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PGA TOUR: Power, patience prevail during Foursomes at World Cup

/noticias.info/ By Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents

ALGARVE, Portugal -- The Argentines were nothing if not explosive in the morning. As the sun crept behind the clouds late Friday afternoon, though, the steady teams from England, Wales and Sweden found their patience was rewarded with a share of the lead at the midway point of the World Golf Championships-Algarve World Cup in Portugal.

Two hours after Angel Cabrera and Ricardo Gonzalez put the finishing touches on their phenomenal, tournament-record 61 in the Foursomes competition, the other three teams burst past the Argentines with a birdie barrage over the final four holes at the Victoria Clube De Golfe in Vilamoura.

The Welshmen birdied their final four holes while England did the same on the last three and the Swedes closed with consecutive birdies to move into a tie at 16 under -- preventing a worst-to-first performance from the Argentines, who had started the day at 4 under. Wales and Sweden each shot 67s while the defending champs from England had a 69.

Aside from the Argentines, no other team was able to shoot better than 5 under on the cool, windy and sometimes rainy afternoon on the southern coast of Portugal -- and six teams failed to break par in the alternate shot format. The 61 was alternately described as "quite unbelievable" by Sweden's Niclas Fasth and "fantastic" by England's Luke Donald. American Stewart Cink jokingly wondered "if they played a different set of tees than us."

"They obviously had a really, really hot day," England's David Howell said. "And for them to keep it going and get to 11 under for one day, well, that's a miraculous round and outdoes our 59 (on Thursday) for sure."

The defending champs were coasting around at 1 over until they came to the final three holes. Howell made a 30-footer on the 16th and pitched to 2 feet on the par-5 17th for another birdie. Donald did the honors on the final hole, too, rolling in a 6-footer at the last hole after Howell's precise 9-iron approach.

"We were obviously keen to finish as strong as possible," said Howell, who held off Tiger Woods to win the HSBC Champions Trophy on Sunday. "That goes without saying, I guess. It had been a struggle all day long, really, right from the word go -- a typical Foursomes day on a dreary, bleak, bleak, Portuguese day. So it was going sort of as badly as you thought it might.

"We stuck in there, and we knew even though we were struggling, we were never far behind. Obviously, it's only Friday, so it was just a case of hanging in there and finish as strong as we could -- and to get back into the joint lead was a big bonus."

The Welsh team bogeyed the ninth hole to shoot 35 on the front side, and then reeled off five more pars. Bradley Dredge got the duo untracked, though, when he pitched to 5 feet at the 15th hole for a Stephen Dodd birdie. Dredge set up Dodd's next putt with his 3-iron to 3 feet at the 16th hole and the duo two-putted the 17th for the third birdie. Dredge then polished the streak off with a 15-footer on No. 18.

"We knew were had a few chances coming in, the short par 4 15th and we had 17 and 18 downwind," Dredge said. "We just stayed patient and had a great finish. We were rewarded for our patience."

"We couldn't be aggressive on the front nine because we were coming out of the rough all the time," Dodd added. "The patience paid off for us at the end -- (we) holed a few shots and made a few putts."

Henrik Stenson said the Swedes "didn't play that fantastic" but prospered when they "kept it fairly simple" on Friday. They only made one bogey on the difficult day, though, and when Fasth rolled in the final putt, the Swedes had leapfrogged the Argentines -- and awaited the other two at the top.

"Foursomes is a lot harder and the wind was slightly tougher today, and it all adds up that it would spread out the scores quite a lot," Fasth said. "And that's what happened."

A forecast that calls for heavy rain and high winds on Saturday should sort things out even more. Tournament officials moved tee times up in anticipation of the inclement weather, and players will be sent off two tees for the Four-ball competition. notas_de_prensa_archivo