Europe's roller-coaster day

Just as the white flag of surrender is never raised on the first day, neither is a golf trophy won. Yesterday, on a day at The Belfry that contained more fluctuations than a stock exchange market after a public tribunal has aired some dirty linen, the Ryder Cup regained its soul with the sort of tightly contested, grimly fought but fair battles that its founder intended back in 1927. From Philip Reid at The Belfry

And, at day's end, Europe - just about - held the initiative, riding the roller-coaster of emotions in fourballs and foursomes to hold a slender 4½-3½ lead over the United States.

As if to confirm that golf really is a crazy old game, and to show that the Ryder Cup is so different from all other individual events where selfishness is usually an asset if not a virtue, the world's number one Tiger Woods played twice and lost twice.

In contrast, Lee Westwood, a player who has slid from fourth to 148th in the world rankings in little more than a year, played twice and won twice. As usual, the first day of the Ryder Cup defied logic. Form means only so much, it is often character that means twice as much.

The bedrock of Europe's lead came in the morning fourballs, which were won 3-1. In the foursomes, however, an alternate-shot regime which has caused the Americans much angst over the past decade, the United States came back strongly, winning 2 ½-1 ½.

True to his word, the US captain Curtis Strange played all 12 of his players in the first day of competition. The ploy worked well. His three rookies - David Toms, Scott Verplank and Stewart Cink - all played and remained unbeaten.

Sam Torrance, meanwhile, played just nine of his team, including two of his rookies - Niclas Fasth and Paul McGinley - who both lost. Three players - Phillip Price, Pierre Fulke and Jesper Parnevik - were left on the sidelines, transformed into high-profile inside-the-ropes supporters.

Although overcast, and with a breeze that accentuated the test on a course where the fairways have been narrowed to negate the advantages of the US's long hitters, conditions were near perfect; and this was reflected in the scoring.

Nowhere was it emphasised more than in the fourball match between Darren Clarke and Thomas Bjorn against Woods and Paul Azinger, which contained 19 birdies.

Woods and Azinger were nine-under - shooting 63 - and lost, the killer blow coming on the final green where Bjorn rolled in a 20 footer for birdie for a one-hole win.

"There's no defence for that," admitted Strange. "He has a lot of intestinal fortitude."

Elsewhere, in the foursomes, Sergio Garcia and Westwood were 4 and 3 winners over David Duval and Davis Love, while Colin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer won by the same margin in their match with Scott Hoch and Jim Furyk.

Europe's only loss in the foursomes came in the bottom match, where Padraig Harrington and Fasth lost by one hole to Phil Mickelson and Toms. Harrington had birdied three of his last four holes before coming to the 18th, and he had a 12-footer for birdie to halve the match.

Agonisingly for him, it horse-shoed out, just as he prepared to do his fist pump at making the putt.

What it meant was that the Americans at least gained something out of the fourballs, although the fact that they continued to be outclassed by the Europeans didn't sit easily with Strange.

"It makes me dog gone mad," he said. "I refuse to believe that European teams are better in fourballs."

Yet, the US have to go back to Oak Hill in 1995 to the last time they dominated this particular discipline.

Garcia and Westwood proved to be Europe's strongest partnership. In the foursomes, they were Europe's only winners, beating Woods and Calcavecchia by a 2 and 1 margin. Of Westwood's metamorphosis, Torrance remarked: "It just shows you that it is how you respond to pressure that counts, and he responded in style. As I've said before, class is forever and he has a lot of talent."

And there was praise too from Garcia, "It's not nice to see a fellow professional and a friend playing badly. It's good that Lee is back playing well."

The foursomes, however, was to prove frustrating for Europe's cause. Clarke and Bjorn, so fired up in the fourballs, paid the penalty for some lose play on the way home in their match with Hal Sutton and Verplank. Two up after 12 holes, the European duo proceeded to lose four of the next five holes to suffer a 2 and 1 defeat. And, in the bottom match, Harrington and McGinley came up against the best foursomes performance of all from Cink and Furyk who had six birdies - and no bogeys - on the way to a 3 and 2 win.

"This hurts," admitted McGinley, "but, as I said to Padraig afterwards, we've won together and we'll lose together too. We came up against two guys who were really on their game. We lost, and that's the bottom line, but there is still a hell of a long way to go in this Ryder Cup, and this wouldn't be the Ryder Cup if one team got too many points ahead."

Perhaps the biggest body blow inflicted on Europe in the foursomes wasn't a win at all. It came in the last foursomes match on the course, where Montgomerie and Langer - who had raced into a three-hole lead after eight holes, and still retained that advantage with four holes to play - were brought back to a share of the spoils by Mickelson and Toms, who birdied the 15th, 16th and 17th holes to go all square.

"If we do well on Sunday, in the singles, it is that half point that could well make all the difference," insisted Strange. "That half point was huge, from our psyche."

For today's foursomes, meanwhile, Torrance has decided to rest Harrington. Instead, two of his rookies, Fulke and Price, will open up the day's play against the hot duo of Mickelson and Toms. Otherwise, the pairings of Westwood-Garcia, Montgomerie-Langer and Clarke-Bjorn have been left intact. Parnevik is the only player not to have played yet in the competition, but he is likely to do so in the afternoon fourballs.