Edoardo Molinari of Italy with Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher of England in the background – two teams who finally came good on Day 3.

In the rest of the field, Ireland came good with four birdies in the last six holes to finish on fifteen-under, and at seven shots behind the leaders they will be hoping for a miracle or four. The Aussie round of 63 was bettered only by France, who produced a ten-under par 62 to equal the German display from day one. Another team who performed at last were England, with a creditable effort for 63 – they were nine-under by the 16th hole, but could not find another birdie in the last three. Both countries have shot up the leaderboard to respectability. China finally gave their supporters something to cheer with a 64, as did the Danes and the disappointing Italians, though it seems that brother Edoardo is suffering from a rib injury. All of these teams can now look forward to a decent finish, and China might yet better their previous best of 11th in a World Cup.

The one disappointing note of the day was the complete absence of any representative of the Australian media to record their team's commendable performance. "The interest back home?" said Jones, who plays most of his golf on the Japanese Tour. "Yeah, well, I did see an article on Fox Sports, and it was about Green and 'James' coming second in the World Cup. So they don't even know who I am. There's a lot of press back home, and it's all about the Masters and John Daly missing the cut. We might not be the most famous Australian players, but we are in good position and we are backing our ability. Who knows," he concluded with a laugh, "we might get a line on the fifth-back page tomorrow…"

Happy Australian fans show their satisfaction at the turn of the day's events.

Shot of the day: Ok, there's no doubt there were some decent shots today. But I think we have to go with a 'shot of the night' instead. At the Media Night-Golf tournament on the floodlit Duval course yesterday evening, one of our Chinese colleagues was in the first group to play the 'closest to the pin' par-3 6th. He holed out in one. Well, they say he did, and it was pretty dark, so who am I to contradict them?

(China.org.cn by David Ferguson November 30, 2008)