Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell combined to blaze a brilliant 14 under par 58 in the opening round fourballs at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup as Ireland opened up a commanding three shot lead over Argentina.
Both contributed seven shots to the impressive total with McIlroy’s eagle three at the heavily bunkered par five 15th the highlight of a card covered in birdies which fell just one stroke short of equalling the World Cup fourballs record.
After back-to-back holes without scoring on the back nine, McIlroy's extra distance off the tee paid dividends as he played a superb second into the signature 15th of the undulating Olazábal Course at Mission Hills Golf Club before the World Number Ten holed from 20 feet to kickstart a run of four gains over their final three holes.
McIlory posted the birdies at the 16th and 17th following a putt from off the green before McDowell rolled home from 12 feet at the last.
And after the pair combined to win three out of four matches in September as Great Britain and Ireland claimed the Vivendi Trophy, Ryder Cup Captain Colin Montgomerie certainly has a firm contender for a paring for next year at The Celtic Manor Resort.
“I just want to say one thing: I hope Monty was watching,” joked McIlroy. “It’s the best score I have ever had. We got off to a great start and birdied the holes we had to on the front nine where there are three par fives. And from there we kept it going and birdied the holes other teams weren’t getting birdies on.
“We didn’t have any mistakes and we had a look at two birdie chances on most holes and most of the time we took one of them. It was great team play and no one really put each other under pressure and I think that showed in the way the scores went.”
Argentina’s Rafa Echenique and Tano Goya lead the chasing pack at 11 under par with Hiroyuki Fujita and Ryuji Imada a further shot adrift for Japan.
“We were pretty solid today,” said 21 year old Madeira Islands Open - BPI Portugal champion Goya. “We hit a lot of greens, a lot of fairways as well. I think we make a really good combination - the times he was in trouble, I was there and the times I was in trouble, he was there.”
Italy, Canada, Korea and defending champions Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson of Sweden sit six off the pace ahead of Friday’s alternate shot foursomes, with China and South Africa and seven under. Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher combined to card a six under 66 for England despite promises of an aggressive start to sit well down the leaderboard alongside Germany in a group eight adrift.
