Rookies make their own luck

The Boston ex-pats cling to their history. Yesterday, they unfurled their tricolours and brought pronounced accents out into the Massachusetts countryside in support of one of their own. But don't tell them, or Padraig Harrington, about the luck of the Irish. In the Ryder Cup, you darn well make your own: and the Irish rookie discovered as much on a first day cauldron of white-knuckle pressure and red-hot scoring.

It was a foursomes match that they could have won, or might have lost. They halved. For Harrington and Miguel-Angel Jimenez, two rookies up against two major winners - Payne Stewart and Davis Love III - the outcome was bitter sweet. If Harrington had holed his eight foot putt on the last, the win was theirs. If! If! If! The story of golf.

Harrington didn't win, but he didn't lose either. Indeed, he performed quite admirably on his debut. So, too, did Jimenez - apart from the 17th which, rather than Harrington's missed putt on the last, was the real difference between winning and losing the foursomes match. Playing in the match behind the circus that was the Tiger Woods-Sergio Garcia (and partners) encounter, the Irish-Spanish axis was under early pressure, and perhaps wondering if the rub of the green was entirely with the Americans. On the fourth hole, Love pulled his drive wildly left off the tee. Miraculously, it evaded all trouble. "It hit that first tree," remarked Ryder Cup committee man John O'Leary, "and, somehow, got through everything." Stewart pitched to six feet, and Love holed the putt to put the Americans two up. Back to back birdies. Potential killer-blows.

Jimenez and Harrington refused to bow to next year's Honorary Captain of Waterville and his sidekick. They may not have spoken too much - Jimenez's English is limited and Harrington's Spanish is worse - but the duo had a perfect understanding of what was required. And they started to produce some of the best golf of the day.

On the 310 yards Par 4 sixth hole, Harrington, who has added considerable length to his drives, found a greenside bunker. As Jimenez prepared to play out, a spectator's cellphone rang and, incredibly, it took two police officers a number of minutes to locate its ringing tone. It didn't upset the Spaniard though, and he splashed out to five feet and Harrington holed the five-feet bridie putt. One down. The Irish chorus roared, Mark James grinned.

Walking to the 10th tee, the Americans remained one up . . . but the confident saunter of earlier holes didn't have the same spring in the step. Walking off the 10th green, Stewart and Love were definitely feeling the pressure. There, Jimenez's six-iron approach finished marginally off the green, some 25 feet from the hole. Harrington rolled the putt into the middle of the hole. All square.

Americans say the darnest things at such times. "Come on Payne, get efficient," someone hollered. His response was to hook his drive into the trees and, miraculously, the ball rebounded on to the fairway. The hole was halved in par.

Mini-crisis time on the 12th. Dave McNeilly, Harrington's caddie, lumbers into view. "Have you got any bandages?" he asks the player's wife, Caroline. Harrington has split his finger and requires impromptu treatment. Caroline hauls out a roll of plaster and the caddie fishes out his Swiss Army knife and cuts it into stripes. Problem solved.

The initiative has swung to the Europeans. Harrington, who has driven the ball beautifully off the tee all day, has left Jimenez with 224 yards to the pin. "A perfect four-wood for him," remarks McNeilly. He puts it to 35 feet, and two putts are sufficient to secure the win after Stewart's approach came up short. One up. Europe.

On the 14th, Harrington's 25 foot eagle putt stops agonisingly short and, as the home duo stare defeat in the face, one American scribe out on the course turns to another and says, "your guy sucks." Love isn't firing on all cylinders, but his time has yet to come.

Love delivers the goods on the 16th green, holing a tough eight-footer to halve the hole. And, then, on the 17th, disaster for the European pair. Jimenez's first lose tee-shot is splayed wildly into the trees. Somehow, Harrington concocts a miracle recovery through the pine trees to 40 yards in front of the green. Almost stunned at the recovery, Love knocks his approach into a bunker. But Jimenez fails to take advantage, and duffs his chip; and Stewart splashes out to 15 feet. Harrington narrowly misses from 25 feet, Love rolls in his. Match all square.

Jimenez found redemption on the 18th, putting his approach in to eight feet. And, after Love missed his 12 foot birdie putt, it was all down to Harrington. Hole it, and Europe would gain another point. Miss, and it was a mere half. The ball stayed on the high side, and didn't drop. "A tough putt," opined Jimenez in consolation. Harrington looked drained. Finally, he knew what the Ryder Cup - and its pressures - were all about.