The World Cup defines team play in an individual sport. Might be that defines is too strong a word; perhaps anticipates is a more correct choice.

One of the great challenges of any team coach in the golfing realm is the one that decrees that players must work together for communal success and glory. After all, professional golfers simply don’t work together in the way that athletes from other sports do. Imagine the American League, golf style, under a scenario where Loren Roberts walked the golf course, hitting no full or partial shots, but was called upon to put on every green. Imagine the National League, golf style, in which Young Kim, #4 on the LPGA sand saves list, emerged from the bullpen to blast from the bunker…it’s safe play on the 72nd hole, but what if you needed her on #68? Could you run the risk that the rest of her game would hold up?

The Omega Mission Hills World Cup of Golf is a two-man event, nation versus nation versus nation, held over four days in China. Days one and three witness fourball competition, where each player contributes an individual score and the better of the two takes residence on the scorecard. Days of an even number embrace foursomes, under whose guidance the competitors play what has come to be commonly known as alternate shot: A drives, B hits next, then A again, until the ball is holed. B then drives off on the subsequent hole.

As you can see, foursomes is much more team oriented than fourball. The ego is clearly in play within both structures, but the dependency on partner shines forth in the former.

Over the course of the first two rounds of the 2009 OMHWCOG, Ireland leaped to the head of the race on the strength of an other-worldly score of 58 from Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell. The partnership returned 12 birdies and one eagle (not a bogey on the card) for a three-stroke lead over the Argentine pair of Tano Goya and Rafael Echenique, who quite properly assumed that they would have the honor of the first-round lead. Duly stunned, Argentina promptly fell outside the top ten after round two’s 75, weakened by the need to sign for 3 bogeys and 2 doubles.

Let’s not envision a Platense collapse as the only rupture from day two. Ireland also attested its own run-in with a double and single bogey; fortunately the Islanders were able to counter with five birdies and an eagle, their second of the event.

Sweden made noise with a 7-birdie, 0-bogey round of 65, renting the second position, a mere 3 blows back of the Irish. The brothers Molinari team from Italy (Francesco and Edoardo) moved into Show space with an erratic 8-birdie, 2-bogey round of 66. Rounding out the top five are the duos from Japan (4th), Wales and Venezuela (t-5th).

The appearance of the Venezuelans is ironic, if you think about it. President Hugo Chavez recently drew attention via a decree that golf ought to be eliminated from that country’s South American landscape. Here are some of his quotes, courtesy of world news organizations:

“Let’s leave this clear, Golf is a bourgeois sport,”

“I respect all sports, but there are sports and there are sports. Do you mean to tell me this is a people’s sport? It is not.”

I anticipate that Ireland will win; I’m pulling for Italy and I’m desperately curious to find out how Chavez might react to a Venezuelan victory.