Canada lead the way

Parry helped the Australians to second place

Canada's Mike Weir and Ian Leggatt lead after the first round of the EMC World Cup in Mexico.

The pair had an eagle and 11 birdies in their opening fourballs round of 59, one shot better than Australians Craig Parry and Adam Scott.

Weir and Leggatt completed the back nine on the spectacular Vista Vallarta course in an impressive 28.

Wales and Scotland lead the charge from the home nations after finishing the opening day of fourballs four shots off the lead.

France's Thomas Levet and Raphael Jacquelin could have joined the Canadians at the top of the leaderboard but for a double bogey six on the 18th.

Pre-tournament favourites Phil Mickelson and David Toms of the United States were six strokes off the pace after a seven-under-par 65, level with England's Justin Rose and Paul Casey.

Altogether, 24 teams are competing in the four-day tournament, which features alternate fourballs and foursomes.

First round scores

59 Canada (Ian Leggatt, Mike Weir)
60 Australia (Craig Parry, Adam Scott)
61 France (Thomas Levet, Raphael Jacquelin), South Korea (KJ Choi, SK Ho)
62 Sweden (Carl Pettersson, Niclas Fasth), South Africa (Rory Sabbatini, Tim Clark)
63 Fiji (Dinesh Chand, Vijay Singh), Denmark (Anders Hansen, Soren Hansen), Wales (Ian Woosnam, Bradley Dredge), Trinidad and Tobago (Stephen Ames, Robert Ames), Scotland (Paul Lawrie, Alastair Forsyth), Switzerland (Marc Chatelain, Andre Bossert)
64 Argentina (Eduardo Romero, Angel Cabrera), Japan (Shigeki Maruyama, Toshimitsu Izawa), Ireland (Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley)
65 New Zealand (Craig Perks, Michael Campbell), England (Justin Rose, Paul Casey), US (Phil Mickelson, David Toms)
66 Colombia (Jesus Amaya, Rigoberto Velasquez), Myanmar (Soe Kyaw Naing, Kyi Hla Han), Venezuela (Jamie Acevedo, Carlos Larrain)
67 Germany (Sven Struver, Alex Cejka)
68 Mexico (Esteban Toledo, Pablo Del Olmo)
70 Singapore (Mardan Mamat, Chi-bing Lam)