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3 nations tied for World Cup lead
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World Cup or Ryder Cup: Put Ian Poulter into a team event and he never seems to disappoint.
Poulter’s approach to less than a foot helped set up one of England’s six birdies on the back nine yesterday to give him and Tyrrell Hatton a share of the lead with South Korea and Australia after the first round of fourballs at the World Cup of Golf in Melbourne.
Cameron Smith made a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th to ensure he and Australia teammate Marc Leishman were in a tie atop the leaderboard with South Korea’s An Byeong- hun and Kim Si-woo, all with 10-under 62s at Metropolitan.
Today, the format switches to foursomes, or alternate shot, and again for the final round.
“This tournament’s won and lost on Friday and Sunday,” Poulter said. “Foursomes is the day when you can take yourself out of the tournament pretty quickly. In fourballs you’re always going to make birdies and hopefully you don’t make any mistakes.”
Poulter has picked up 15 career points in Ryder Cup events for Europe over the United States. He had two in Europe’s win in Paris in late September — one with Rory McIlroy in foursomes (he also lost with McIlory in foursomes) and a singles victory over Dustin Johnson.
Leishman said he and Smith, who will play in the next-to-last group today with Malaysia, need to avoid any early mistakes “If you get off to an average start in foursomes, things can start going the wrong way pretty quickly,” he said.
An said he and Kim combined well to keep South Korea atop the leaderboard.
“I think we saved each other pretty good,” An said. “When he was struggling, I made some birdies, and when I was out (of the hole) he made some good par saves.”
Three teams were tied for fourth, one stroke behind — Belgium (Thomas Pieters and Thomas Detry), Malaysia (Gavin Green and Ben Leong) and Soren Kjeldsen and Thorbjorn Olesen, who won the title for Denmark by four strokes two years ago at nearby Kingston Heath.
India (Anirban Lahiri and Gaganjeet Bhullar) and Ireland (Shane Lowry and Paul Dunne) were tied for seventh after 64s. The US team of Kyle Stanley and Matt Kuchar was in a large group tied for 13th among 28 teams after a 66.
In China’s Hong Kong, Aaron Rai, Jason Scrivener and Yusaku Miyazato all shot 5-under 65s to share the lead after the opening round of the Hong Kong Open yesterday, as US Masters champion Patrick Reed struggled in windy conditions at Fanling.
Making the most of calm conditions, Rai made his move on the back-nine as he followed up a birdie on the par-3 12th with a tap-in eagle on par-5 13th, courtesy a stunning approach which landed within inches of the cup.
Further birdies on the 17th and first ensured the Briton, who started his round on the 10th hole, grabbed the clubhouse lead, before he was joined by Australian Scrivener and Miyazato of Japan.
Scrivener picked up four shots in five holes from the 12th to sign for a bogey-free round, while Miyazato bagged three birdies on each nine to offset a lone bogey at the ninth to set up a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard.
England’s world No. 9 Tommy Fleetwood, the highest ranked player in the field, sank three birdies and two bogeys in a mixed round of 69 to sit four strokes off the lead in a tie for 23rd.
Spain’s Sergio Garcia shot 70.
However, Reed, who finished tied for second in the 2018 European Tour season-ending event in Dubai last weekend, had a round to forget after opening his campaign with a disappointing 5-over 75.
The 28-year-old American double-bogeyed the par-4 14th, following a run of four bogeys in six holes from the sixth.
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