The World Cup – Match history & records
Founded by Canadian industrialist John Jay Hopkins, in the hope of promoting goodwill between nations through golf, the World Cup began life in 1953 as the Canada Cup.
It officially became the World Cup in 1967 and, with minor changes, has been ever since. It is sanctioned by the International Federation of PGA Tours.
From 2010 onwards, the event became biennial, played in odd-numbered years, to avoid a clash with the re-introduction of golf at the Olympic Games in 2016.
From 1953 to 1999 an individual winner was also recognised with the award of the International Trophy, but since 2000 the event has been played in a foursome and fourball format.
Most Team victories:
24 – United States
5 -South Africa
4 – Australia; Spain
3 – Canada
2 – England; Germany; Ireland; Japan; Sweden; Wales
Most successive victories:
5 – USA (1960-64)
4 – USA (1992-95)
2 – Spain (1976-77); USA (1955-56, 1966-67, 1978-79)
Most successful pairings:
4 – Jack Nicklaus & Arnold Palmer (USA, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967); Fred Couples & Davis Love III (USA, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995)
2 – Kel Nagle & Peter Thomson (Australia, 1954, 1959)
Most Team member victories:
6 – Jack Nicklaus (USA); Arnold Palmer (USA)
4 – Fred Couples (USA); Davis Love III (USA); Sam Snead (USA)
Winning team of brothers:
2009 – Edorado and Francesco Molinari (Italy)
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Note: the following scoring records apply to World Cups from 2000 onwards, when the tournament adopted its current format of two rounds of foursomes and two of fourballs.
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Lowest Tournament score:
252 (36 under par) – Japan (Toshimitsu Izawa & Shigeki Maruyama, 2002)
Lowest fourball (better-ball) score:
57 (15 under par) – Argentina (Angel Cabrera & Eduardo Romero, 2000); New Zealand (Frank Nobilo & Greg Turner, 2000); United States (Phil Mickelson & David Toms, 2002)
Lowest foursome (alternate shot) score:
61 (10 under par) – Argentina (Angel Cabrera & Ricardo Gonzalez, 2005)
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Note: the following scoring records apply to World Cups from 1954 to 1999, when the format was 72 holes of combined stroke play scores, and also an individual winner.
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Most Individual titles:
3 – Jack Nicklaus
2 – Roberto de Vicenzo; Johnny Miller; Gary Player; Ian Woosnam
Lowest Individual Scores:
263 – Tiger Woods (USA, 1999)
265 – Fred Couples (USA, 1994)
266 – Colin Montgomerie (Scotland, 1994)
Lowest Combined scores:
536 – USA (Fred Couples & Davis Love III, 1994)
543 – USA (Fred Couples & Davis Love III, 1995)
545 – Australia (Bruce devlin & David graham, 1970); Ireland (Padraig Harrington & Paul McGinley, 1997); USA (Tiger Woods & Mark O’Meara, 1999)
