Europe 3 USA 1
Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood stole a march on their teammates playing in the top game of the opening fourballs when they put the first points on the board for Europe at the Belfry today.
It was fitting that Westwood, one of the out of form players coming into the tournament, holed the winning 20 foot putt on the 15th to defeat David Duval and Davis Love III by a convincing 4&3 margin in the second game.
Moments later, Thomas Bjorn drained a high pressured 22 foot putt on the 18th green for birdie to close out his and Darren Clarke's opponents, Tiger Woods and Paul Azinger, by the narrowest of margins in the top match. The Europeans had been two up with two to play but a Woods birdie on 17 forced the match up the last.
It's not that the Americans played poorly, the European duo were simply relentless. Their 10-under par 62 betterball total squeezed out the Americans who shot 63 and still lost.
Earlier Clarke set the standard from the outset by opening with three consecutive birdies to go one up. The Americans responded to go one up by the time they reached the turn. Bjorn was largely responsible for the second phase of the European charge, an effort which culminated in a masterly approach into two feet at the 16th to set up a winning birdie.
Next it was the turn of Colin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer to get their Europe's third point. The pair lived up to their billing as the perfect match en route to a 4&3 win over Scott Hoch and Jim Furyk in the third match.
In the final match Padraig Harrington and Niclas Fasth had opportunities to level their match but eventually they lost out on the final green. The European pair had been three down at one stage but back-to-back birdies at the 13th and 14th gave the home pair a fighting chance going into the final stretch.
In the end the Dubliner was left to rue a missed 12 foot birdie putt on the last which would have halved the match. Harrington thought he'd holed it but unfortunately it horse-shoed the hole to seal the first American points in a match they were never down in.
- Clarke and Bjorn won by one hole against Woods and Azinger
- Garcia and Westwood won by 4&3 against Duval and Love III
- Montgomerie and Langer won by 4&3 against Hoch and Furyk
- Harrington and Fasth lost 1 down against Mickelson and Toms
Draw for the afternoon foursomes (Europe names first):
1.30pmDarren Clarke and Thomas Bjorn v Hal Sutton and Scott Verplank
- 1.45pmSergio Garcia and Lee Westwood v Tiger Woods and Mark Calcavecchia
- 2pmColin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer v Phil Mickelson and David Toms
- 2.15pmPadraig Harrington and Paul McGinley v Stewart Cink and Jim Furyk