woosie on top again in fourballs
Woosie and Clarke share another golden moment.
By Harry Emanuel, the K Club
Ian Woosnam said he would be happy with an even share of the points from Saturday morning's fourballs. Now he'll be ecstatic with another strong European performance as the fourballs ended 2.5-1.5 in his favour again. That gave the home team a three-point advantage and the momentum going into the afternoon's foursomes. The dynamic Spanish duo of Sergio Garcia and Jose Olazabal continue to drive Europe forward and they put the first point on the board for the second day in succession. They'll be shouting El Presidente not El Niño in the streets of Spain. Garcia has now won eight straight Ryder Cup matches. Mickelson's dreadful form continues and he has made only two birdies in the fourballs so far. Captain's picks Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood again repaid the faith that Woosnam has shown them in fantastic style by convincingly beating America's top pairing of Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk. This gave Europe a second valuable point and all the momentum. Woods remains in very poor form and has scored only nine points from his last 23 Ryder Cup matches. Yet again the American strategy backfired with their ace pairings of Woods/Furyk and Mickelson/DiMarco firing blanks. An occurrence which must be all too familiar for captain Tom Lehman. But despite that only Chris DiMarco faced the axe for the afternoon foursomes. The others are lucky to still be playing but it reflects the lack of firepower available to Lehman. With Europe leading 7-3 memories of Oakland Hills came flooding back and one was already thinking 'how far?'. But then it was a case of déjà vu in the top match between Casey/Karlsson and Cink/Henry with the European duo two up after nine. Once again rookie JJ Henry stepped up with a very impressive display including an eagle on 16 and birdie on 17. The American pair were one up at this point it was a distinct possibility that their team could finish the morning session 2-2, which would have given them a huge boost. Henry had a putt on 18 to win the match and when it lipped out Lehman fell to his knees. Casey then twisted the knife by coolly rolling in a 4-foot putt to gain a half point. Casey and Colin Montgomerie's successful putts for halves so far have put Europe firmly in control. It's the difference so far between a one-point lead and a three-point lead. This American team are real bunch of fighters and with the rookies really stepping up this Ryder Cup is far from over. Zach Johnson played brilliantly with Scott Verplank to win against Padraig Harrington and Henrik Stenson That was a crucial point which keeps the Americans in with a fighting chance but unless their top players start to hit top gear they won't turn this round. It's been all Europe over the first three sessions and they should continue to forge ahead, but no lead is big enough in the singles. The conditions will remain difficult with further thunderstorms and heavy rain forecast.
