Denmark had come close before. In 2013, at the nearby Royal Melbourne course, Thomas Bjørn and Thorbjørn Olesen finished third in the World Cup. Three years later, Olesen was teamed with Søren Kjeldsen at Kingston Heath, and this time they managed to secure Denmark’s first World Cup title. Along the way on the final day, their four-shot overnight lead had been threatened by China, France and Sweden, but the Danish pair eventually prevailed, carding a best-ball format six-under 66 to finish on 20-under 268, four shots clear of China (65), France (63) and the United States (66).
Forty-one-year-old Kjeldsen and Olesen (26) took turns to card critical birdie putts every time the lead was whittled back by the chasers. "Our mental strength is keeping calm and playing our own game. I wasn't too worried, I thought the birdies would come on the back nine and they did," Olesen said.
Kjeldsen was effusive in his praise of his younger partner. "The psychology (of a team) is really interesting to me. When you get a guy like this, on the back nine you feel you want to die for this guy. I've never felt that before and that team thing is amazing.”
In golf terms, the Danish pair are an “odd couple”. Olesen likes to keep check of leaderboards around the course and Kjeldsen tries to avoid them. "We play different games, we don't talk much and just play our shots and that's helpful," Olesen said.
Sweden started the fourball final round nine shots back and could only ponder what might have been with a more polished foursomes effort than the tardy third round 73. "We really played quite solid (on Saturday) and ended up bogeying a couple of the last four holes. So, one-over yesterday could have been a couple under and we would have really been in the mix. But finishing on a good note today, we're not going to dwell on the last few days. It has been a fun week," Lingmerth said.
Italy's Francesco Molinari and Matteo Manassero reeled off an eight-under 64, but they were just too far back to get a glimpse of the leaders. "We gave ourselves a lot of birdie chances and it could have been a really low one. It was a low one with a good finish, so we're happy about that," Manassero said. "Obviously, Francesco gave me the opportunity to play and we had a lot of fun. I think this is a great format and, obviously, you're representing your country. It's an amazing field and we had a great time."
Host nation Australia at least gave their home galleries a sub-par salute in a polished round built on several pinpoint approach shots from Marc Leishman before Adam Scott rifled one to almost tap-in range at the par-three 15th to eventually deliver a seven-under 65 to finish on 11-under and tied ninth with Ireland. "It was nice to finally see a few putts drop and some red numbers on the leaderboard. It's unfortunate that we couldn't start that on Thursday," Leishman said.
Wales pair Bradley Dredge and Stuart Manley, in the first group on to the course, redeemed themselves after Saturday's horror 80 with a flawless nine-under 63.
England's Chris Wood and Andy Sullivan, who tumbled down the leaderboard after a leaky back nine on Saturday, also bounced back with a seven-under 65; and Germany's Alex Cejka and Stephan Jaeger, equal last in the 28-team competition at the halfway mark, hit back with a closing 64 to finish on nine-under and tied 13th.
