OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup: First-round notes

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Team USA enjoyed an eagle from Brandt Snedeker on the way to a tie for fourth in the first round.

SHENZHEN, China -- New Zealand (David Smail and Mark Brown) is looking for its first World Cup title in history. In 2001, the Kiwis, featuring Michael Campbell and Smail, came close to victory, losing in a four-team playoff that included the eventual winning team of South Africa (Ernie Els and Retief Goosen), as well as Denmark (Thomas Bjorn and Soren Hansen) and the United States (Tiger Woods and David Duval). New Zealand could have won the tournament in regulation had it been able to birdie the par-5 18th at The Taiheiyo Club in Gotemba, Japan, but could only make par. New Zealand and America dropped out of the playoff after the first extra hole, with South Africa winning on the second playoff hole.

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Can Martin Kaymer lead Germany to victory?

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Leaderboard: First round
Team power rankings
28 team profiles
Germany leads by one
New Zealand looks back

The first two eagles of this year's tournament both came on par 4s. The U.S. team of Brandt Snedeker and Ben Curtis eagled the fourth hole, while Chile (Felipe Aguilar and Mark Tullo) made eagle on the opening hole. Team USA's eagle came courtesy of Snedeker, who holed his 9-iron second shot from 138 yards. America, at 8-under 64, is tied for third after one round, while Chile (5-under 67) is tied for 12th.

Germany is no stranger to victory at the World Cup, having won twice before. But the country has never won without World Golf Hall of Fame member Bernhard Langer as part of the team. After the first round, Germany (Martin Kaymer and Alex Cejka) is in the top position, holding a one-stroke lead over Australia. Germany won its first World Cup in 1990 (Langer and Torsten Giedeon) and again in 2006 (Langer and Marcel Siem). A year ago, the team of Kaymer and Cejka tied for sixth at Mission Hills.

Germany opened its round with four straight birdies on the Olazabal Course. Australia had four straight birdies on holes 13 through 16. They were the longest birdie streaks of the day.

It's been 19 years since Australia has hoisted the World Cup. The Aussie team of Richard Green and Brendan Jones is looking to end that drought. The duo opened with a 9-under 63 to put them in second place after the first round. In 1989, Wayne Grady and Peter Fowler, at Las Brisas Golf Club in Marbella, Spain, defeated the hometown favorites -- Spain's Jose Maria Olazabal and Jose Maria Canizares -- by three strokes.

Canada has not won this event since 1985, but the team of Graham DeLaet and Wes Heffernan moved into position with a first-round, 8-under 64. DeLaet is making his first appearance in the World Cup, while Heffernan teamed with Mike Weir a year ago, with the team tying for 17th. Dan Halldorson and Dave Barr were the last Canadians to win the World Cup, and Halldorson was in attendance Thursday at Mission Hills. He's in China in his role as deputy executive director of the Canadian Tour.

Defending champion Scotland (Colin Montgomerie and Alastair Forsyth) finds itself tied for 16th after the first day. The Scots were 3-under on the front nine and 1-under on the back.

Host country China (Liang Wen-chong and Zhang Lian-wei) is tied for 20th following the first round. The only two scores worse than bogey Thursday were double bogeys, and both came on No. 18. Ireland and China finished with 6s on the par-4 closing hole.