Thomas Björn has been forced to withdraw from next week’s Omega Mission Hills World Cup at the Mission Hills Resort on Hainan Island through injury.
The 40 year old is enjoying his best season on The European Tour to date having recorded three wins so far – in the Commercialbank Qatar Masters, the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles and the Omega European Masters – to currently lie eighth in The Race to Dubai.
But Björn, who also missed this week’s Dunlop Phoenix tournament in Japan, will not be able to add World Cup glory to his golfing CV this year, having had to pull out of the tournament thanks to the recurrence of an old neck injury.
“I am really disappointed to have missed out on the chance to play for my country at Mission Hills,” said the Dane. “I always really enjoy playing in China too, but the injury meant it was just not possible this year unfortunately.”
Taking Björn’s place in the two-man Denmark team will be talented youngster Thorbjørn Olesen, the 21 year old who was a graduate of the European Challenge Tour in 2010 and who has already shown his worth on The European Tour this year with two second place finishes – in the BMW Italian Open and the Alstom Open de France.
Olesen will team up with his experienced compatriot Anders Hansen for the World Cup which features 28 teams in total and which gets underway at Mission Hills on Thursday November 24.
