Despite the alarming amount of bleach in their collective hairstyles, Team Europe stretched their lead to 6½-1½ after day one following a 3-1 victory in the afternoon foursomes.
The talking point will of course be the pairing of Woods and Mickelson, who lost their second match of the day. Three up after 4 against Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood, the “Dream Team” were pegged back to all square by the 10th, and fell 1 down on 11, where they remained until they won the 17th. With the momentum seemingly on their side on the 18th tee, Mickelson hit a wayward drive into a position from which Woods could only drop and punch out down the fairway. An average wedge by Mickelson’s standards left Woods with a 15-footer for bogey, which he missed – double bogey. After Darren Clarke left his par attempt within gimme range, matchplay’s cardinal sin of losing a hole to bogey had been committed, giving the Europeans the hole and the point.
Colin Montgomerie further justified his wildcard place by winning his second match of the day, renewing his successful partnership with Padraig Harrington to beat Davis Love III and Fred Funk 4&2. Monty has now lost only two out of his last 18 Ryder Cup matches. Wow.
Another wildcard victor was debutant Luke Donald, who, with Sergio Garcia, beat Kenny Perry and Stewart Cink 2&1. Donald finished his day with 1½ points out of a possible 2, not bad for his first day in the Ryder Cup. The sole highlight of the afternoon for the Americans was Chris DiMarco and Jay Haas‘ 3&2 victory over Thomas Levet and Miguel Angel Jiménez – the US team’s sole victory of the day.
The outstanding feature of the European’s day has been their exceptional team chemistry. The synergy of their pairings seems to be much greater than that of their opponents. The Monty/Harrington partnership is starting to look unbeatable; Westwood has had successful reunions with both Sergio García and off-course friend Darren Clarke; another friendship, that of Donald and García also proved fruitful in the afternoon. Hal Sutton’s retort, that of pairing the World’s numbers two and four – Woods and Mickelson – together now seems tactically inept. One wonders whether he will persist with the same pairing tomorrow, or concede defeat and break the two up.