Late point from Clarke keeps Irish in the hunt

After a crushing win over England, US skipper Mark O'Meara expressed mock surprise yesterday that no opponents had invited his team to dinner since their arrival here as favourites for the Alfred Dunhill Cup. But Ireland were very much more in need of friends, having lost 2-1 on the opening day for a second successive year.

Critically, Darren Clarke won at the fourth tie hole against Santiago Luna to avert a whitewash by Spain. That lone point means that while the Irish are down, they certainly are not out, though they will need some favours over the next two days.

Whether the Scots, their opponents in Group Two today, will be in any mood to oblige, is highly debatable after a somewhat embarrassing struggle in beating China 2-1. This was particularly notable for Colin Montgomerie's 72-73 defeat by Zhang Lian-Wei, following on similar setbacks against Raul Fretes of Paraguay in 1993 and Gaurav Ghei of India two years ago.

A crucial difference on this occasion, however, was that the big Scot hadn't dug any holes for himself through expansive predictions. So he could humbly admit, "My opponent played very well; better on the day than I did", without losing face. Still, colleague Andrew Coltart felt obliged to comment: "This Paraguay and India thing is never going to leave us."

Ireland were always going to have a difficult match against opponents who had beaten them in their last meeting in 1993. But New Zealand, the number seven seeds who were semi-finalists last year, sustained a shock defeat by Korea. Their torment was characterised by a round of 75 from Frank Nobilo, who has missed four of his last seven cuts on the USPGA Tour.

For today's meeting with Ireland, Montgomerie named Paul McGinley as his opponent in the anchor position. This left the Irish with the choice of placing Clarke first out against Coltart and Harrington in the middle of the order against Gary Orr.

Though Harrington was clearly in trouble after three-putting the first two holes for bogeys against JoseMaria Olazabal, Ireland had reason to be optimistic about their overall start. McGinley, for instance, birdied the first three holes to be four strokes clear of Miguel-Angel Jimenez, who bogeyed the third.

This proved to be the key match, particularly when Harrington three-putted for a fourth time in the round to drop five adrift at the short 11th. As things turned out, the recent winner of the Lancome Trophy chipped away at McGinley's lead to square with a birdie on the seventh.

After that, McGinley lost control of the match on the homeward journey. He blocked his drive into heavy rough on the way to a bogey at the 13th, and drove into one of Rob's bunkers to run up another bogey at the 15th. And with the match still finely poised, one stroke in the Spaniard's favour, McGinley made the fatal error of three-putting the 17th.

Harrington three-putted on five occasions, which meant that Olazabal didn't have to be brilliant to prevail. But the Spaniard still produced a memorable recovery for par at the 16th. From a position on the slope of the back, right bunker, where he couldn't reach the ball right-handed, he played the most exquisite, left-handed shot with a reversed sandwedge.

The 40-foot pitch finished six feet from the hole and he sank the putt to maintain a three-stroke advantage. It meant he could afford to bogey the 17th without jeopardising his position.

Clarke started slowly against Luna, but birdied the eighth and ninth to be level at the turn. And they were level going to the infamous 17th, which Luna bogeyed after being in the Road Hole bunker. But the Spaniard squared the match once more at the last, with a huge drive into the Valley of Sin from where he got down in two more for a closing birdie.

Their tie-hole battle went to the 463-yard fourth. There, after a superb drive, Clarke hit an eight-iron second shot of 155 yards to eight feet and sank the putt for a winning birdie. "We needed that point," he said. "Particularly after Monty lost to the Chinese."

O'Meara's talk about dinner invitations was prompted by his declared affection for the camaraderie of this event, as opposed to the life and death attitude in the Ryder Cup. "I would say the atmosphere here is competitive and serious, but it remains very gentlemanly," he said. "I could still talk to Peter Baker (his opponent yesterday) about his family, and, if he hit a good shot, compliment him."

Indeed the Americans, O'Meara, John Daly and Tiger Woods, were in a particularly talkative mood after thrashing England. Woods played beautifully with six birdies and no bogeys in a sparkling 66 which was later equalled by Australia's Stuart Appleby as the best score of the day.

O'Meara effectively blitzed Baker by gaining four strokes on him at the 13th, 14th and 15th, which he played in birdie, eagle, par. And Lee Westwood squandered the chance of staying in touch with Daly by carding a bogey six to his opponent's birdie at the long 14th, and another six at the 17th, where he drove out of bounds.

So, in the absence of a worthwhile fight from their English opponents, the Americans decided afterwards to target Ryder Cup officials. O'Meara criticised the current, regimented approach to socialising at the Ryder Cup. After being served with a cold, unappetising meal at last year's gala dinner at Valderrama, the American players asked their skipper, Tom Kite, to send out for 20 pizzas. "We wanted to have some real food and it was awesome," recalled O'Meara.

He concluded: "I don't need to be paid, but if there is a lot of money being made, which there is, the players should have some input into how it's disbursed and how the event is organised. And for a start, we don't need to be attending functions every night."