Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell underlined their potential as a possible Ryder Cup pairing with a hard-fought four-under-par 68 in yesterday’s foursomes in the Mission Hills World Cup in China to maintain Ireland’s three-stroke advantage.
After posting a brilliant 14-under-par fourballs score of 58, McIlroy declared he hoped European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie was watching.
And while that bogey-free round is certainly the highlight of the week in China, yesterday’s battling display further underlines their bond with an eye on Celtic Manor next year after the two Northern Irishmen also combined to win three out of four matches in September’s Vivendi Trophy victory.
World number 10 McIlroy said: “Everyone knows I’d love to play with Graeme in the Ryder Cup. There would be nothing better.
“I think we would make a great team, although it’s not up to me to decide and we’ve still got a long way to go. We still have to make the team.
“We do team up very well and I think that showed today. It wasn’t the easiest of 68s by any means, but we ground it out and we put together a good score.”
Ireland led by five shots at the turn but, with defending Swedish champions Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson mounting a late charge which would see them move into second with a bogey-free seven-under-par 65, McDowell plunged his approach at the heavily guarded 15th into the water.
After he missed a long downhill par putt, McIlroy’s recent problems with short putts returned with a two-foot miss which resulted in an ugly double-bogey.
The pair regrouped, though, and McDowell holed back-to-back birdie putts to maintain the lead ahead of today’s return to fourballs.
Their performances as a pair fighting for every shot this week could boost McDowell’s chances of a captain’s pick if he missed out on an automatic Ryder place.
“We showed tremendous character after the double bogey on 15 to come back with those two birdies,” added McIlroy.
“We didn’t let a couple of mistakes get us down. We talked about body language on 16 after walking off the tee box saying let’s walk positively up this fairway and try and get a couple back.”
Stenson and Karlsson combined to shoot the only bogey-free round of the second day’s foursomes as last year’s winners moved into second place following late back-to-back birdies.
Italian brothers Francesco and Edoardo Molinari, fresh from last week’s win at the Phoenix tournament in Japan, sit third a further shot off the pace following a six-under 66.
Japan’s Hiroyuki Fujita and Ryuji Imada are three shots further back in fourth at 11 under after a 71.
Stenson, who is the world number eight, said: “I think we are right where we expected to be if we played well, to be up there with a few of the teams that we would also expect to be up there. Ireland was definitely one of them and also Italy.
“Unfortunately, Edoardo beat my team-mate last week in a play-off and Francesco has played good all year, so we kind of expected Italy to be up there as well.
“We are in a good position, and we just need to keep on playing as well as we have over the first two days for the next two days.
“If we can do that then we will have a chance.”