Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell stormed into a three-shot lead at the World Cup of Golf and were just one stroke short of equalling a tournament record.

The pair combined for a brilliant 14-under-par 58 in the opening round fourballs at Mission Hills in Shenzhen, southern China.

They go into tomorrow's foursomes, three ahead of Argentine duo Rafa Echenique and Tano Goya while England's Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher are back on six under along with Stephen Dodd and Jamie Donaldson, of Wales.

McIlroy's eagle three at the heavily bunkered par-five 15th was the highlight of a card covered in birdies as the Irish just missed out on matching the best fourballs score in the event's 56-year history.

After back-to-back holes without scoring on the back nine, McIlroy's extra distance off the tee paid off as he played a superb second into the signature 15th of the undulating Olazabal Course before holing from 20 feet to kickstart a run of four gains over their final three holes.

McIlory posted the birdies at 16 and 17 following a putt from off the green before McDowell rolled home from 12 feet at the last.

“We got off to a great start and birdied the holes we had to on the front nine where there are three par fives,” said McIlroy. “And from there we kept it going and birdied the holes other teams weren't getting birdies on.

“We didn't have any mistakes and we had a look at two birdie chances on most holes and most of the time we took one of them. It was great team play and no one really put each other under pressure.”

It was a particularly impressive display by McIlroy given that just four days earlier he missed out on the title of European No1 after finishing third at the Dubai World Championship.

“I got over it by the time I woke up on Monday morning to be honest,” said the 20-year-old. “I'm looking back at it now and I've had a great season. I mean, it's been brilliant. It's been a great, almost like a breakthrough, year. Twelve top-fives, a win, played well in the majors and everything.

“This was a week obviously I wanted to do well because I'm playing with Graeme and it would be great to win together. It would be awesome.”

Fisher had also gone to last week's season-ending tournament with a chance of topping the Order of Merit.But he struggled in Dubai — finishing down in 42nd — and he was not at his best today either.

Fisher and Poulter combined to card a disappointing 66 despite promises of an aggressive start to sit well down the leaderboard alongside Germany in a group eight adrift.

“It's a bit disappointing, it felt like we played better than that,” said Volvo World Match Play Championship winner Fisher. “Quite a few putts just slid by and in fourballs you need to go out and shoot a decent first number. Six under is okay but if you look at the scoring, it is very average.

“But this tournament is won and lost on Friday and Sunday in foursomes. In fourballs you can play yourself out of it if you don't shoot a low enough score, but we certainly haven't done that with six under.”

Surprisingly, Spain prop up the leaderboard alongside Scotland, Chile and Pakistan at three-under par as world No8 Sergio Garcia contributed just one birdie in his partnership with Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.