Walker and Fowler bound for World Cup in Melbourne after Bubba withdraws

US PGA champion Jimmy Walker and good friend Rickie Fowler will represent USA at the 2016 World Cup of Golf in Melbourne.

Bubba Watson has withdrawn from the World Cup of Golf to be held at Kingston Heath golf Club in Melbourne. But the blow has been somewhat sweetened with the news that US PGA Champion Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler will make up the American team to play in the teams format event from November 24 – 27, 2016.

Walker and Fowler are good friends who have previously been paired together at the Ryder Cup and will make a formidable team at Kingston Heath. In addition, Walker and Fowler were paired together twice at The 2015 Presidents Cup 2015, most notably winning over Anirban Lahiri and Thongchai Jaidee 5-and-4.

“Coming off the amazing experience that I had at the Olympics, it’s great to have the chance to put on the red, white and blue again and play for the United States in the World Cup of Golf,” Fowler said.

“Jimmy is not only one of my favorite guys out here on tour, but he is clearly one of the most talented players on our tour as well. I think we’ll make a fantastic team and our strengths will work well together. I’ve heard great things about Kingston Heath and can’t wait to get to Australia.”

Watson had expressed his desire to play on the U.S. Team for some time and while he was excited to represent his country and play in Australia, he ultimately changed his mind due to scheduling and personal reasons.

“It was a very difficult choice not to play in the World Cup of Golf. I was extremely excited to have the opportunity to represent my country and to play in Australia, a place where I have always enjoyed playing golf,” Watson said. “Rickie and Jimmy will do a great job as a team and I wish them the best.”

Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo has also withdrawn from the event when his playing partner Fabian Gomez elected to skip the event.

The confirmed players and teams so far:

AUS    Jason Day, Adam Scott
USA    Rickie Fowler, Jimmy Walker
ENG    Danny Willett, Lee Westwood
SCO    Russell Knox, Duncan Stewart
JPN    Hideki Matsuyama, TBA
ESP    Rafa Cabrera Bello, TBA
KOR    Byeong Hun An, TBA
IRL    Shane Lowry, TBA
SWE    Alex Noren, David Lingmerth
THA    Thongchai Jaidee, TBA
DEN    Soren Kjeldsen, Thorbjorn Olesen
NZL    Danny Lee, Ryan Fox
ITA    Francesco Molinari, TBA
AUT    Bernd Wiesberger, TBA
BEL    Thomas Pieters, Nicolas Colsaerts
NED    Joost Luiten, TBA
RSA    Jaco Van Zyl, TBA
VEN    Jhonattan Vegas, Julio Vegas
WAL    Jamie Donaldson, TBA
FRA    Victor Dubuisson, TBA
GER    Alex Cejka, TBA
FIJ    Vijay Singh, TBA
POR    Ricardo Gouveia, TBA
CAN    David Hearn, TBA
CHN    Wu Ashun, TBA
PAR    Fabrizio Zanotti, TBA
PHI    Miguel Tabuena, TBA
TPE    C.T. Pan, TBA

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