By Greg Robertson
ESPN Golf Online
Sunday, December 10

Details
When	Thursday-Sunday
Course	Buenos Aires Golf Club, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Par/Yardage	Par 72; 6,939 yards
Purse	$3 million (Winners: $500,000 each)
1999 champion	United States (Woods-O'Meara)
Tournament record	23-under (United States, 1999)
Television	Thursday-Friday: 3-6 p.m. (USA) Saturday-Sunday: 2-4 p.m. ET (ABC)

The tournament

	Hole by hole
	Hole	Par	Yards
	1	4	389
	2	4	464
	3	4	387
	4	4	385
	5	3	220
	6	5	543
	7	4	418
	8	3	209
	9	5	495
	Out	36	3510
	10	4	456
	11	3	146
	12	4	369
	13	4	372
	14	5	520
	15	4	378
	16	3	185
	17	5	574
	18	4	429
	In	36	3429
	Total	72	6939

The year's final World Golf Championship event finally brings the word "world" into focus. While there certainly were a number of international players in the Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship, NEC Invitational and American Express Championship, those events were clearly heavy on the Americans and foreign-born PGA Tour stars.

With the EMC World Cup, the picture changes, and only a handful of the 48 players in the field will be familiar to followers of the PGA Tour.

The former Silly Season event has been added to the WGC series this year. The purse has been boosted to $3 million, with the winning team splitting $1 million, and the tournament will move all over the globe. This year, it's Argentina; next year, it's Japan.

The World Cup pits 24 two-man teams, each representing their countries. That limits each nation to just two participants, and the United States has sent two of its best: Tiger Woods and David Duval.

While they are clearly the team to beat, this isn't a cakewalk by any means. Contenders include Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley; Japan's Shigeki Maruyama and Hidemichi Tanaka; Scotland's Paul Lawrie and Gary Orr; South Africa's Retief Goosen and Darren Fichardt; Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez and Jose Maria Olazabal; Sweden's Pierre Fulke and Mathias Gronberg; Wales' Phillip Price and Ian Woosnam; and Zimbabwe's Mark McNulty and Tony Johnstone.

PGA Tour regulars Mike Weir (Canada), Carlos Franco (Paraguay), Steven Ames (Trinidad & Tobago), Jean Van de Velde (France) and Frank Nobilo (New Zealand) also anchor their teams.

But the darkhorse in the field could be the home team. Argentina's Eduardo Romero and Angel Cabrera both have impressive games, are ranked in the top 50 in the world, have many international victories on their resumes, and have home course advantage.

The field was set based on World Rankings, starting with Woods at No. 1. He was given the option to play, and if he agreed, chose his own partner. No. 2 Ernie Els had the next option, and after he declined, organizers moved down the list. No. 3 Phil Mickelson was bypassed since the United States was already represented. The process continued until the first 18 teams were selected.

After that, qualifying was held to fill out the remainder of the tournament.

The time of year and the location had a huge role in many top players skipping the event. In addition to Els, Lee Westwood, Colin Montgomerie, Nick Price, Darren Clarke, Vijay Singh, Jepser Parnevik and Sergio Garcia are among those who opted out.

Woods and Duval are clearly the cream of the crop, but this is a team competition. Two rounds of alternate shot and two rounds of best ball make up the format, which is a change from previous years where both men played their own ball all four days.

The alternate-shot format could prove tricky for the Americans, who don't play the same brand and must settle on one ball for the round. Both Woods and Duval are aggressive players, and taking chances in alternate shot creates the possibility of putting your partner in a difficult spot.

But Woods and Duval both have plenty of Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup experience, and team competition shouldn't be a concern.

For Woods, this is the eighth consecutive week he is playing a tournament, with stops in Spain, Thailand, Hawaii and Argentina along the way.

This is the first major golf event being staged in South America, and how the crowds react could be interesting. Woods is a global superstar, and there is potential for many distractions during his play.

Although this event is part of the World Golf Championship series, it is not an official event and will not effect official prize money standings or World Rankings.

It is also the last significant event of 2000. The following three weeks will contain a handful of small Silly Season events before the 2001 season begins in earnest on Jan. 3 in Australia with the Match Play Championship.