England sparkle as Ireland fizzle

GOLF/World Cup: Some things are hard to fathom, like quantum physics and organic chemistry. The art of getting a white spherical ball into the hole is not rocket science, although it does take considerable skill to do it well.

Yesterday, though, Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington left the Victoria Course at Vilamoura as if their chosen profession had suddenly become a far more complex undertaking than they'd previously known.

This wasn't how it was meant to be, not at all. On a day best forgotten, the Irish duo, who had entered the Algarve World Cup with great expectations, struggled to comprehend how it could all go so terribly wrong.

In opening with a 67, five-under, in the fourball betterball format, Ireland finished up trailing leaders England by all of eight strokes. That Ireland finished the day in tied-18th position of 24 countries told its own, dismal story.

"It's gut-wrenching. Padraig played fine, but I let him down badly," remarked McGinley, candidly, before avoiding any temptation to work out faults on the range by instead opting to head off for a meal and an early night, hopeful it would provide the remedy for some sort of renaissance over the remaining three rounds.

"It was an awful performance today and we've a lot of ground to make up, but hopefully, we can come out firing tomorrow," he added.

In the main, this was, as anticipated by England's David Howell, a "birdie-fest". Howell and Luke Donald led the way with a 59, which included an eagle and 11 birdies, with Donald holing an eight-footer for par on the 18th to put the icing on the cake.

"You don't get the chance to do a 59 very often," said Howell.

All of which left the defending champions a shot clear of Australians Peter Lonard and Mark Hensby and India's pairing of Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa.

Indeed, it was a sorry day for Ireland who were responsible for being one of only two countries, along with Germany, to run up two bogeys in the round. In fourball betterball, you simply can't drop shots. As Stewart Cink remarked of the United States, who incurred a bogey on the par five 12th, where he and Zach Johnson both drove into water, "it's an execution mistake". The Americans finished with a 65.

The irony for the Irish was that they did get off to a flying start, birdieing the first three holes. Then, Harrington and McGinley lost all momentum and ran off five successive pars, failing with a succession of birdie putts.

Their problems were highlighted by what occurred on the ninth, when McGinley's drive was pushed behind an olive tree. His attempted approach rebounded off the tree and only narrowly missed the player, settling some 30 yards behind on the fairway. With his partner in trouble, Harrington short-sided himself by missing the green to the right, and he failed to salvage par.

Then, when momentum was regained with a string of four birdies (all from Harrington) in five holes after the turn, it screeched to a halt when both missed the fairway on the short, par four 15th. Their run-in of par-par-par-bogey was dispiriting and pretty much summed up their day's work.

On the long 17th, Harrington's tee-shot was unlucky to finish in the middle of the fairway but in a storm drain. He took a free drop, only for the ball to roll back in. This time the ball wasn't touching the metal drain and, rather bizarrely, he had to play it as it lay. With 232 yards to the flag, he went with a five-wood, only for it to come up five feet short of the green. It plunged into the water.

McGinley, who had laid-up in two, hit his approach to 15 feet, but - the story of his day - he narrowly missed the birdie putt.

On the 18th, from the middle of the fairway, McGinley, who was between clubs, opted for a "hard eight (iron)" approach, but caught it heavy, and it finished up in the lake guarding the green.

Harrington, who had put his approach from the rough just short of the green, failed to get up-and-down. It was their second bogey of the round, and ensured that Venezuela - comprising Carlos Larrain, ranked 1,159 in the world, and Manuel Bermudez, who isn't even ranked - edged them by a shot in their head-to-head.

"It's a disappointing score," conceded Harrington. "It comes down to the fact that we never holed a putt out there. You know, when you have two guys going at it, you've simply got to hole putts to make birdies and we didn't do that. It was just one of those days. You need a few breaks. You need to hole putts, and we didn't do any of that."

Harrington refused to accept it was all over before it had hardly started. The forecast for the weekend is poor, for wet and windy weather, and the Dubliner hoped that it would prove to be correct.

"There's 54 holes to go and still plenty of work to be done. When you're behind, it suits you better if the conditions turn a bit nasty. But we have to go and play and do our best.

"We've a lot to make up. But we've just got to do the same thing that we always do, which is to hit each shot to the best of our ability," said Harrington.

In stark contrast to the down-hearted Irishmen, leaders England could reflect on a day when the game seemed easy. Donald and Howell were 10 under after 10 holes, and although their momentum was briefly checked on the back nine, they still birdied three of the last four holes to carry a one-stroke lead into today's foursomes.