Aussie duo lead the way

Asian Tour | 2011 Omega Mission Hills World Cup | Round One | 25 Nov 2011

The Australian pair of Brendan Jones and Richard Green showed their mettle when they combined clinically to sign for an opening 11-under-par 61 to take the first round lead at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup on Thursday.

Title favourites, Ireland represented by Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell posted a 63 to stay two back of the Australians in second place alongside Scotland who are led by Stephen Gallacher and Martin Laird.

Americans Matt Kucher and Gary Woodland returned with a 64 to share fourth place with the Netherlands pair of Robert-Jan Derksen and Joost Luiten at the biennial event held at the magnificent Mission Hills Resort in Hainan Island.

Thailand together with Japan and Korea emerged as the leading Asian countries by taking a share of 10th place with six other countries on 66.

The Australians made a strong start when they birdied two of their opening three holes before adding another two on the seventh and eighth holes to turn in 32.

The duo then eagled the par-five 12th before storming ahead with a flurry of birdies on the 14, 15 and 17 holes and posting another eagle-two on the par-four 16th to set themselves up well for the second round.

“We just combined perfectly. We never doubled up on birdies, and that’s the key in this game. You want to make a lot of birdies, but you don’t want to make them on the same hole, and that’s what we managed to do today,” said Jones.

With the foursomes format providing a real test for their partnership tomorrow, Green is hoping that they will continue to work well again and guide Australia to their fifth World Cup title.

“Tomorrow’s a bit more difficult. So it’s all about being smart, being sensible with your game and then getting ourselves back into a position to play like we did today in the fourball on Saturday and then obviously protect and play smart again on Sunday and hopefully compete and win,” said Green, who eagled the par-four 16th.

Ireland could have narrowed the Australia’s advantage to one had both McIlroy and McDowell not missed their putts from inside six feet at the 16th hole.

World number two McIlroy was however pleased with their performance as he believes that the stiff challenge will come in the foursomes format tomorrow.

“We set a target around eight to ten under par that we thought was going to be a good score out there, and we managed to shoot something around that,” said McIlroy.

“The fourballs this week are where you’re going to make most of your birdies, and the foursomes is a more demanding format. Both players need to be on their games to shoot a low score,” added McIlroy.

McDowell echoed his partner’s sentiments and is relishing the challenges ahead.

“Tomorrow will separate the men from the boys a little bit and we are very happy the way we are playing, so excited about tomorrow’s foursomes,” said McDowell.

Having reached the turn in 32, Scotland made their charge home with three birdies and an eagle to keep pace with Australia.

“It was a great way to finish. I was saying coming down the 14th and 15th, we had done well and nothing had really gone for us and that we should try and have a strong finish. With Martin’s chip in at the 16th and the bunker shot on the last, we have certainly done that,” said Gallacher.

First round scores
61 –AUSTRALIA (Brendan JONES & Richard GREEN)
63 –IRELAND (Graeme McDOWELL & Rory McILROY)
63 –SCOTLAND (Stephen GALLACHER & Martin LAIRD)
64 –USA (Gary WOODLAND & Matt KUCHAR)
64 –NETHERLANDS (Robert-Jan DERKSEN & Joost LUITEN)
65 –COLOMBIA (Manny VILLEGAS & Camilo VILLEGAS)
65 –SPAIN (Alvaro QUIROS & Miguel Angel JIMENEZ)
65 –GERMANY (Alex CEJKA & Martin KAYMER )
65 –DENMARK (Anders HANSEN & Thorbjorn OLESEN)
66 -MEXICO (Jose DE JESUS RODRIGUEZ & Oscar SERNA)
66 -FRANCE (Gregory BOURDY & Raphael JACQUELIN)
66 -KOREA (KIM Hyung-sung & PARK Sung-joon)
66 -NEW ZEALAND (Gareth PADDISON & Michael HENDRY)
66 –ZIMBABWE (Brendon DE JONGE & Bruce MCDONALD)
66 -SWEDEN (Alexander NOREN & Robert KARLSSON)
66 –ENGLAND (Justin ROSE & Ian POULTER)
66 –THAILAND (Kiradech APHIBARNRAT & Thongchai JAIDEE)
66 –JAPAN (Yuta IKEDA & Tetsuji HIRATSUKA )
67 –ITALY (Edoardo MOLINARI & Francesco MOLINARI)
67 –WALES (Rhys DAVIES & Jamie DONALDSON)
67 –BELGIUM (Jerome THEUNIS & Nicolas COLSAERTS)
68 -SOUTH AFRICA (Charls SCHWARTZEL & Louis OOSTHUIZEN)
68 –BRAZIL (Lucas LEE & Adilson DA SILVA)
68 –CHINA (LIANG Wen-chong & ZHANG Xin-jun)
68 –SINGAPORE (LAM Chih Bing & Mardan MAMAT)
69 –AUSTRIA (Florian PRAEGANT & Roland STEINER)
70 –PORTUGAL (Hugo SANTOS &Ricardo SANTOS)
75 –GUATEMALA (Pablo ACUNA & Jose TOLEDO)

Source: Asian Tour

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