Karlsson just happy to be back for World Cup defence

London: 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 on Wednesday, the eve of the first round of the USD 5.5 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, even though he still noticed it when he looked through just one eye."I hope it`s going to keep improving. And I guess I will check it up regularly and sort of keep an eye on it," he joked. Karlsson and Stenson, who as world number seven is the highest ranked player in the 28-team field, are looking to make Sweden the first country to retain the trophy since Tiger Woods and David Duval won a record 23rd title for the United States in 2000. "It is possible to do," said Karlsson. "But we`ll try to forget about all of the statistics because it`s a new tournament starting tomorrow, and that`s why we are here to play." Stenson said that with world number eight Sergio Garcia playing for Spain, number 10 Rory McIlroy in a united Ireland team and PGA Championship winner Yang Yong-eun flying the flag for Korea, the competition would be tougher this year. "It`s a stronger field for sure," said the 33-year-old. "It feels like you could find the winners among 10, 12, 14 teams, something like that."Some other countries are also stronger than they have been before," he added. "So it`s going to take some great playing to win." Bureau Report