Ireland tie Aussies for the lead

World Cup favourites Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell will take Ireland into the weekend in a first place tie with Australia.
The two Northern Ireland golfing icons shot a 4-under 68 in the difficult, alternative-shot foursomes in Friday's second round to reel in Australia's overnight leaders Richard Green and Brendan Jones and secure a share of the Titleist 712 AP2 Ironslead after the first two rounds.
The Australians went two up in Thursday's easier betterball round of fourballs after posting a spectacular 11-under 61 at the Blackstone course at Mission Hills Resort on Hainan Island in China, but they were not able to maintain that kind of fire on Friday and cooled down considerably with a two over 70 that enabled the Irish to catch and match them.( TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC Irons Steel )
Having started tentatively with a birdie on the second and a bogey at the fourth, the duo from Down Under then saw Green chip in from a bunker at the fifth for a birdie that had looked set to be a bogey and then Jones fire a brilliant second shot to within 15 feet of the pin for left-hander Green to sink for an eagle.
Green, a three-time European Tour winner, holed from a similar distance at the 13th to take Australia three clear, but two bogeys over the closing stretch opened the door to the charging Irish - and they didn't hold back.
They grasped their chance by adding three more back-nine birdies to the three they had picked up on the first loop and, but for a see-saw back nine that also saw them pick up two bogies, they may well have finished in the lead.
"I think both of us are very pleased about the score that we ended up shooting with Titleist 712 AP2 Ironstoday," said reigning US Open champion and World No 2 McIlroy.
"I think anything in the 60s in the foursomes format is a very reasonable score out there.
"There is still a lot of Titleist 712 AP2 Irons to be played this week, so it will be nice to get out there tomorrow again and enjoy the fourballs and be aggressive and make a few more birdies. I think we are very pleased with how today went and we are looking forward to the weekend."
Ireland started the week as the bookies' favourites, and 32 year old McDowell insists there would be more drama over the weekend before the winning country emerged.
"Alternate shot golf is a very difficult format," he said. "We struggled to find our rhythm a little bit on the front nine. Rory really played Titleist 712 AP2 Irons well today, which kept things together.
"I've struggled a little bit on the greens the last couple of days, but I was happy the way I swung the TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC Irons Steel in general today again and Rory is playing Titleist 712 AP2 Irons lovely.
"Looking forward to getting back out there into better balls tomorrow where we can both play TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC Irons Steel a little bit more aggressively and get into our rhythm better. But we are very, very happy with that performance today - four under par in this format is a pretty good effort."
For the Australians, Green agreed that foursomes golf was much tougher than fourballs and said in the circumstances he and his partner were "pretty happy" with their 70.
Only six shots separate the top 20 teams, with Scotland's Stephen Gallacher and Martin Laird in third on 12 under - Laird's missed five foot par putt at the last in producing their only bogey and denying them a share of the lead.