Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell combined to blaze a brilliant 14-under-par 58 in Thursday's opening round fourballs at the Omega Mission Hills World Cup as Ireland opened up a commanding three shot lead over Argentina.

Both contributed seven shots to the impressive total with McIlroy's eagle three at the heavily bunkered par five 15th the highlight of a card covered in birdies which fell just one stroke short of equalling the World Cup fourballs record.

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 at Mission Hills Golf Club before the world number 10 holed 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.

And after the pair combined to win three out of four matches in September as Great Britain and Ireland claimed the Vivendi Trophy, Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie certainly has a firm contender for a paring for next year at Celtic Manor.

"It's the best score I have ever had," joked McIlroy. "We got off to a great start and birdied the holes we had to on the front nine where there are three par fives. 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 and I think that showed in the way the scores went."

Argentina's Rafa Echenique and Tano Goya lead the chasing pack at 11-under-par with Hiroyuki Fujita and Ryuji Imada a further shot adrift for Japan.

Italy, Canada, Korea and defending champions Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson of Sweden sit six off the pace ahead of tomorrow's alternate shot foursomes, with China and South Africa at seven under.

Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher combined to card a disappointing six under 66 for England 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. 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," said Volvo World Match Play championship winner Fisher.

"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 number eight Sergio Garcia contributed just one birdie in his partnership with Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano.

Collated first round scores in The 55th World Cup of Golf Omega Mission Hills World Cup, Mission Hills GC, Olazabal Course, Shenzhen, China

(Par 72):

58 Mcilroy & McDowell (Irl)

61 Goya & Echenique (Arg)

62 Imada & Fujita (Jpn)

64 Stenson & Karlsson (Swe), Delaet & Anderson (Can), Wi & Yang (Kor), Molinari & Molinari (Ita)

65 Wen-Chong & Lian-Wei (Chn), Sabbatini & Sterne (Rsa)

66 Chih-bing & Mamat (Sin), Kaymer & Cejka (Ger), Hansen & Kjeldsen (Den), Dodd & Donaldson (Wal), Poulter & Fisher (Eng)

67 Watney & Merrick (USA), Singh & Randhawa (Ind), Jaidee & Marksaeng (Tha), Vegas & Adrian (Ven), Levet & Cevaer (Fra), Smail & Lee (Nzl), Wen-Tang & Wei-Chih (Tpe)

68 Allenby & Appleby (Aus), Que & Pucay (Phi), Barcellos & Francisco (Bra)

69 Garcia & Fernandez-Castano (Spa), Ureta & Leon (Chi), Munir & Shabbir (Pak), Drysdale & Forsyth (Sco)