GOLF: World Cup: The golfing gods have a wicked sense of what is fair. Sometimes, they give with one hand, and take away with the other.

Yesterday, on the 16th hole at Real Club de Golf de Sevilla, a par five playing as easy as any on a crusty pancake of a course, the Irish duo of Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley suffered at their iniquitous hands when a double-bogey seven that came from nowhere severely dented their World Cup aspirations.

In the end, Ireland, who had started the day as joint-leaders with Austria, finished the foursomes with a 71 for a midway total of 13-under-par 131, slipping down to a six-way tie for third and all of six strokes behind leaders England.

"Ah, we threw it away (there)," remarked McGinley in the immediate aftermath of a round that was a mirror-image of the previous day's fourball. A case of going from the sublime to the near-ridiculous?

Certainly, the shenanigans on the 16th hole - which yielded one eagle, 17 birdies, five pars and that horrid double-bogey in playing as the second-easiest on the course - marred what had been a gritty performance from Harrington and McGinley and sucked them back into the pack and further adrift of Luke Donald and Paul Casey.

The English pair played irresistible golf for much of their round, dropping a shot only on the last hole on their way to a 64 for a midway total of 125.

For most of the day, the 16th hole, a par five of 522 yards with water in play on the right off the tee and again on the approach to the green, had been in generous mood. That is, until the Irish, in the last match of the day, reached it. Then, it decided to demonstrate its wickedness.

First, after McGinley's drive drifted just off the fairway, Harrington was faced with an approach of 213 yards to the flag. The ball was below his feet and sitting up in the rough. "I needed to hit a good shot," said Harrington, "but it was not even a question of it being makable. If it was only just makable, (then) I would not have taken it on. I just got it a little bit up on top of the clubface and didn't get a flight out of it. The ball was probably sitting too high on the grass."

The ball nose-dived into the pond that guards the green.

But, with damage limitation foremost in his mind, McGinley was then the one to be mocked by the gods. "I hit it a bit thin and, when you're battling and when things are not going your way, it ran up against the back of the bunker and Padraig was left with no shot," said McGinley.

In fact, Harrington did well to get the ball out of the trap and, two putts later, the duo walked off with a double-bogey seven.

Naturally, there was a degree of disappointment in the Irish camp, but also a belief that they are still very much in contention.

"We're not a million miles away," said McGinley. "We're realistic about this game and know that you get days when you have to battle, and we nearly did. One hole cost us.

"But often days like today give you more satisfaction when you chisel it out and you battle. It didn't happen (for us), but we've got to take it on the chin, dust ourselves off and go at it tomorrow."

Harrington was in similarly determined mood. "I don't consider England to be too far ahead," he said. "But, because of the nature of the course, it looks as if people are going to bunch in the fourball, (so) foursomes (on Sunday) looks like the one to make up shots on. We're going to do our best, that's the nature of the game. We're always going to do our best, whether you're first or last." ...

Leaderboard

- 19: England 61 64

- 14: Austria 60 70

- 13: South Africa 66 65

Sweden 64 67

United States 64 67

Spain 63 68

Japan 62 69

Ireland 60 71

- 12: Australia 64 68

- 11: Germany 64 69