Alfred Dunhill Cup
St Andrews Golf Club
Scotland
16th - 19th October

Par 72 Prize Money £1 million

Second Round Report

Second Round Scores

First Round Scores

Argentina defeat England with America looking firm favourites to win

St Andrews, Scotland, 17th October - One of the most treacherous holes in golf caught out Lee Westwood today and it helped Argentina to defeat England in the second round of the Alfred Dunhill Cup.

Westwood arrived at the 17th one shot in front of Angel Cabrera and walked off the green one shot behind.

He then sank a 20-foot birdie putt on the last only to watch Cabrera do the same from 10 feet. that was enough to give Cabrera a one under par 71 and Argentina a 2-1 victory. This is their third straight win over England in the competition's history.

"It's a shame," said Westwood. "When I holed that putt I thought he would miss. But the damage was done on the 16th and 17th.

"I should probably have hit six-iron, but hit five. That brought the road into play. I buttoned it and it bounced over."

Mark James had beaten Eduardo Romero with a 10-foot birdie putt on the last, but in the top game Russell Claydon went down 74-71 to Jose Coceres.

England, who beat Japan 3-0 in the opening round are not out of the competition yet - but they now have to beat top seeds and holders America by a margin of 3-0 tomorrow.

Westwood's chance for revenge will come against Mark O'Meara, while Claydon plays Brad Faxon and James takes on the Open champion, Justin Leonard.

The United States made themselves favourites to go through from Group One to the semi-finals by also beating Japan 3-0, but Argentina could still make it if they do the same.

At least the other three groups are straightforward.

Scotland are in a straight head-to-head fight with third seeds South Africa in Group Three - and so are Zimbabwe and New Zealand in Group Four.

But the Zimbabweans are already 1-0 down in that match because Nick Price has been forced to retire at the 12th hole because of a muscle injury.

As the second seeds, however, they had first pick on who plays whom and not surprisingly they have chosen to give Kiwi No 1 Frank Nobilo a walkover against Price, leaving Tony Johnstone and Mark McNulty to try to beat Steve Alker and Michael Long respectively.

In Group Two Sweden, who have so far beaten Taiwan and France 3-0, will go through even if they lose 2-1 to Australia. But if the Australians win 3-0 they qualify.

In the fierce wind the Scots made it five wins out of five against Ireland, winning 2-1 thanks to Gordon Brand Jnr and Colin Montgomerie.

After Raymond Russell had lost 74-69 to Paul McGinley Brand Jnr, whose 20 victories in the event put him second to Greg Norman (22), beat Darren Clarke 73-77 and Montgomerie came through 72-76 against Padraig Harrington.

Now it is Montgomerie v Ernie Els - a pairing which Europe's No 1 described as "delightful."

Els was the man who beat him in a play-off for the 1994 US Open and again in the final of the World Match Play championship that year.

Montgomerie did, however, win their play-off at the Million Dollar Challenge in South Africa last December.

Els said: "I've got a couple on him, but he is a good player and he is in a good mood this week. When he's in a good mood he's dangerous, and I've got to be on my game.

"The Scots will have the crowd behind them. They've been kind to us so far, but it might be different now."

The US Open champion - he pipped Montgomerie again by one shot this June - was struggling with his swing when he lost the final of the World Match Play to Vijay Singh on Sunday.

But, after coming back from two behind Sven Struver with five to play to win by one, 71-72, and take South Africa to a 3-0 success over Germany, Els said: "I'm hitting my driver solid. My game's okay, and physically I'm feeling good."

Clarke, who lost by five shots to Els on the opening day, handed Brand Jnr a crucial advantage by running up a triple-bogey seven on the 372-yard seventh when the wind was at its worst.

He needed two attempts to extricate himself from one of the most cavernous bunkers on the entire course and then three-putted.

Montgomerie, meanwhile, was helped along by Harrington having double bogeys at both the short 11th and 16th.

Price managed to play 12 holes in one under par and was on level terms with Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez when he decided that he just could not go on any more.

He has been struggling since last weekend and said: "If it had been a regular event I would have gone home on Monday, but I've been trying like crazy for the team.

"My tournament is over, though. I'm not going to risk doing serious damage that might take me months to recover from. It's been as much pain as I've ever played golf in."

Price had done his bit with a win in his team's opening 2-1 victory over South Korea, and Johnstone said: "It's time Mark and I carried him."

No replacements are allowed and, unlike the Ryder Cup, anyone unfit to play forfeits the point rather than gets an agreed half. Johnstone and McNulty now have to win all their games if Zimbabwe are to lift the title for the first time.

Sweden would have already been certain of a semi-final spot if Chen Liang-hsi had made a seven-foot putt on the final green against Steve Elkington.

It would have given Taiwan a 2-1 victory over Australia, but Chen missed it and then did the same from similar range on the second extra hole - Elkington having lipped out from two feet at the 19th.