By David Ferguson
China.org.cn staff reporter
Drama on the 18th hole in the first round of the 2008 Omega Mission Hills World Cup turned to tragedy for hosts China. Lying handily placed at five-under, five shots off the lead but by no means out of contention, first Zhang Lianwei dragged his tee shot into the water. He played a second to the fairway, but worse was to follow as his partner Liang Wenchong's second shot from the center of the fairway bounced into the lake to the left of the green.
Suddenly in trouble, there was a long delay as the Chinese players conferred with officials and TV cameramen to establish exactly where the ball had pitched, and where it had entered the water - critical to the position from where Liang would play his next shot. It was unclear whether his ball had pitched inside or outside the red line denoting the hazard by the side of the green. If outside, he would have to replay a shot from the fairway where his ball had first crossed the line of the water, if inside, he could play a chip from the edge of the green.
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Debate about where Liang Wenchong plays his next shot. It was all in vain - he missed the chip and the putt.
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After a lengthy debate, it was decided that Liang's ball had pitched in play of the hazard line - a decision that may yet be contradicted by TV evidence - and he chipped from the edge of the green. But further agony followed when he left his chip short, and then missed the bogey putt. Zhang too, who had played a fine shot from the fairway to give himself a putt for what would have been a bogey, missed and doubled.
The double-bogey from both players took China from a competitive position in joint 12th, five shots off the lead, to a distant 20th, seven shots behind and almost certainly out of contention, with two rounds of foursomes to come in which low scores like today's will be few and far between.
To score a bogey in fourballs is viewed as a disaster at this level; to record a double is very rare. Yet the Chinese were not the only team to suffer this fate. Earlier in the day the Irish pair arrived on the 18th tee in fine form and in second place at nine-under. But Graeme McDowell went into the lake with his tee shot and ended with a double, while Paul McGinley found dreadful lies in the rough for both his second and third shots and could do no better. The Irish dropped back to joint 6th on seven-under.
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Agony for Graeme McDowell as his tee shot on 18 finds water. Worse was to come as he and partner McGinley both made double-bogey.
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It made the decision by Scotland's Alastair Forsyth all the more puzzling. Another to find water off the 18th tee, he elected not to play a second ball, trusting to his partner to make no mistake from the fairway. Montgomerie duly obliged, although he left himself a putt of eight foot or so for his par.
Scotland's challenge had got off to a great start, with birdies on one, three, and six, but after that the birdies dried up and the Scots were grateful to make par on a number of occasions, particularly on 16 where both players left similar chip shots from the green's edge only half-way to the hole. Montgomerie's putter in particular was somewhat erratic - he missed a six-footer for birdie on 15, and the Scots were grateful for a birdie 2 on 17 from Forsyth to leave them with some glimmer, albeit a faint one, of retaining the trophy.
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A rare birdie for World Cup holders Scotland, as Forsyth sinks a long putt from the fringe on 17
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Meanwhile, at the business end of the leaderboard it was a completely different story. Germany shot a terrific ten-under 62, with Martin Kaymer in particular delivering the goods. He started with three consecutive birdies, and followed that with an eagle on 7 and another birdie on 9 to reach the turn six-under on his own, a score that would have had him in tenth place overall at the end of the day. Two more birdies on 10 and 15, plus two from partner Alex Cejka on 4 und 11, made up the German complement.
