The European team took command of the Ryder Cup’s third session of play to overturn a two-point deficit against the United States and take a three-point lead into the 12 singles matches.
With Sunday’s play washed out in the morning as more torrential area hit The Celtic Manor, the singles matches will now roll forward to Monday. But Montgomerie’s men made sure on Sunday that they would take a healthy advantage into the singles matches by winning five matches and halving the other during a terrific third day to leave them requiring just five points from the singles matches to reclaim the trophy.
“In my time – 20 years since I’ve been playing Ryder Cup – this is one of the greatest days for European golf we’ve ever had,” European captain Colin Montgomerie said.
“To run a two-point deficit into a three-point lead was quite amazing. To stop America from winning a match, just fantastic.”
It was Lee Westwood – an injury doubt for weeks before the match – who led from the front as he and playing partner Luke Donald blitzed the strong United States pairing of Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker by a massive 6&5 margin. It seems Westwood holds an Indian sign over Woods; their Ryder Cup record being 6-1 in favour of the Worksop man.
In the other foursomes match, the Irish pairing of US Open champion Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy ran out 3&1 winners over Zach Johnson and Hunter Mahan. McIlroy rolled in a 15-footer for birdie to claim the win on the 17th green.
US PGA champion Martin Kaymer came to life late in his match to help secure a point with Ian Poulter against the US’ Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler. The US pair had pegged back the Europeans’ early lead, but the Europeans dug deep to hold off their efforts to secure another point.
Padraig Harrington teamed with Ross Fisher to defeat Jim Furyk and Dustin Johnson by a 2&1 scoreline while Sweden’s Peter Hanson and Spaniard Miguel Angel Jiminez put on a late surge to overturn a 1-hole deficit in their match against Bubba Watson and Jeff Overton to win 2 up.
And the Molinari brothers closed out the day’s action with a battling half-point against the US pairing of Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar, after coming to the last hole 1 down to the Americans. It was Francesco who squared the match with a teasing four-footer for a birdie – a distance he had missed from a few times in the match – but the Italian made no mistake, finding the centre of the hole to give the European team a massive 5.5 points from the possible 6 on offer.
