The Ireland pairing of Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell stormed to the top of the leaderboard on the opening day of the World Cup at Mission Hills in China as the Ulster duo blitzed the Olazabal Course with a stunning 14-under-par round of 58 to take a three-shot lead over Argentina.
McIlroy may have missed out on his chance to win the Race to Dubai last week, while McDowell has had a poor end to the season, but the combination laid waste to the undulating par-72 layout in Shenzhen in perfect scoring conditions.
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.
Seven birdies in their opening nine holes helped them turn in 29. Further birdies at the 11th and 12th brought them to nine under, before McIlroy rolled in a 20-foot eagle putt at the 555-yard par-five 15th.
The world number 10 almost made it back-to-back eagles at the next, when his approach rolled over the lip of the hole, before he tapped in to take Ireland into an outright lead.
The 20-year-old was attracting huge local crowds and he had to stop his swing twice on the par-three 17th due to enthusiastic amateur photographers. Unfazed, McIlroy hit it pin high, but just to the right of the green, before rolling in the putt for Ireland's 11th birdie of the round.
McDowell got his chance on the 18th after McIlroy found sand off the tee and miscued a short chip. Faced with a 12-footer for 58, the Rathmore man rattled it home to cap off a stunning first day for Ireland.
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 Celtic Manor.
"It's the best score I have ever had," joked McIlroy. "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.
Italy, Canada, Korea and defending champions Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson of Sweden sit six off the pace ahead of tomorrow's foursomes, with China and South Africa at seven under.
Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher combined to card a disappointing six under 66 for England despite promises of an aggressive start to sit well down the leaderboard alongside Germany in a group eight adrift.
"It's a bit disappointing, it felt like we played better than that," said Fisher. "Quite a few putts just slid by and in fourballs you need to go out and shoot a decent first number. Six under is okay, but if you look at the scoring, it is very average.
"But this tournament is won and lost on Friday and Sunday in foursomes. In fourballs you can play yourself out of it if you don't shoot a low enough score, but we certainly haven't done that with six under."
Surprisingly, Spain prop up the leaderboard alongside Scotland, Chile and Pakistan at three under par as world number eight Sergio Garcia contributed just one birdie in his partnership with Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.
WORLD CUP LEADERBOARD
First Round - Fourballs (Par 72)
58McIlroy & McDowell (Irl)
61Goya & Echenique (Arg)
62Imada & Fujita (Jpn)
64Stenson & Karlsson (Swe), Delaet & Anderson (Can), Wi & Yang (Kor), Molinari & Molinari (Ita)
65Wen-Chong & Lian-Wei (Chn), Sabbatini & Sterne (Rsa)
66Chih-bing & Mamat (Sin), Kaymer & Cejka (Ger), Hansen & Kjeldsen (Den), Dodd & Donaldson (Wal), Poulter & Fisher (Eng)
67Watney & Merrick (USA), Singh & Randhawa (Ind), Jaidee & Marksaeng (Tha), Vegas & Adrian (Ven), Levet & Cevaer (Fra), Smail & Lee (Nzl), Wen-Tang & Wei-Chih (Tpe)
68Allenby & Appleby (Aus), Que & Pucay (Phi), Barcellos & Francisco (Bra)
69Garcia & Fernandez-Castano (Spa), Ureta & Leon (Chi), Munir & Shabbir (Pak), Drysdale & Forsyth (Sco)
