained a birdie putt just two feet shorter at the same green to force the playoff, giving the Americans a five-under 67 to match the Scots, who had shot a superb six-under 66, on 25-under for the tournament. Both teams missed long birdie efforts at the second extra hole before Weekley failed with a 15-footer when he was putting for par to keep the match alive.
The Americans, both making their debuts in the 54-year-old tournament, had led by a shot after all three previous rounds in their pursuit of a 24th World Cup victory for their country. Raphael Jacquelin failed to give his partner Gregory Havret the 31st birthday present he wanted by failing to make a tricky birdie putt at the 18th and the French had to settle for third on 24-under after a final round 67.
England's Justin Rose and Ian Poulter, the only players from the world top 20 in the field, grabbed an eagle three at the ninth but a couple of early bogeys effectively ended their challenge and they finished fourth. Retief Goosen and Trevor Immelman's attempt to win a sixth World Cup for South Africa ended when they had a double bogey at the 12th and dropped another shot at the 13th. They finished fifth on 21 under.
Defending champions Germany finished in a tie for sixth with Argentina, Sweden and the Netherlands. Hosts China were a respectable joint 11th.
Final round scores
263: Scotland (Colin Montgomerie/Marc Warren) 63-68-66-66, USA (Heath Slocum/Boo Weekley) 61-69-66-67. (Scotland win with a par at the third hole of a sudden-death play-off)
264: France (Raphael Jacquelin/Gregory Havret) 64-71-62-67
265: England (Justin Rose/Ian Poulter) 63-68-67-67
267: South Africa (Retief Goosen/Trevor Immelman) 63-69-66-69
268: Sweden (Robert Karlsson/Peter Hanson) 66-70-66-66, Germany (Alex Cejka/Martin Kaymer) 62-71-66-69, Holland (Robert-Jan Derksen/Maarten Lafeber) 65-69-65-69, Argentina (Ricardo Gonzalez/Andres Romero) 65-70-64-69
269: Denmark (Soren Hansen/Anders Hansen) 65-68-68-68
271: Korea (Lee Sung/Lee Seung-ho) 65-69-69-68, China (Zhang Lian-wei/Liang Wen-chong) 65-71-67-68
273: Spain (Miguel Angel Jimenez/Jose Maneul Lara) 67-71-65-70, Finland (Pasi Purhonen/Mikko Ilonen) 63-74-65-71
275: Paraguay (Carlos Franco/Fabrizio Zanotti) 66-73-67-69, Thailand (Thongchai Jaidee/Prayad Marksaeng) 63-76-63-73
276: Austria (Markus Brier/Claude Grenier) 64-75-69-68, India (Jyoti Randhawa/Gaurav Ghei) 65-75-65-71, Italy (Edoardo Molinari/Francesco Molinari) 65-68-69-74, Canada (Mike Weir/Wes Heffernan) 66-72-64-74
279: Australia (Nick O'Hern/Nathan Green) 66-72-68-73
280: Philippines (Gerald Rosales/Tony Lascuna) 67-73-68-72, Wales (Stephen Dodd/Bradley Dredge) 63-76-67-74
281: Ireland (Michael Hoey/Gareth Maybin) 66-72-65-78
282: Japan (Hideto Tanihara/Tetsuji Hiratsuka) 67-73-69-73
283: Colombia (Jorge Benedetti/Gustavo Mendoza) 68-79-68-68
287: New Zealand (Richard Lee/Stephen Scahill) 67-77-70-73
288: Puerto Rico (Miguel Suarez/Wilfredo Morales) 68-73-71-76
Golf World Cup -- Recent winners
2000 -- United States
2001 -- South Africa
2002 -- Japan
2003 -- South Africa
2004 -- England
2005 -- Wales
2006 -- Germany
2007 -- Scotland
