Four days after beating Tiger Woods in Shanghai David Howell yesterday did something else he has never done before - sign for a round of 59.

Not that the 30-year-old achieved the feat on his own. Howell had Luke Donald as his partner and the score came in the opening fourballs of golf's World Cup at Vilamoura in Portugal.

Not surprisingly, it gave holders England the first round lead, but only by a stroke from India and Australia.

Donald won the title with Paul Casey a year ago and, as the leading Englishman in the world rankings two months ago, thought long and hard about whether it was right to name Casey as his partner again.

In the end he went with Howell because he was next on the rankings and he certainly has no cause for regrets after this display. They are each on course to become almost £400,000 richer on Sunday.

The Swindon golfer, riding the crest of a wave thanks to his stunning victory over Woods in the HSBC Champions tournament on Sunday, picked up exactly where he left off in China.

After a birdie on the second he smashed a five-wood 246 yards to five feet at the next and made the eagle putt.

When two birdies quickly followed - and Donald had one in between - Howell said: ''I had a genral feeling that things can't go any better for me at the moment.''

He could not maintain the same pace, but that was when Donald, 15th in the world compared to Howell's 13th, stepped in.

A hat-trick of birdies took them to the turn in 29 and by the time they reached the final tee a par was all that was needed to break 60.

''We both knew but it wasn't mentioned,'' added Howell, who in trying to stay aggressive hit his approach off the rocks into the lake and left the job to his partner.

Donald was on the green in two but 40 feet from the flag and when that ran eight feet past it looked as if they might miss out on a magical mark.

''I knew the importance to make 59, so it was a big putt and I was very glad it went in,'' said Donald.

Australia's Mark Hensby and Peter Lonard, both making their debuts in the event, came home in 29 to catch Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa, who are delighted just to be among the 24 teams.

''It came as a shock,'' said Atwal. ''We had two other guys from India who were ready to qualify. I think Jyoti was told the day before they were actually going to leave and I was in the States."

Welsh pair Bradley Dredge and Stephen Dodd, trying to emulate Ian Woosnam and David Llewellyn's victory in 1987, were joint fourth with Swedes Henrik Stenson and Niclas Fasth after an 11-under 61.

Dredge, playing for the fourth time with his third different partner had six birdies and Dodd, appearing for the first time, five.

Dredge's sports psychologist John Pates was given a three-month European Tour ban - effective from the start of next month - after being involved in a scuffle with his former caddie Rick Brand in Shanghai last week.

Brand, who now works with Holland's Robert-Jan Derksen, was fined an undisclosed amount.

Asked what Pates teaches him Dredge laughed when he replied: ''Be more aggressive.''

Stephen Gallacher, another who uses Pates, combined with Scott Drummond for a seven-under-par 65 leaving Scotland in 13th place.

Collated scores: (par 72): 59 England (David Howell, Luke Donald); 60 India (Arjun Atwal, Jyoti Randhawa), Australia (Mark Hensby, Peter Lonard); 61 Wales (Stephen Dodd, Bradley Dredge), Sweden (Henrik Stenson, Niclas Fasth); 62 Spain (Miguel Angel Jimenez, Sergio Garcia), Taiwan (Wang Ter-chang, Chang Tse-peng); 63 Paraguay (Marco Ruiz, Carlos Franco), France (Raphael Jacquelin, Thomas Levet), Japan (Takua Taniguchi, Yasuharu Imano), Netherlands (Robert-Jan Derksen, Maarten Lafeber); 64 Denmark (Anders Hansen, Soren Hansen); 65 Germany (Christian Reimbold, Alex Cejka), Scotland (Scott Drummond, Stephen Gallacher), United States (Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink); 66 Colombia (Eduardo Herrera, Diego Vanegas), Venezuela (Manuel Bermudez, Carlos Larrain); 67 Mexico (Alex Quiroz, Pablo del Olmo), South Korea (KJ Choi, Jang Ik-je), Singapore (Mardan Mamat, Lamb Chih-bing), Ireland (Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley); 68 South Africa (Tim Clark, Trevor Immelman), Argentina (Ricardo Gonzalez, Angel Cabrera), Portugal (Jose-Filipe Lima, Antonio Sobrinho