Heffernan & Delaete Qualify Canada For World Cup

*The Finnish team of Roope Kakko and Mikko Korhonen claimed medalist honors, firing a one under par 71 at Poland's Sierra Golf Club in difficult weather conditions to finish at 267. Heffernan and Delaet were eight shots back, while the Portuguese team of Tiago Cruz and Ricardo Santos finished third.

"The results from Poland demonstrate the worldwide reach of golf," says Tenniel Chu, Executive Director, Mission Hills Golf Club. "The game has deep roots in Canada, but is just starting to gain popularity in Finland and Portugal. Mission Hills prides itself on growing golf and the World Cup is a vital component of its initiative to spread the sport to the four corners of the globe."

"We always had the feeling that we would make a good team, " said Hefferenan. "It is going to be great to go to China and play in the World Cup with the top players. We are really looking forward to it."

The Canadians had a double bogey on the second hole but rallied on the back nine to finish just five over for the day and secure their place in the World Cup line up. It will be DeLaet's maiden trip to the World Cup and Heffernan's second having been to Mission Hills last year with Mike Weir.

"We missed some fairways today and didn't putt well," said Heffernan. "The front nine was ugly but the back nine was OK. We managed a couple of birdies on the back. It was tough playing alternate shot in these conditions, particularly when you are making bogeys. It is difficult to find your rhythm."

DeLaet added: "We went out there to win today so it's a little disappointing that we didn't play well but our main reason for coming here was to get to China and we've achieved that so we are happy. If you'd told us at the beginning of the week we'd qualify in second place, we'd have taken it."

DeLaet has been playing the best golf of his career in recent weeks. After a slow start to the season, he captured the Desjardins Montreal Open in Montreal and followed it with a pair of runner-up finishes at the Jane Rogers Championship and the Tour Championship.

Heffernan picked up his fourth Canadian Tour title at the Players Cup in Winnipeg and also earned three runner-up finishes this season. With his second place finish on the Order of Merit, Heffernan received an exemption into the second stage of PGA TOUR Q-School this year.

In an unprecedented agreement with the International Federation of PGA Tours, Mission Hills will host the Omega Mission Hills World Cup through 2018. Finland, Canada and Portugal join host nation China and 21 other teams in the field. They are:

Australia (Richard Green, Brendan Jones), Chile (Felipe Aquilar, Mark Tullo), Denmark (Soren Hansen, Anders Hansen), England (Ian Poulter, Ross Fisher), France (Gregory Havret, Gregory Bourdy), Germany (Martin Kaymer, Alex Cejka), India (Jeev M. Singh, Jyoti Randhawa), Ireland (Graeme McDowell, Paul McGinley), Italy (Francesco Molinari, Edoardo Molinari), Japan (Ryuji Imada, Toru Taniguchi), Korea (Bae Snag-moon, Kim Hyung-tae), Philippines (Angelo Que and Mars Pucay), (New Zealand (Mark Brown, David Small), Scotland (Alastair Forysth, Colin Montgomerie), South Africa (Rory Sabbatini, Richard Sterne), Spain (Miguel Angel Jimenez, Pablo Larrazabal), Sweden (Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson), Taiwan (Wen-Tang Lin, Wen-Teh Lu), Thailand (Prayad Marksaeng, Thongchai Jaidee), United States (TBD), Wales (Bradley Dredge, Richard Johnson).

Qualifying Results in Poland
267 Finland (Roope KAKKO/Mikko KORHONEN)
275 Canada (Graham DELAET/Wes HEFFERNAN)
281 Portugal (Tiago CRUZ/Ricardo SANTOS)
- - Cut - -
288 Switzerland (Andr BOSSERT/Martin ROMINGER)
290 Czech Republic (Jakub KUCERA/ndrej LEBL)
294 Iceland (Heidar BRAGASON/Bjorgvin SIGURBERGSSON)
298 Norway (Paul NILBRINK/Kristoffer REE)
298 Israel (Itamar COHEN/Oren GERI)
300 Belgium (Gerald GRESSE/Laurent RICHARD)
304 Poland (Jakub OSSOWSKI/Marcin STELMASIAK)
314 Slovenia (Janez GRILC/Damjan MURGELJ)
316 Greece (George DIAKOU/Themis GINIS)
323 Croatia (Darko LJUBANOVIC/ Miro RAIC)

A third and final qualifier will be held in Venezuela (October 7-10) to complete the field.

The 2008 Omega Mission Hills World Cup continues a new and exciting era in the history of the event. John Jay Hopkins, a noted Canadian industrialist, founded the tournament in 1953 as a way to promote goodwill among nations through golf. Initially named the Canada Cup, it became the World Cup in 1967 and is now scheduled to be played on the Olazabal Course through 2018.

The 2008 Omega Mission Hills World Cup will offer a purse of $5.5 million, an increase of $500,000 from 2007. It is a four-day team event featuring a four-ball (better-ball) format on days one and three, and a foursomes (alternate shot) format on days two and four.

For more information about Mission Hills Golf Club, visit www.missionhillsgroup.com, email info@missionhillsgroup.com, or call (852) 2122 1616 (Hong Kong) -- (86 755) 2802 0888 (Shenzhen) -- (86 769) 8728 8888 (Dongguan).