Momentum deserts luckless Irish duo
You can do almost anything - as was the case with McGinley and Padraig Harrington when they shot a 12 under par 60 in the opening fourballs of the World Cup on Thursday.
It was a totally different story in yesterday's foursomes when they struggled from the very first shot, a hooked drive by Harrington that very nearly knocked them out of a share of a lead from the outset.
Already the momentum was with England's Paul Casey and Luke Donald who picked up where they had left off in their Walker Cup days.
In spite of dropping a shot at the 18th, the English stormed around the Real Club de Sevilla course in a superb eight-under par 64 to claim a five-stroke lead over the Austrians, probably the most lowly-rated of the 24 countries in the field, with Ireland now one of six nations tied for third spot a further stroke back.
In truth, this was a poor performance by the Irish pair. They did create a host of chances in the perfect conditions, but as Donald and Casey took full advantage, the Irish couldn't capitalise on the outstanding approach shots that should have made for a spate of birdies.
As the news of England's great run of six birdies in the first nine holes spread around the course like wildfire, the Irish were left in their slipstream.
They had to wait until the 6th for their first gain with McGinley rolling in a nice 10-footer after a fine recovery from the left rough by Harrington.
However, Harrington sent his tee shot to the 231-yard 7th crashing into a bunker and they eventually did well to escape with a bogey four. Another lovely Harrington approach saw McGinley notch a second birdie from 12 feet at the 8th but you had a bad feeling when he missed from four feet for a four at the long 9th.
There was a ray of hope when McGinley drilled a lovely four iron of 206 yards to 15 feet at the 13th and Harrington holed for eagle (their second in two days at this hole) but that was the last piece of good news for the Irish. And it was entirely undone at the par five 16th where Harrington put a three iron in the lake fronting the green, McGinley thinned his next into a terrible lie in the back bunker and Harrington had to sink a six footer for the team to escape with a double bogey seven.
From there they limped home for a round of 71 that playing partners Austria improved on by two shots.
"Things weren't going for us the way they were yesterday but we were hanging in, we were battling and doing really well considering it wasn't one of our up days," said McGinley.
"Then one hole put a spanner in the works. We make our anticipated birdie there, we shoot 68, and we follow up a great day yesterday with a decent one today. Still, 71, we're not a million miles away, I know England have jumped ahead, but there are still two days to go.
"Every day isn't going to be like yesterday when everything goes rosy and you hole bunker shots and long putts. Today was one of those when you have to battle and had we shot 68 today we'd have been as happy with that as we were with 60 yesterday. It didn't happen, we've got to take it on the chin, dust ourselves off, and go at it again tomorrow."
Both players agreed they will consider changing the order for tomorrow's final round of foursomes. Harrington teed off at all the par three yesterday; he didn't make a very good fist of the 7th but couldn't be faulted at any of the other three and especially at the 226 yards 17th where he hit a cracking three iron to 18 feet. However, it so happened almost every important putt fell to McGinley and he met with only a degree of success.
"I putted at every hole on the front nine, it was incredible the way it turned out," McGinley said. "Casey is a really streaky putter and I'm not surprised England could shoot that kind of score because he can get really hot."
Harrington added: "You can play foursomes and shoot 71 without playing badly and that's what we did.
"We were struggling along nicely at three under par until the 16th happened. I had 213 yards to the flag, a three iron with the ball below my feet and sitting up in some rough. I needed to hit a good shot but I just got it high in the club face off the hanging lie."
So are England already too far ahead? Harrington doesn't necessarily believe so as he asserted: "If they can shoot eight under and it was a bad eight under given that they were nine under with three to play, that says 10 under is on in foursomes. It does look like foursomes is the key because of the nature of the course."
,
125 England (L Donald, P Casey) 61 64
130 Austria (M Wiegele, M Brier) 60 70
131 South Africa (R Sabbatini, T Immelman) 66 65, Sweden (J Haeggman, F Jacobson) 64 67, US (S Verplank, B Tway) 64 67, Spain (M A Jimenez, S Garcia) 63 68, Japan (S Maruyama, H Tanaka) 62 69, Ireland (Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley) 60 71
132 Australia (S Leaney, N O'Hern) 64 68
133 Germany (K Baraka, M Siem) 64 69
134 Wales (P Price, B Dredge) 65 69, Netherlands (R-J Derksen, M Lafeber) 65 69
135 South Korea (K Dae-sub, S Yong-jin) 65 70
136 France (T Levet, R Jacquelin) 68 68, Scotland (A Forsyth, S Drummond) 64 72
137 Denmark (A Hansen, S Kjeldsen) 64 73
139 Canada (D Griff, S Anderson) 68 71
140 Chinese Taipei (W Ter-chang, L Wei-chih) 70 70, C (Jose Garrido, M Merizalde) 67 73
141 Argentina (E Romero, A Cabrera) 70 71, Italy (A Tadini, A Maestroni) 70 71
142 M (Kyi Hla Han, S Kyaw Naing) 69 73, New Zealand (D Smail, C Perks) 69 73
146 Mexico (P Del Olmo, A Quiroz) 74 72
Tee-off times
:
: 08:50 Netherland, Wales; 09:02 Germany, Australia; 09:14 Ireland, Japan; 09:26 Spain, US; 09:38 Sweden, South Africa; 09:50 Austria, England.
: 08:50 South Korea, Scotland; 09:02 France, Denmark; 09:14 Canada, Colombia; 09:26 Chinese Taipei, Italy; 09:38 Argentina, New Zealand; 09:50 Myanmar, Mexico.
