St James: Welsh pair Bradley Dredge and Stephen Dodd will defend golf's World Cup in the Caribbean from today (Dec 7, 2006) hoping for a return to the kind of form that brought them glory in Portugal last year.

On that occasion, the outsiders entered the final day two strokes clear of threatening England pair Luke Donald and David Howell and expecting a tough challenge over the closing 18 holes.

But torrential rain washed out play and sitting in the shelter of the clubhouse Dodd and Dredge found themselves crowned World Cup winners.

Dredge admitted that it would be tough to defend the title against 23 other country pairings from throughout the world.

"Our form isn't quite as good as we'd like going into our defence," he said.

"But it's an event where you can get fired up and come from nowhere."

Dodd said that despite the miserable weather it had been one of his proudest moments as a golfer.

"It was the best rain I've ever watched," he said.

"It would have been nice to have won over four days but we'll take winning over three days," he said.

With big names like Tiger Woods and Ernie Els electing to give the tournament a miss, the main opposition to the Welsh wonders could well come from close to home.

Ryder Cup heroes Donald and Howell will likely start as favourites for England, while by far the most experienced duo will be Irishmen Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley, World Cup winners back in 1997.

Scotland's hopes look slim, however with a badly out-of-form Colin Montgomerie only playing because Scotland would have had enough ranking points to qualify had he opted out. Montgomerie partners the promising Marc Warren.

The United States hopes of winning for the first time since Woods and David Duval carried off the title in Argentina in 2000 have been hit by the non-availability of their top stars.

But they have a potentially useful pairing in the form of the experienced Stewart Cink and the emerging JJ Henry both of whom played well in the losing US Ryder Cup side.

Australia have John Senden and Mark Hensby, while 2001 and 2003 winners South Africa go with Rory Sabbatini and Richard Sterne.

Asia's challenge will be headed by the South Korean pair of SK Ho and Charlie Wi with Hideto Tanihara and Tetsuji Hiratsuka turning out for 2002 champions Japan.

The two-days of fourballs and two-days of foursomes tournament will be held over the picturesque par-72 Sandy Lane Resort and Country Club outside St James.