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MARDAN Mamat and Lam Chih Bing are in their best form prior to a World Cup event. The popular duo, who formed the Singapore team for three previous World Cup tournaments, get together again after three years. This time they are in buoyant mood. The Singapore team is one of 28 countries for the 2009 edition starting at the Mission Hills Golf Club in China on Thursday. Mardan and Lam arrived in Shenzhen yesterday evening on the back of solid showings at the Cambodian Open which ended last Sunday. Mardan fired a brilliant five-under 67 on the final day to propel himself to joint-third spot in the Asian Tour event with a seven-under 281 total. He won US$15,130 ($21,182) for the effort and is currently in 11th spot on the Asian Tour's Order of Merit with US$217,154.20 in earnings for the season. Earnings Lam shot a 69 to finish joint-ninth, two shots behind Mardan. Lam won a cheque for US$5,746.50. Lam's total Asian Tour earnings for the season is US$119,609.83. Veteran Mardan, who had to return to Singapore from Cambodia before taking a flight out to Hong Kong, is also happy with his putting, which has been his Achilles heel for a long time. He said after closing with a 12-foot birdie-putt on the final hole on Sunday in Cambodia: 'I have been struggling with my putting throughout the year but when I was practising my putting on Saturday, I managed to find what was bothering me and I think that's why I started to sink more putts. 'It has been quite a long time since I saw my name on the leaderboard so it was about time to shoot something good.' This will be the fourth time Mardan and Lam will be partnering in the World Cup. In 2002, they finished joint-17th, 20th in 2005 and 17th in 2006. Singapore are seeded 23rd, but Mardan feels confident that Lam and he can fare better than that ranking. Sweden, represented by Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson, are the defending champions.
THE TEAMS 1 Spain (Sergio Garcia/Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano) 2 Sweden (Henrik Stenson/Robert Karlsson) 3 Ireland (Rory McIlroy/Graeme McDowell) 4 England (Ian Poulter/Ross Fisher) 5 Germany (Martin Kaymer/Alex Cejka) 6 South Africa (Rory Sabbatini/Richard Sterne) 7 United States (Nick Watney/John Merrick) 8 Australia (Robert Allenby/Stuart Appleby) 9 Denmark (Soren Hansen/Soren Kjeldsen) 10 India (Jeev Milkha Singh/Jyoti Randhawa) 11 Thailand (Thongchai Jaidee/Prayad Marksaeng) 12 Argentina (Tano Goya/Rafa Echenique) 13 Italy (Francesco Molinari/Edoardo Molinari) 14 Japan (Ryuji Imada/Hiroyuki Fujita) 15 France (Thomas Levet/Christian Cevaer) 16 Taiwan (Lin Wen-tang/Lu Wei-chih) 17 New Zealand (David Smail/Danny Lee) 18 South Korea (Yang Yong Eun/Charlie Wi) 19 Wales (Stephen Dodd/Jamie Donaldson) 20 Scotland (David Drysdale/Alastair Forsyth) 21 Canada (Graeme Deleat/Stuart Anderson) 22 China (Liang Wenchong/ Zhang Lian Wei) 23 Singapore (Lam Chih Bing/Mardan Mamat) 24 Philippines (Angelo Que/Mars Pucay) 25 Venezuela (Jhonattan Vegas/Alfredo Adrian) 26 Chile (Martin Ureta/Hugo Leon) 27 Pakistan (Muhammad Munir/Muhammad Shabbir) 28 Brazil (Rafael Barcellos/Ronaldo Francisco).
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