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Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell combined for a 4-under 68 in Friday’s alternate shot foursomes to tie Australia’s Brendan Jones and Richard Green for first place at golf’s World Cup in China. The tournament features pairs of golfers representing 28 countries with Thursday and Saturday fourballs rounds and Friday and Sunday foursomes rounds.

McDowell, who won the 2010 US Open, gave most of the credit for the Irish team’s success to his partner Rory, the 2011 US Open champ. “We struggled to find our rhythm a little bit on the front nine,” said McDowell. “Rory putted really 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 club in general and Rory is playing lovely.”

The Australians had a two-shot lead after the first round with an 11-under 61 on Thursday, but struggled to a 2-under 70 on Friday. Scotland’s Martin Laird and Stephen Gallacher are one shot off the lead and alone in third place. The US team of Matt Kuchar and Gary Woodland are three shots off the lead and tied for fourth with New Zealand and Spain.

Edoardo and Francesco Molinari won the Cup for Italy last year, but are tied for 10th and five shots off the lead this year. Edoardo blamed noisy Chinese fans for Italy’s slow start on Thursday. “Yesterday we didn’t play very well,” explained Edoardo. “It was quite difficult to play with a lot of people with a lot of cameras around. Today was much better. We were much more focused on what we were doing. We just have to do the same and shoot a very low number tomorrow to give us a chance on Sunday.”