Ryder Cup Diary

All the strategising is complete and the two captains have laid out their team line-ups for the final day. Monty leads the charge for the Europeans as he has done so impressively and successfully in the past. Europe need just four and a half points to win. Based on the evidence of the first two days, anything less than a final total of 16 points would be a surprise.

First match tees-off at 11.15am.

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Just as in Brookline in 1999, Europe take a 10-6 lead into the final day of the Ryder Cup. The memories of Justin Leonard’s epic comeback on that Sunday afternoon still linger sufficiently with the European team to prevent any complacency from developing in their thoughts and behaviour. Paranoia aside, the European team has performed consistently better than the US over the first two days and only a remarkable change of form can deny them a third successive Ryder Cup victory. (more…)

With the morning fourballs reaching an exciting conclusion, the pairings for the afternoon foursomes have been announced.

Garcia/Donald v Mickelson/Toms
Monty/Westwood v Campbell/Taylor
Casey/Howell v Cink/Johnson
Harrington/McGinley v Furyk/Woods

USA will be facing a deficit of anywhere between two and four points going into the foursomes and will need the big guns to deliver. Once again, the outstanding JJ Henry is omitted.

Technorati tags ryder cup, golf

With the score standing at Europe 5 USA 3, the action begins all over again on Saturday morning at 8am with these pairings:

8.00: Cink/Henry v Casey/Karlsson
8.15: Mickelson/DiMarco v Garcia/Olazabal
8.30: Woods/Furyk v Clarke/Westwood
8.45: Verplank/Johnson v Stenson/Harrington

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Often, the foursome format can be a greater differentiator than the fourball given the absence of a second chance to cover for a mistake but this afternoon saw an amazingly tight contest with all four games ending on the 18th green. Only the wonderful Sergio Garcia and his partner Luke Donald ended victorious over the mis-firing Tiger Woods & Jim Furyk. Sergio was certainly the player of the day, his golf was consistently outstanding and exuded confidence from start to finish. He was even lucky enough to survive a thinned wedge on the last once Furyk had hit his approach into the water.

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