FOURBALLS:IT WILL be remembered as one of the great Ryder Cup matches, a contest of staggering quality but that won't console Pádraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell. They were eclipsed in yesterday afternoon's fourballs at Valhalla by the American axis of Phil Mickelson and young sensation Anthony Kim, squeezed out on the home green.

The Americans made 10 birdies and just a single bogey while the Irish pair produced a blemish-free round registering eight birdies of their own. Given those statistics it seems trite to single out one particular hole but the decisive few minutes in an enthralling spectacle came at the 17th.

Mickelson, who pushed his tee shot into the gallery, caught a favourable lie and was able to force his second shot onto the front of the green, some 30 feet away.

Harrington and McDowell hit a brace of shots that finished a couple of feet apart on the same line while Kim's pitching wedge from 121 yards came to rest six feet away.

It was Lefty though who delivered what proved to be the fatal blow with a curving putt that dropped in the centre of the hole. McDowell's 15-foot effort looked in with a couple of feet to go but agonisingly slipped away on the low side, while his partner tried to take a little of the break out of the putt but it too slipped a couple of inches high and wide.

It meant the Americans strode to the 18th tee one up, and when Harrington found sand off the tee, and McDowell suffered a similar fate with his second shot, it introduced a little leeway for the Americans.

A brace of well struck birdie putts failed to drop, leaving Mickelson and Kim to accept the adulation of the home crowd.

McDowell, making his first Ryder Cup debut, played beautifully all afternoon, making four birdies, the same number as his partner. He revelled in the occasion and demonstrated his mettle in the high-calibre contest.

Harrington offered another wonderful example of his character and talent, holing a gaggle of clutch putts. The tone for the afternoon was set on the opening hole, Mickelson holing from 25 feet, Harrington following him in from 12.

The Irish pair then went on a run, winning the next three holes with a par and a brace of birdies, but they were quickly disabused of any notion that the Americans might buckle when Mickelson hit his second shot to the fifth - after a drive of 370 yards - to four feet and holed the putt for birdie.

Kim at times looked a little overawed in the morning foursomes but positively relished the different format.

He enjoyed a little bit of good fortune at the sixth as his approach rolled through the green only to back up for a tap-in birdie which helped the US claw their way to one down.

The cut and thrust of the contest was mesmerising with all four players contributing handsomely. McDowell's 278-yard three wood set up an eagle opportunity which he could not convert.

His conceded birdie was matched by Kim's. The quartet all enjoyed birdie chances at the ninth but the Portrush golfer was the only one to find the hole in birdie, rolling it in from 20 feet.

Europe were two up but only briefly as Mickelson birdied nine, Kim and Harrington 10 - the Dubliner's 10-foot effort was character laden - and he would hole out again from the same distance on the 12th for birdie, a crucial intervention as Mickelson had nudged his second to a couple of feet.

The Americans had won the 11th to trail by just a single hole and they finally achieved parity for the first time when Mickelson's inspired day continued as he hit a masterful shot from the fairway pot bunker to within a couple of feet for birdie.

The seminal moment from a European context came at the 16th when Harringtons long putt from distance looked like it might topple in but instead grazed the hole.

The Americans birdie on the 17th provided them with the momentum which they just about managed to sustain.

European captain Nick Faldo, who accompanied this match down the stretch, couldn't have asked any more from the Irish combination. It was a brilliant performance but they just ran into an American pairing that played a similar vintage.

Mickelson has received plenty of flak for his Ryder performances in recent matches but yesterday the world number two played superbly and he found the perfect foil in the youthful exuberance of Kim.

They ensured that it would be a red letter day for the Americans.