World Cup: Yesterday, on the Victoria course at Vilamoura that Arnie Palmer built, the flags of 24 nations fluttered in the wind. The plethora of national colours indicated something special is happening here this week and, indeed, the World Cup will start tomorrow.
Yet, there was a peculiar feel to it all, as barely a handful of players took in a practice round and still more of those entitled to be here were absent with no intention of ever coming to this €3.4-million championship.
In fact, only 13 of the world's top-50-ranked players are competing. For instance, the Americans had to go as far down as their ninth-choice player, Stewart Cink, to find someone willing to fly the flag on Portuguese soil at a time when some men have already put away their clubs.
Tiger Woods at least had the excuse that he is defending his title in Japan this week in the Phoenix Dunlop tournament, but Phil Mickelson, Chris DiMarco, Jim Furyk (also in Japan), Kenny Perry, David Toms, Davis Love and Fred Couples all rejected invites to be part of Team USA before Cink said yes and nominated Zach Johnson as his playing partner.
It's not just an American thing to snub the event, either. Under the qualifying rules, the leading 18 players of different nationalities in the world rankings are eligible and, if they enter, are able to nominate their partners.
But the decisions of Vijay Singh, Michael Campbell, Mike Weir, Nick Price and Thongchai Jaidee not to play mean Fiji, New Zealand, Canada, Zimbabwe and Thailand are not even in the field.
Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington didn't fly into the Algarve until last evening, but there were no murmurs about the lateness of their arrival. Nobody can doubt their commitment to the World Cup.
This is their ninth successive year to form Ireland's partnership and they are part of an elite group of only four - Angel Cabrera of Argentina and Thomas Levet of France being the other two - who have played in every World Cup since it came under the World Golf Championship umbrella in 2000.
The reasons for their late arrival here were perfectly legitimate. McGinley decided to spent some quality time at home with his family en-route home from playing in China last week. Harrington decided it would be worth his while spending the day practising under the watchful eye of his coach, Bob Torrance, at Largs, in Scotland, before hooking up with McGinley in London for the trip down.
In tomorrow's first round of fourballs, the Dubliners - who won the title in 1997, at which stage it was not a WGC event - will play alongside Manuel Bermudez and Carlos Larrain of Venezuela, one of five countries to come through pre-qualifying.
With some €600,000 apiece on offer to the winners, the continued absence of so many of the world's elite is a disappointment to McGinley.
"Sure, it's disappointing the World Cup does not get a stronger field," he said.
"There's a huge amount of history and it's a shame it does not attract the top players in the world. But it's important to us. We don't view it the same way (as others). I've never missed an opportunity to play and I never would."
McGinley comes into the championship after experiencing his best-ever season in Europe, culminating with his success in the Volvo Masters last month. It meant McGinley, after knocking on the door throughout the season, could finally bask in the glory of winning.
Harrington, in contrast, had already won twice on the US Tour - in the Honda Classic and the Barclays Classic - in a season McGinley observed of his friend was "a very-unlike-Padraig season. Normally he's Mr Consistency, but he has made up for that with those two wins . . . in terms of his status and position in the world, he hasn't lost any ground."
The truth of the matter is that the McGinley-Harrington partnership, in terms of placings in the world rankings, is bettered by only one other team this week, that of England.
The combined world rankings of David Howell and Luke Donald add up to 28, while those of the Irish duo (14th and 20th) come to 34.
Spain - represented by Sergio Garcia (6th) and Miguel Angel Jimenez (57th) - have a combined figure of 63, while the Americans are a combined 74.
All of which would indicate the Irish pair have every right to feel confident about their chances.
(Fourballs)
8.40 - Colombia (E Herrera/D Vanegas), Wales (B Dredge/S Dodd).
8.52 - Germany (C Reimbold/A Cejka), Paraguay (M Ruiz/C Franco).
9.04 - Mexico (A Quiroz/P Del Olmo), France (R Jacquelin/T Levet) .
9.16 - Scotland (S Drummond/S Gallacher), Sweden (H Stenson/N Fasth).
9.28 - India (A Atwal/J Randhawa), Korea (KJ Choi/KJ Jang).
9.40 - Japan (T Taniguichi/Y Imano), Australia (M Hensby/P Lonard).
9.52 - Holland (RJ Derksen/M Lafeber), Spain (MA Jimenez/S Garcia).
10.04 - Singapore (M Mamat/CB Lam), South Africa (T Clark/T Immelman).
10.16 - Denmark (A Hansen/S Hansen), USA (Z Johnson/S Cink).
10.28 - Venezuela (M Bermudez/C Larrain), Ireland (P Harrington/P McGinley).
10.40 - Taiwan (Wang TC/Chang TP), Argentina (R Gonzalez/A Cabrera).
10.52 - Portugal (JF Lima/A Sobrinho), England (D Howell/L Donald).
