Karlsson happy to be back for World Cup defence

Shenzhen: After an injury-ravaged season, Robert Karlsson is just happy to be playing golf this week as he teams up with fellow Swede Henrik Stenson to defend the World Cup at Mission Hills.

Karlsson had just captured the European Order of Merit when he and Stenson won the 54th version of the event last year, but an eye problem caused him to miss more than four months of this season and he plummeted down the world rankings.

While his rivals were battling it out in Dubai last week to decide who would replace him as European number one, Karlsson was in Japan showing signs of getting back to his best with second place after a playoff at the Dunlop Phoenix.

"It's great now to be back and playing," Karlsson told reporters yesterday, the eve of the first round of the $5.5 million (Dh20 million) tournament.

"And obviously coming into this event, it felt great to play good last week. So I'm coming in here with a bit more confidence than before.

"[And] it's great to be back on a course where you've done well before."

Karlsson said the career-threatening retinal problem had cleared up sufficiently to allow him to play.