donald and garcia slay big guns
Garcia was inspirational on day one.
By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent
Thanks to a double from an inspired Sergio Garcia - one of them over Tiger Woods - and a contribution from every other member of the team Europe have already taken a big stride towards an unprecedented third successive Ryder Cup victory. The first staging of the contest on Irish soil is already proving a thriller, with seven of the first eight games coming to the K Club's final green. But the Americans won only one of them and Ian Woosnam's side have built a 5-3 overnight advantage - the fifth match in a row they have led after the first day. How much of a lead they would have was decided only with the very last putt of the day and it fell to Colin Montgomerie, the man who took them to victory two years ago, to make it. The 43-year-old's five-footer gave himself and Lee Westwood - a partnership nobody would have predicted - a half with Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco. It meant that three of the afternoon foursomes had been shared and the other had been won and the fact that the victory was by Garcia and Luke Donald over Woods and Jim Furyk is what gives the home side the biggest lift going into the second day. "I'm so happy for the boys - every single one of them played brilliant," said Woosnam, who has already got everybody involved while Tom Lehman omitted Scott Verplank and Vaughn Taylor from both sessions. Montgomerie, winning his eighth cap, added: "That's a good day - we would have taken that before the start. We never lost a game this afternoon and that's very important." Lehman commented: "It was a bit of a tough finish and it stings a little bit. "Great matches, very exciting, but we could have used a little bit more luck on the greens. We played with a lot of heart, but the Europeans made a lot more putts. "Still, 5-3 is anybody's ball-game. But we're just a little bit frustrated." Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal had already claimed the scalps of David Toms and Brett Wetterich in the fourballs and, by getting the best of the United States' top duo as well, Garcia has now lost just two of 17 games in his cup career. At 6pm the outcome of the day's play was still totally in the balance. Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington were one up with one to play and the other three games were all square. There was a lift for the Americans when Harrington drove into the rough by a bunker down the 537-yard last and then pitched over the green. McGinley chipped close, but their opponents were on in two and Johnson, with a three-footer, brought his side an invaluable half as heavy rain returned. He and Campbell, two down after 15, had birdied the last three holes. Garcia and Donald were level with two to go, but Garcia, having hit a brilliant pitch as the 16th was halved in birdies, did it again on the next. That is the hole where Thomas Bjorn took 11 when leading the European Open last year, but Donald holed from three feet for a three and then came perhaps the biggest shock of the day. Off a huge Woods drive Furyk hooked terribly into the lake and even with Garcia playing a poor third from the edge of the water the American stars finished with a six - their third of the round. In the third game Howell and Stenson, both left out of the morning action like Donald and McGinley, twice led by one, but Howell's carved drive into the lake on the 15th brought them back to level. Again both sides birdied the 16th and after pars on the next it came down to two putt, Toms from 25 feet and Howell from 22. The American lipped out and, from a similar line, Howell agonisingly just missed as well. Then came Montgomerie and Westwood to take the final hole and grab a half in the gathering gloom. Europe also won the opening fourballs 2 1/2-1 1/2, Woods and Furyk being Lehman's only winners. There was an electric atmosphere even before the match began and the arrival of Harrington and Montgomerie on the first tee brought a huge roar. Woods and Furyk were warmly received too, but the world number one then hooked his opening shot into the lake. It was the worst possible start for him and he played the first seven holes in three over par. Thanks to Furyk, who birdied the first and fourth, Europe were only one ahead at that point, but Woods then came alive with three birdies and although Montgomerie won the 14th and Harrington the long 16th after a superb wood over the river they each missed a chance from around 18 feet at the next and Furyk clinched the win on the last. It was Woods' first point on the opening day since his very first game in 1997, while for Montgomerie it was only his third defeat in his last 19 games. "We had a golden opportunity, but just didn't hole anything," said the Scot, while Woods admitted: "I didn't warm up particularly well and was struggling early, but Jim was solid." Behind them Paul Casey and Robert Karlsson took a three-hole lead by going to the turn in 31, the highlight being Casey's three-wood to six feet for eagle at the 568-yard fourth. However, Cink and JJ Henry, like the Swede making his first appearance, birdied five of the next six and looked like going two-up on the 16th. Then came one of the pivotal moments of the morning. New World Match Play champion Casey made a 45-footer for birdie, Henry missed from under five feet and with the last two holes being shared the match was halved. Both sides were round in seven under par 65s, but Garcia and Olazabal had been on course for better than that when they put Europe's first win on the board with a three and two success. The two Spaniards were out in 30, but rookie Wetterich's two huge hits onto the green at the 584-yard 10th cut the gap to one. Another crucial putt was Garcia's 10-footer for a half in birdies on the next. The Americans both made a mess of the 13th and Garcia's birdies at the 15th and 16th meant Europe were eight under when the game ended. That left the focus on Darren Clarke and Westwood, Ian Woosnam's two wild card selections, against Mickelson and DiMarco and the two home players did all that their captain had hoped from them. Clarke, playing less than six weeks after his wife Heather lost her cancer fight and in a wonderful gesture of friendship hugged by his two opponents before teeing off, started with a birdie and then finished with two in three holes for a last-green win that brought tears to his eyes and more hugs from all around. "I don't know how I managed to do it, but I went flush-flush-flush on the first and made three," he said. "Phil and Chris showed great sympathy for me, as all the Americans have this week. "It's been very kind of them. This is not about animosity." The Ulsterman was left out of the afternoon action along with Karlsson, Casey and Olazabal, but he had already contributed to the cause and that meant the world to him. And, of course, to every one of his team-mates. It was indeed a good day for Europe, but there is still a long way to go.
