EURASIA Cup 2018: What you need to know

The EurAsia Cup returns this week for its 3rd edition. Here’s what you need to know about the 2018 event. 

Originally first played in 2014, the EurAsia Cup replaced the previous Royal Trophy event (2006-2013), and will be played once again at the Glenmarie Golf and Country Club, west of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

EurAsia Cup 2018: The Format

In 2014, the teams consisted of 10 players with the format being 5 fourball, 5 foursome and 10 singles matches. In the 2016 and 2018 editions, the number was increased to 12, with the format being as follows;

Friday: 6 Fourball Matches
Saturday: 6 Foursome Matches
Sunday: 12 Singles Matches

EurAsia Cup 2018: The Teams

Europe: Captain Thomas Bjorn
Rafa Cabrera Bello, Paul Casey, Paul Dunne, Ross Fisher, Matt Fitzpatrick, Tyrrell Hatton, Alex Levy, Alex Noren, Thomas Pieters, Henrik Stenson, Bernd Wiesberger, Tommy Fleetwood

Asia: Captain Arjun Atwal
Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Byeong Hun An, SSP Chawrasia, Nichoals Fung, Gavin Green, Li Haotong, Yuta Ikeda, Sunghoon Kang, Phachara Khongwatmai, Anirban Lahiri, Haotong Li, Poom Saksansin

First Round Fixtures: Click Here

EurAsia Cup 2018: The Course

The Glenmarie Golf and Country Club, west of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will stage the event for its third consecutive time. Opened in 1994 by the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammed, and originally designed by American Max Wexler (updated by Ted Parslow in 2008-09). 

In the previous two editions of the event, 40 of the 44 matches have finished over the last four holes, while 16 matches have been decided on the final hole. 

EurAsia Cup 2018: How to Watch

Friday (Jan 12): Sky Sports Main Event (03:30), Sky Sports Golf (03:30)
Saturday (Jan 13): Sky Sports Golf (03:30)
Sunday (Jan 14): Sky Sports Golf (03:30)

EurAsia Cup 2018: How do the teams match up? 

2014 Result: Europe 10-10 (tie) Asia
2016 Result: Europe 18½ – 5½ Asia

Defending champions Europe are the undoubted favourites, having six players inside the World’s top 20, and just two sitting outside the World’s top 50 (Alex Levy is #74 and Paul Dunne is #75). While nine members of the team are EurAsia Cup rookies, those include the likes of Henrik Stenson, Tommy Fleetwood and Paul Casey. Six players in Europe’s EurAsia Cup team have Ryder Cup experience, and only three players (Alex Levy, Tyrrell Hatton and Paul Dunne) have no professional experience of playing in a team event like this. 

Conversley, Asia’s have just two players ranked inside the World’s top 50 (Yuta Ikeda at #36 and Kiradech Aphibarnrat at #49). From there, the rankings range from Li Haotong at #59, all the way to Nicholas Fung, who is the current World No. 335. However, they have five rookies on comparison to Europe’s nine, yet four of those have no professional team experience. 

Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello said of the match-up:”If you have to pick a favourite, it would be Europe, but people don’t win tournaments or events on paper. You win them out there on the golf course.”

“We are not playing in this type of greens that often and we don’t play in this type of weather and heat that often, so I don’t think in this case the World Ranking is actually a good reflection because we tend to play other climates in other parts of the world. If we played here as often as they did maybe it would be a better picture. I don’t think the World Rankings show how close the actual tournament is going to be.

Team Europe

Rafa Cabrera Bello: World No.20

EurAsia Cup ROOKIE
Previous Experience: 2016 Ryder Cup 
Overall Record: 2-0-1
Singles: 1-0-0, Foursomes: 0-0-1, Fourball: 1-0-0

Paul Casey: World No.14

EurAsia Cup ROOKIE
Previous Appearances: Ryder Cup ’04, ’06, ’08; Seve Trophy ’02, ’03, ’05
Overall Record: 13-8-5 
Singles: 4-3-1: Foursomes: 2-3-0 : Fourball: 7-2-4 : Greensomes: 1-2-0

Ross Fisher: World No.31

EurAsia Cup appearances: 2016 
Previous Appearances: Ryder Cup 2010, Seve Trophy 2009, 2011
Overall Record: 9-6-2
Singles: 0-2-2, Foursomes: 3-1-0, Fourball: 4-3-0, Greensomes: 2-0-0

Alex Noren: World No. 19

EurAsia Cup ROOKIE
Previous Appearances: Royal Trophy ’10, Seve Trophy ’11
Overall Record: 4-3-1 Singles: 1-1-0, Foursomes: 1-1-0, Fourball: 2-1-0, Greensomes: 0-0-1

Tommy Fleetwood: World No. 18

EurAsia Cup ROOKIE
Previous Appearances: Seve Trophy 2013 
Overall Record: 1-3-0 
Singles: 1-0-0, Fourball 0-2-0, Foursome 0-1-0

Matt Fitzpatrick: World No. 29

Previous Appearances: EurAsia Cup (’16), Ryder Cup (’16)
Overall Record: 2-3-0
Singles: 1-1-0, Foursomes: 1-1-0, Fourball: 0-1-0

Thomas Pieters: World No. 38

EurAsia Cup appearances: ROOKIE
Previous Appearances: Ryder Cup ‘16
Overall Record: 4-1-0
Singles: 1-0-0, Fourballs: 2-0-0, Foursomes: 1-1-0

Henrik Stenson: World No. 9

EurAsia Cup appearances: ROOKIE
Previous Appearances: Seve Trophy (’05, ’09), Royal Trophy (’06, ’07, ’10, ’12), Ryder Cup (’06, ’08, ’14, ’16)
Overall Record:18-13-8
Singles: 4-3-4, Foursomes: 6-4-2, Fourball: 8-6-1, Greensomes 0-0-1

Bernd Wiesberger: World No.42

Previous Appearances: EurAsia Cup ‘16, Royal Trophy ’13
Overall Record 4-2-0
Singles: 1-1-0, Foursomes: 1-1-0, Fourball: 2-0-0

Tyrrell Hatton: World No.17
EurAsia Cup appearances: ROOKIE

Alex Levy: World No. 74
EurAsia Cup appearances: ROOKIE

Paul Dunne: World No.75
EurAsia Cup appearances: ROOKIE

Team Asia

Byeong Hun An: World No. 100

Previous Appearance: EurAsia Cup (’16) 
Overall Record: 1-2-0 
Singles: 0-1-0, Fourball: 1-0-0, Foursomes: 0-1-0

Kiradech Aphibarnrat: World No. 49

Previous Appearance: Royal Trophy (’12, ’13), EurAsia Cup (’14, ’16)
Overall Record: 5-4-3
Singles: 2-1-1, Fourball: 1-2-1, Foursome: 2-1-1

SSP Chawraisia: World No. 214

Previous Appearance: EurAsia Cup (’16)
Overall Record: 1-2-0
Singles: 0-1-0, Fourball: 0-1-0, Foursomes: 1-0-0

Nicholas Fung: World No. 335

Previous Appearance: EurAsia Cup (’14, 16)
Overall Record: 0-4-2
Singles: 0-2-0, Fourball: 0-1-1, Foursomes: 0-1-1

Yuta Ikeda: World No. 36

Previous Appearance: Royal Trophy (’11)
Overall Record: 1-2-0
Singles: 0-1-0, Fourball: 1-0-0, Foursomes: 0-1-0

Anirban Lahiri: World No. 68

Previous Appearance: EurAsia Cup (’14,’16), Presidents Cup (’15,’17) 
Overall Record: 4-7-1 
Singles: 2-1-1, Fourball: 1-4-0, Foursome: 1-2-0

Hideto Tanihara: World No. 69

Previous Appearance: Royal Trophy (’09), EurAsia Cup (’14) 
Overall Record: 2-2-2 
Singles: 0-1-1, Fourball: 1-1-0, Foursome 1-0-1 

Sunghoon Kang: World No. 81

Previous Appearance: ROOKIE

Li Haotong: World No. 59

Previous Appearance: ROOKIE

Phacara Khongwatmai: World No. 159

Previous Appearance: ROOKIE

Poom Saksansin: World No. 172

Previous Appearance: ROOKIE

Gavin Green: World No. 179

Previous Appearance: ROOKIE