Kuchar and Woodland rally to win World Cup for U.S.

Not since 2000 when Tiger Woods and David Duval hoisted the World Cup of golf trophy has the United States been victorious in the now biennial competition.

Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland ended that drought, holding off England who shot a 63 in the final round, to win the World Cup with a four day total of 24-under par.

For Kuchar and Woodland, it was a come from behind victory as they trailed the Irish team of Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell by two strokes heading into the final round.

The Northern Ireland U.S. Open champions of the last two years carded rounds of 63, 68 and 64 at the Mission Hills Resort - Hainan Island, through the first three rounds to give them the 54 hole lead.

However, in the final round, the pairing just did not have their 'A' games, missing shot after shot even incurring a penalty carding a final round score of 72 to finish in a tie for fourth.

After building a two shot advantage to take the lead at the turn, Kuchar and Woodland would have to hold off a great final round charge from England's pairing of Ian Poulter and Justin Rose.

The pair were seemingly out of the running heading into the final day. Eight shots behind Ireland, then leaders of the event.

However, Poulter and Rose fired the low round of the final day to fall just short of the U.S. team and ended in a tie for second with Martin Kaymer and Alex Cejka of team Germany.

The Englishmen needed lots of help from the leading teams, unfortunately for them, it was just Irlenad who faltered down the stretch.

"I'm jacked up! This is exciting, World Cup Champions, American style!" said Kuchar after winning the Omega Mission Hills World Cup for the United States.

His teammate Woodland added, "Feels great. It was a very nice week, we were treated very nicely here, and fortunately we played well. We came here and hoping to have some fun, but we set a goal out to win and that's what we came here to do."

"We played phenomenal. Especially today. It's a tough format, and both of us picked each other up when the other one got in trouble and to go out and shoot."

"I don't know what we shot today, but to hold on on the back nine, we got off to a hot start early, played solid on the back, and really we were not in trouble in the back at all. It was a good day."

The 2011 World Cup of Golf was represented by 28 different countries in Hainan, China as the once annual event went to the current biennial it is now played under.

For the 2013 World Cup of Golf event, the format will be changed to mirror that of the upcoming 2016 Olympic games in Brazil, which will be a 72 hole stroke-play event.