The afternoon foursomes were evenly poised as the games approached the turn in the Seve Trophy at Druids Glen today as Britain and Ireland edged slightly in front with the advantage in three of the four matches.
Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood set about redeeming themselves after their lacklustre defeat in the morning greensomes. They were three-up against Germany’s Alex Cejka and Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn courtesy of a 20 foot putt at the eighth by Clarke to secure back-to-back birdies.
Evidence suggested the home pair were finally putting their knowledge of each others play in previous Ryder Cup pairings to full use.
Colin Montgomerie opted to keep the winning Irish combination of Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley but up to this point matters were not going to plan for the Irishmen. They found themselves two down to the French pair Raphael Jacquelin and Thomas Levet after seven holes - they were victors over Clarke and Westwood this morning.
Montgomerie himself swapped one Scotsman for another to play with as Andrew Oldcorn replaced Paul Lawrie in the top game. It has been a wise move thus far as they have never been behind in the match and remained 1-up after 10 holes against Swedes, Robert Karlsson and Niclas Fasth.
In the second tie it was surprising to find the Spanish combination of Jose Maria Olazabal and Miguel Angel Jimenez playing erratic golf and trailing the comparatively inexperienced Englishmen, Steve Webster and Paul Casey.
The Spaniards were trailing by one hole at the turn which may have been worse considering they had three bogeys and one double bogey on the card.