World Cup golf: Scottish pair well placed for weekend charge

HAVING dropped just a single shot in the opening two rounds, Stephen Gallacher and Martin Laird are heading into the weekend feeling confident about their chances of landing a second World Cup win for Scotland in four years.

Bidding to emulate 2007 champions Colin Montgomerie and Marc Warren, the duo shot a three-under-par 69 in the second-day foursomes to move to 12-under at the halfway stage at Mission Hills in China.

They’re just a shot behind joint-leaders Australia and Ireland and the Scots believe they are playing well enough to be serious contenders over the closing 36 holes in the £6.5 million Omega-sponsored event.

Arizona-based Laird said: “We are right behind the leaders and, if we keep playing as we have been, there’s no reason why we can’t pick up the trophy.”

Two behind Australia at the start of the day, the Scots opened with seven straight pars before picking up a first birdie of the day at the short eighth, where Gallacher, back using a long putter, rolled in a 15-footer. They moved to 13-under for the tournament with further birdies at the 12th, 13th and 16th before suffering that first dropped shot in two rounds at the 18th.

Gallacher’s approach found the same bunker from which Laird had holed for a birdie in the first round but not this time. Instead, they ran up a 5 after Gallacher left a ten-foot par putt short of the hole. That cost the Scots a share of the lead but, having gelled so well so far this week, they were certainly not disheartened by the finish.

“To break 70 in foursomes is very good, especially as the weather wasn’t so nice today,” said Gallacher. “We are still in a good spot. We left a few putts short, which was disappointing, but we stuck to our gameplan and gave ourselves some chances.

“We are getting on great and hopefully come Sunday our performance will be good enough.”

Laird said: “Our games are similar and our personalties, too. We played good solid golf all day, which we set out to, and we are in a great position heading into the weekend.”

The world No 42, who is making his debut in the biennial event, said the pair had taken “about five seconds” to decide on which holes they’d be hitting the tee shots in the alternate shot format. “We kind of knew what each other wanted to do,” added Laird. “It’s a strange course in that the person who has the approach shots on the back nine has eight irons into greens and the other only one. Stephen has been hitting his irons great all week, so that’s why he was hitting those shots in on the back nine and it paid off.”

After starting the day in joint-second with the Scots, Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell had slipped four behind Australian duo Brendan Jones and Richard Green with five holes to play. But a combination of birdies at the 14th and 16th from the Irish pair and bogeys from the Australians at the 15th and 18th meant they ended the day in a share of the lead.

“Today was good,” said McIlroy of a six-birdie display from Ireland. “There is still a lot of golf to be played this week so it will be nice to get out there tomorrow again and enjoy the fourballs, be aggressive and make a few more birdies.”

New Zealand, Spain and the United States are tied for fourth on 10-under-par following rounds of 68, 69 and 70 respectively while England remain in touching distance on nine-under following a 69.

Six shots separate the top 20 teams, with defending champions Italy, represented by Edoardo and Francesco Molinari on eight-under alongside South African major winners Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Scwartzel. The format for the third round is fourballs, with another session of foursomes deciding the outcome of the title, as well as the top team prize of £2 million, in tomorrow’s final round.