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| OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup: Third-round notestext size    Walton/Getty Images Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher rebounded in Saturday's fourball action. 
Nov. 29, 2008 • Saturday's play was four-ball. The tournament also used that format in the first round. In the second and final rounds, foursomes (alternate shot) is the format. • Entering the final round, Australia and Spain are tied at 22-under. In OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup history, the United States leads with 23 titles, followed by South Africa's five. Third on the list are Australia and Spain, with four titles each. Australia's last win came in 1989 beating, ironically enough, Spain. The Aussie team that year was Wayne Grady and Peter Fowler. Spain last won in 1984 (Jose Maria Canizares and Jose Rivero). • The English team of Ross Fisher and Ian Poulter got off to a quick start Saturday, making six consecutive birdies on holes 2 through 7. Beginning the day tied for 19th, England moved to as high as 10th before settling for a tie for 12th as it enters the final round. • The English team of will have some work to do to help Ian Poulter keep alive a streak of top-five finishes in this event. Entering the final round, England is tied for 12th. In Poulter's two other World Cup appearances, in 2001 and 2007, he's never finished worse than fifth. In 2001, partnering with Paul Casey, England was fifth. A year ago, with Poulter joining forces with Justin Rose, the duo was fourth. • Through three rounds, teams have recorded 11 eagles, with two teams posting more than one. The French team of Gregory Bourdy and Gregory Havret has three eagles this week, including two Saturday. The French eagled the fifth hole during foursomes play in the second round and had two eagles in the third round during four-ball. Bourdy and Havret's eagles Saturday came on the par-5 ninth and the par-5 15th. Spain also eagled the fifth hole during foursomes and then came back Saturday with an eagle at No. 7. France's eagle Friday came courtesy of a 40-foot downhill chip-in on No. 5 by Gregory Bourdy. The two Gregorys -- Havret and Bourdy -- each made an eagle in the third round. Havret made a 4-foot putt on No. 9, while Bourdy drained a 15-footer. • After a disappointing 3-over 75 in foursomes Friday, host team finally got things going Saturday, firing an 8-under 64 Saturday. The team of Liang Wen-chong and Zhang Lian-wei moved from 25th place through two rounds to 18th place after 54 holes. China's all-time best World Cup performance came a year ago, when the Chinese tied for 11th. • Low scores on the front nine Saturday came from Italy (Edoardo Molinari and Francisco Molinari) and England (Ross Fisher and Ian Poulter), who had 6-under 30s on the strength of six birdies on the Olazabal Course's opening nine. The best back-nine score came from Denmark (Anders Hansen and Soren Hansen), China (Liang Wen-chong and Zhang Lian-wei) and Thailand (Prayad Marksaeng and Thongchai Jaidee), with 5-under 31s. • The low round of the day belonged to France, which had six birdies and two eagles on its way to a 10-under 62. Gregory Bourdy and Gregory Havret began the day tied for 19th and improved to a tie for 11th with one round still to play. • Twenty-seven players from 20 countries are making their initial appearances in the Omega Mission Hills World Cup this week. Of that group, Pablo Larrazabal of Spain and Australia's Brendan Jones are in the best position of the first-timers. Teaming with World Cup veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez, the pair is tied after 54 holes with, the Aussie team of Jones and Richard Green. Graeme McDowell of Ireland, another first-time player, teaming with Paul McGinley, is fifth. The United States' team of Ben Curtis and Brandt Snedeker, both in the World Cup for the first time, are tied for sixth. • The par-3 eighth hole was the most-difficult front-nine hole Saturday, yielding only two birdies (Canada and Thailand) and four bogeys (China, New Zealand, Portugal and Sweden). The other 22 teams had pars, giving the eighth a stroke average of 3.071. The toughest back-nine hole was also the most difficult of the day. The par-4 12th had a stroke average of 4.107, with five birdies, 15 pars and eight bogeys. • The Guatemalan team of Pablo Acuna and Alejandro Villavicencio, both playing in their first World Cup, enjoyed their best round of the tournament, a 6-under 66 Saturday. Guatemala's best finish in this event was 30th-place performance in 1978 in Hawaii. Acuna and Villavicencio are currently in 24th place. • Defending champion Scotland (Colin Montgomerie and Alastair Forsyth) was unable to make a move up the leaderboard Saturday, dropping from 17th at the start of the day to a tie for 20th through 54 holes. Montgomerie and Forsyth had five birdies against one bogey Saturday. • The only score worse than bogey Saturday was the double-bogey 7 the Venezuela team had on the par-5 15th.
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