Three-way tie, but Argentina’s day
But the day belonged to Argentina’s Angel Cabrera and Ricardo Gonzalez, who shot a staggering 11under par foursomes score of 61 to stormthrough the field from a share of last place into second and just one off the pace going into what promises to be an intriguing but potentially stormy weekend.
Indeed, the weather forecast is so alarmingly bad that today’s fourball session will start earlier than planned at 8.30am with teams going off both the 1st and 10th tees, as a precaution against the high winds and torrential rain predicted for later in the day.
For now, though, the Argentinians can bask in the glory of shooting a record World Cup low foursomes score of 61. They were out in the first match of the day, reached the turn in 32 before really hitting the high spots on the way home with a run of birdie, birdie, birdie, par, birdie, birdie, par, eagle, par for seven under par 29.
Little wonder, then, that Cabrera and Gonzalez later spoke of the “pride” they felt in setting the new mark with the former especially pleased because his 14 year-old son, also Angel, was his caddie!
The Argentinians were overtaken when Wales, especially; overnight leaders England and Sweden all staged grandstand finishes to get to 16 under.
Bradley Dredge and Stephen Dodd for Wales birdied the last four, Luke Donald and David Howell for England the last three and Sweden’s Niclas Fasth and Henrik Stenson the 17th and 18th. But Sergio Garcia and Miguel-Angel Jimenez spoiled an otherwise useful day by finishing bogey, bogey to drop back to ten under while Zach Johnson and Stewart Cink are a shot worse off largely because of running up a double bogey six at the 9th.
The Irish pair of Pádraig Harrington and Paul McGinley moved up a few places to 16th on eight under and are still holding out some hope of figuring in the shake-up tomorrow. A three under foursomes score of 69 is decent enough but once again the 1997 champions failed to ignite.
Once again they were guilty of some pretty destructive shots, with Harrington missing from little more than two feet for birdie on 11 and then hitting a wretched shot into a bunker at the 13th to cause the team’s only bogey.
“We were a little better today but look at Argentina, you wouldn’t have thought it possible, especially as they are such similar players”, Harrington observed. “But it does show what can happen and convinces us that we’re not out of it.”
McGinley also refuses to believe that they’re out of the hunt for the top prize although he did acknowledge that “maybe God will help us over the weekend because we’re certainly not helping ourselves. We’re playing at the very top elite level and if you play average you get steamrolled and that’s what happened to us yesterday.”
All that said, the Argentinian pair deserved all the kudos that came their way. Cabrera is no stranger to setting World Cup records having totalled 57 with his mentor Eduardo Romero in the 2000 tournament.
He denied that he was embarrassed at how he had performed in Thursday’s fourballs, stressing: “Of course not. Every time I represent my country, I try the best I can. Things just didn’t go our way. The difference was just that we played well today and holed the putts. We combined perfectly, we hit every fairway and were hiting the ball very close.”
Cabrera and Gonzalez have known each other for 20 years and first played together in the 1998 World Cup in New Zealand. They are almost inseparable on Tour with Gonzalez expanding: “I consider Angel much more than a friend and I think that shows when we are on the course. We transmit that feeling and that takes a lot of the pressure off. I think he feels the same towards me.”
As for the delighted youngster on Cabrera’s bag, it transpired that some time ago, he asked if he could caddie for his dad and they decided on the World Cup. “My boy advised me on a few things from time to time but I don’t do what he tells me,” quipped dad who revealed that young Angel already plays to a five or six handicap and that another son of 16 is already a scratchman!
The boys go with him to every World Cup and were two of the proudest people in all of Portugal yesterday!
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