New pairing Iain Steel and Shaaban Hussin are hoping home advantage will help them steer Malaysia to its first golf World Cup spot in 10 years. They take on 16 other two-man teams for the three places up for grabs at the Mission Hills World Cup Asian qualifying tournament, which starts on Wednesday at the Seri Selangor Golf Club near Kuala Lumpur. It will be Steel’s fifth attempt to get Malaysia to the World Cup since 2001 and he said he was excited to be partnering Shaaban.
“This is a new partnership and a new way of looking at things. It has been two years since the last World Cup qualifier so hopefully this year will turn a little bit different for us,” the US-based Steel said. The qualifying event will follow the same format as the final stages, to be held in southern China’s island province of Hainan in November: fourball in the first and third rounds and foursomes in the second and final rounds.
Shaaban will be making his World Cup qualifier debut and said he will look to his more experienced partner for guidance.