Sports By DENNIS PASSA The Associated Press | Thursday, November 22, 2018, 12:05 a.m. Share this story Anirban Lahiri of India plays from the 17th fairway during the Australian Open Golf tournament in Sydney, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft) MELBOURNE, Australia — Ian Poulter is an unabashed fan of the sandbelt courses of southeast Melbourne. So it came as no surprise that he gave England’s highest-ranked player at the World Cup of Golf, Tyrrell Hatton, a gentle nudge that he’d like to be on the England team. Poulter and Hatton are among the favorites when the tournament starts Thursday at Metropolitan, one of famed sandbelt courses that includes Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath, which hosted the World Cup in 2016. Royal Melbourne was the venue in 2013. ADVERTISING The highest-ranked player is responsible for choosing his partner in the 28-team, two-man tournament, and Poulter wanted to make sure he was at the top of Hatton’s wish-list. “We had a chat at one of the events and I managed to persuade him that it would be a good choice to pick me,” Poulter said. The sandbelt “is pretty big lure; I love it down here and I knew I…