The United States have increased their Ryder Cup lead over Europe after the foursomes, winning three matches and halving one to take a two-point lead into the third session.
With the scores after Friday’s fourballs 2.5-1.5 in the US’ favour, the Molinari brothers – the first match to go out onto the course – lost by two holes to the US pairing of Zach Johnson and Hunter Mahan. The Italian duo were lacklustre through the first nine holes but managed to claw their way back into the match, before losing out on the 18th green.
Meanwhile, Spaniard Miguel Angel Jiminez and his partner, Sweden’s Peter Hanson were on the wrong end of a 4&3 result against the team of Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker. In truth, there was little to be done against Stricker, whose putter was white-hot on the Celtic Manor greens.
Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer fought out a tough match with Jim Furyk and youngster Rickie Fowler; the match ending all-square.
Padraig Harrington, a wildcard selection of skipper Colin Montgomerie was a different player to that which looked out of sorts during the fourballs, and was instrumental in his partnership with Ross Fisher – who also played well – running out 3&2 winners over Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson.
Ian Poulter and Luke Donald also put a point on the European board with victory over the US rookie pairing of Bubba Watson and Jeff Overton. Donald looked much more at home partnering Poulter than he did with Harrington and the duo gelled well through the match.
The final match saw a see-saw match between Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy, and the US pairing of Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar. These were the same pairings that played each other in the fourballs match, and it was ultimately the United States who ran out 1-up winners.
The competition now enters the third stage, which sees two more foursomes matches partnered with four fourball matches and the score currently stands 6-4 to the United States.
