World Cup: Golf is a curiously fickle beast. Yesterday, for instance, two Argentinian imitations of man mountains, in the shape of Ricardo Gonzalez and Angel Cabrera, started out the second round of the World Cup over the Victoria Course here in even more dire straits than Ireland, but then embarked on a phenomenally successful salvage operation.

They didn't lead at day's end, as that honour fell to Sweden, Wales and England. But the Argentinians contrived to defy golf's obvious logic that foursomes, in which players hit alternate shots, is a more difficult format than fourballs by shooting a 61 - a record for foursomes in the World Cup - for a total of 129, 15 under par, to finish a shot behind the co-leaders.

"We have played spectacular golf," agreed Cabrera.

In a way, it was a pity the South Americans' endeavours didn't result in them assuming the midway lead. On a day when the breeze picked up and there was a nip in the air, the round of Gonzalez and Cabrera was quite extraordinary.

"I thought someone had made a mistake (on the scoreboard) when I saw what Argentina shot," said a flummoxed Padraig Harrington. "It's incredible they could shoot that in foursomes . . . but it does show what can happen."

If that, perhaps, smacked of snatching at straws from Harrington - after all, he and Paul McGinley returned a 69 yesterday for 136 to marginally improve their status to tied-16th - his partner was seeking some kind of divine intervention. "Maybe God can help us over the weekend, because we're not helping ourselves," said McGinley.

"We're not out of the picture yet," he added. "Okay, we're on the periphery. But we're not out of it. If the weather turns bad, something we're brought up on and it won't worry us if it does, it might work to our advantage. You never know."

With a nasty weather front forecast for the weekend, when winds are anticipated to reach 25 miles per hour and to be accompanied by heavy rain, the weather gods may yet have a say in the destination of the title.

Yesterday, though, those who emerged as potential winners did so with some remarkable play. The Wales pairing of Bradley Dredge and Stephen Dodds finished with four successive birdies for a 67; Sweden's Henrik Stenson and Niclas Fasth finished with two birdies, also for a 67; while overnight leaders England, a partnership comprising Luke Donald and David Howell, rattled off three successive birdies from the 16th for a 69.

But no one could match the feat of the Argentinians, who had opened with a 68 in Thursday's fourballs only to improve by seven shots on that score in the foursomes.

Cabrera, who had his 14-year-old son, also called Angel, on his bag, remarked of their transformation: "We got a bit desperate (in the fourballs) when we saw that things didn't go our way."

Yesterday, in their flawless round of foursomes, Cabrera and Gonzalez produced nine birdies and capped off the round with an eagle on the par-five 17th.

They got every break going, including holing long par putts on the ninth and 13th when it seemed as if their momentum would be broken.

"That's the thing, we just holed everything," observed Gonzalez.

In contrast, Ireland again got off to a decent start with two birdies in the opening three holes. But it failed to ignite them.

Although Harrington and McGinley reached the turn in three-under, the run from the 11th took the wind out of their sails.

Harrington missed a two-foot birdie putt on the 11th - "I was sure it was right-to-left but it moved left-to-right," he reflected - and, then, they failed to birdie the reachable par-five 12th.

To compound matters, Harrington's tee-shot on the short 13th was caught heavy and the ball plunged into a greenside bunker. It was buried, and McGinley did well to extricate it at all to the back of the green, but it resulted in their only bogey of the round. Coming in, the only birdie came on the 15th, where Harrington rolled in a 25-footer.

Although they face an uphill task, Harrington preferred to look on the glass being half full rather than half empty.

"It's not beyond the realms of possibility to make it up over the next two days. There's 54 holes of golf effectively (to go)," he remarked, alluding to today's fourball better-ball format, before they switch back to foursomes for tomorrow's final round.

"All we can do is go out, play our games, and see what happens. We can't force the issue. But there's a lot of catching up to be done."