Saturday fortunes favoured brave Seve

Seve Ballesteros would have been treasured by Napoleon as not only an accomplished general, but a decidedly lucky one. So many things went right for the European skipper on Saturday, that intuition alone couldn't have been enough. He even turned the hostile Spanish weather to European advantage! The abandonment of play in fast-fading light on Friday evening, with two foursomes matches still to be decided, effectively resulted in a winning start the following morning.

Indeed a taste of splendid things to come was provided by the opening shot which happened to be a birdie putt by Lee Westwood on the 16th. That gave Westwood and Nick Faldo a foursomes win over Justin Leonard and Jeff Maggert and was followed by a sparkling halved match from Jesper Parnevik and Ignacio Garrido against Tom Lehman and Phil Mickelson.

It meant that when the normal Saturday fourball session commenced, Europe were leading by 4 1/2 to 3 1/2. And by the end of a stunning fourball performance, their advantage had grown to 8-4. That was when we saw the conquistador in all his glorious arrogance.

It occurred in the victory of Colin Montgomerie and Darren Clarke over the fearsome American pairing of Fred Couples and Davis Love. After all four approach shots had been hit to the 18th, Ballesteros positioned himself like a sentinel, left of the entrance to the green.

From there, as the European pair began the walk up towards the apron, he applauded their every step to resounding cheers from the gallery. It was an outrageous piece of gamesmanship, leaving his American counterpart Tom Kite and the two US players totally outflanked.

Ballesteros had reason to be pleased with those fourball exploits. Each of the three players, Clarke, Ian Woosnam and Thomas Bjorn - none of whom had seen action on Friday and were now pressed into combat - won their matches. For the first time in the history of a European Ryder Cup side, every player had won a point before the singles had got under way.

Was this pure luck for the European captain? Well, before the competition actually began, he had predicted that those omitted on Friday would play on Saturday. Which they did. But could he have imagined in his wildest dreams, the four-birdie fourball performance from Bjorn, that would deliver a victory with Woosnam? And Clarke's two winning birdies with Monty?

Sure, the captain was somewhat fortunate in the way things turned out. But those of us supporting the European cause preferred to think that it was a case of fortune favouring the brave.

He had set out clear requirements from his players in a letter distributed to them before battle commenced. It urged: "Focus. Maximum concentration. Look for stability. Play your own ball. Don't get intimidated. Don't get involved in any incidents. Enjoy and relax."

As it happened, the success of those three players was absolutely critical. With typical bravado, however, Ballesteros saw the whole process as being entirely predictable. At the end of a long and wonderfully eventful day he said: "I said earlier in the week that I had a lot of confidence in the team."

"It's true we now have a certain advantage but there's still a long way to go. We have to keep working and fighting - and never relax." Then, as if echoing American thoughts, he added mischievously: "The European team has been very lucky."

All the while, there was the continued absence of any meaningful sparkle from Tiger Woods. And one was reminded of the response from the European skipper to suggestions that the presence of the Masters champion would make the Americans invincible.

"Is that was people are saying?" questioned Ballesteros. "Well, I don't believe Tiger Woods can win the Ryder Cup. It is a team effort and that is what I will be instilling into my players."

For his part, all Woods could think of was the similarity with the Walker Cup matches at Royal Porthcawl two years ago when, incidentally, his commitment as a team player became highly questionable. Referring to the enthusiasm of the European gallery, he said: "The last time I experienced that was in Wales and I got a kick out of it. I'm actually surprised at how many Americans are over here cheering for us - and we really appreciate it."

For my part, it has been a long time since I experienced the level of excitement we had on Saturday, given that it was not going to deliver an overall conclusion as far as the destination of the trophy was concerned. And the uncertainty about the weather seemed to give it an additional edge.

As it happened, only one of the foursomes matches was played to a conclusion. And it was a memorable one in which Montgomerie, wonderfully competitive, combined with old hand Bernhard Langer in an 18th hole triumph over Lee Janzen and Jim Furyk.

Darkness was enveloping the course when Montgomerie blocked his drive behind one of the ubiquitous cork trees on the 18th. The skipper rushed over to Langer, urging him to play a Ballesteros-style shot by severely cutting an approach iron around the obstacle.

For once, Spanish passion had to give way to German pragmatism. Langer took the safe option of knocking the ball out into play, after which Montgomerie did the rest for what he described as "probably the best day for European golf ever".

Not even Napoleon would have relied on luck all of the time.