The course where the World Cup starts today is one of 12 at the Mission Hills golf club an hour from Hong Kong. It is dominated by a 300-foot tall statue of the lady Buddha, Guan Yin, the goddess of compassion who bears an uncanny resemblance to Queen Victoria.

China is big, so you would expect Mission Hills to be big. Even so, the realisation that this complex covers twice the landmass of Manhattan is startling. Mission Hills is so big that it encircles Guanlan Town — a teeming, noisy centre of 150,000 — much as the paw of a cat encircles her kittens.

Ian Poulter, 31, and Justin Rose, 27, are representing England and took their first look at the course on a clear, sunlit morning yesterday, riding together in a buggy and giggling like a pair of schoolboys. These two good friends have a lot to celebrate: Poulter won the Dunlop Phoenix tournament from a field that contained ten world-class players in Japan last Sunday, his first victory of the year; two weeks before that Rose had won the Volvo Masters in Spain as well as the European Order of Merit.

They are favourites to win this competition, too, three years after Paul Casey and Luke Donald, their countrymen, did so in Seville.

As the end of a calendar year approaches, the two Englishmen have cause to be pleased with themselves. They have moved into the world’s top 20 for the first time, Rose to No 8, Poulter to No 20, one place higher than Casey and three places behind Donald. Now that England has four golfers in the top 21 in the world, the days in 2001 when Lee Westwood was the only Englishman in the top 100 seem a century ago.

You would not necessarily have picked Poulter and Rose to become soulmates, the fast-talking and walking, straight-backed Poulter who had to fight to get out of the pro’s shop in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, and on to the professional tour and Rose, the quiet teenage prodigy who has been preparing for a career as a professional from the age of 8. Yet their friendship was founded in 1999 in the days when they were both struggling pros on the Challenge Tour.

Rose was there because he could not cut it on the main tour and Poulter was out as often as he could as an aspiring pro, often hanging around tournaments as first or second reserve, sometimes getting in to play, sometimes not. Their individual difficulties brought them together. “Justin was going through a tough period, but to see someone with the will and determination to keep working on his game was good to see,” Poulter said. “It would be easy for someone at that age just to crumble and Justin didn’t do that. Deep down he knew that if he kept working, he would be where he is today. That is inspiring.”

Eight years ago Rose found Poulter and his innate confidence to be eye-opening. Rose was in the midst of a run of tournaments in which he lasted only two rounds and his confidence was low. Naturally quiet and slightly introspective, he was galvanised by the exuberant Poulter, who did nothing quietly, including playing his music in their hotel bedroom, and everything at a million miles an hour.

“He seemed to be having a lot more fun than I was having,” Rose said. “We would go out to dinner and have a laugh. We would be in our hotel room together and have a laugh. There was much more laughing going on than at any time since I had turned pro. That was an important part of my improving as a player, learning to enjoy myself. I learnt a lot from that.”

And what is it now that they like about each other’s game? “I can roll a putt four foot by and know he is going to knock it in coming back,” Rose said of his partner in today’s and Saturday’s four-balls and tomorrow’s and Sunday’s foursomes. Poulter added: “It’s nice to know you have a partner who is playing well every week. I feel comfortable knowing that if I do my job, Justin will do his.”

How the cup is won

— Two-man teams from 28 countries compete for the World Cup and a first prize of $800,000 (about £400,000) per player.

— Play on the first and third days is four-ball strokeplay, when the better ball of the two players counts. Play on the second and fourth days is foursomes, which is alternate shots.

— The winning team will take home the World Cup, a 56cm tall and 61cm wide trophy weighing 82kg. Marcel Siem and Bernhard Langer, pictured, are the holders, having won in Barbados last year.