The afternoon fourball matches were filled with drama and highlighted the new blood. J.B. Holmes and Boo Weekley ended Lee Westwood's 12 match unbeaten string when they defeated him and Soren Hansen 2 and 1. Holmes and Weekley never trailed in the match. Rookie and controversial captain's choice Ian Poulter, with Graeme McDowell got one back for the Euros besting Kenny Perry and Jim Furyk. Garcia/Casey halved with Ben Curtis and Steve Stricker with Stricker holing a pressure packed putt on the 18th hole to salvage an extremely important 1/2 point. Mickelson/ Mahan halved with Stenson/Karlsson to give the US a 9-7 advantage leading into singles play on Sunday.
The youth on both teams played very, very well. Mahan, Holmes, Weekley, Kim, Poulter, Wilson, McDowell, all acquitted themselves well on the big stage. They are the faces of future Cups. Better get used to them.
If the first two days signaled a changing of the guard, then Sunday should be a blast. The Euros need to win 7 of the 12 matches to retain the Cup. The match ups will be fascinating, especially with so many new faces. It's great to see the Ryder Cup boil down to singles with both teams having a legitimate chance. Tee it up, get the balls in the air!
Til' next,
*Just Announced from Captains Faldo and Azinger, Sunday Pairings link.
Do you still reckon Faldo's daft? I really like the order he's put out today. If he'd loaded the front it would leave the minor players feeling they really are the minor players, but puting faith in them to keep it tight should lift them, and he's got his big guns to close it out if they keep the early games close. It's gonna be awesome.
ReplyDeleteThough if you heard the post round interviews, he's struggling to string a sentence together, really babbling incoherently, certainly sounds daft even if he's not acting that way...
I think he put himself in a number of positions that could be questioned. Strongly. However, if there was a cookie cutter approach we wouldn't require captains, would we?
ReplyDeleteBeing behind going into the final day seemed to me to be reason to start some aces early or risk their rounds being meaningless. On the other hand, his aces didn't play that well all weekend. Moot.