America fight back after Ryder nightmare

The United States were on course to achieve their target of five points from today’s eight matches in the 35th Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills.

The home side led in three of the morning’s fourballs, including against the top European pairing of Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington, as they tried to come back from a record first-day deficit in Detroit.

Montgomerie and Harrington, who won both their matches yesterday, were two down after seven holes to Davis Love and Stewart Cink, while Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood were one down to Jay Haas and Chris DiMarco at the turn.

Darren Clarke and Ian Poulter trailed Tiger Woods and Chris Riley by two after nine, rookie duo Paul Casey and David Howell the only ones in front, leading Jim Furyk and Chad Campbell by one after eight.

With America trailing by five points overnight, captain Hal Sutton dropped Phil Mickelson for the morning’s action after the Masters champion and Woods combined to lose both their matches yesterday.

Woods partnered Riley for the second match on the course this morning, and Sutton revealed the former world number one had tried to rally the stunned home side in last night’s team meeting.

“I told them you all have to take responsibility for the fact you didn’t play well,” said Sutton, who also pulled no punches in a frank press conference on Friday evening.

“I said let’s set some goals and Tiger agreed with that and he had a few things to say about that and we took it from there. He was a little more vocal.

“I said a reasonable goal was to score five points. Any more than that is the icing on the cake but let’s make sure we get the cake.”

Mickelson, who was fulfilling his role as cheerleader on the course, admitted he had played ‘awful’ on the opening day.

“I didn’t sleep last night, it was a brutal night,” he said. “The captain put a lot of faith in Tiger and myself to play well and I didn’t.

“I looked at some of the (television) pictures and I was so tight. I was steering shots and just played awful. I wasn’t relaxed and the theme for us today is to stay loose and let it go.

“I was responsible for us losing two points but we lost six and a half. We play together as a team and if Tiger and I had got off to a good start things might have been different but we are going to make a move.”

European captain Bernhard Langer had warned his players to brace themselves for an American fightback and the majority of the 38,000-strong crowd quickly had something to cheer in the opening match.

Haas and DiMarco, the only American pair to win on Friday, were two ahead of Garcia and Westwood after six but Garcia birdied the seventh to reduce the deficit and Westwood converted from close range on the ninth after Haas had holed from 25 feet.

Woods and Riley won the first two holes and after Clarke’s par on the third pulled one back, a much more animated Woods birdied the fifth to restore their two-hole cushion.

Langer had unsurprisingly kept faith with Montgomerie and Harrington but they got off to a poor start with bogeys at the first to trail Cink and Love, the first time for 143 holes that Montgomerie had been behind in a Ryder Cup match.

Harrington holed two good putts for birdie on the second and third but they were only good enough to halve the hole, and another pair of bogeys on the fourth gifted the Americans a two-hole lead.

Love put his side further ahead with a birdie on the sixth before Montgomerie made his first significant contribution with a birdie on the seventh to cut the deficit.

Garcia and Westwood drew level with a birdie from the Spaniard on the 11th but looked like going behind again when Haas, who admitted he had 'choked' on his previous Ryder Cup appearance in 1995, fired a fairway wood within 10ft of the flag on the par five 12th.

But after Garcia holed for birdie from further away, Haas missed his eagle putt to let the Europeans off the hook.

Clarke and Poulter remained two down after 11 but Casey and Howell could count themselves unlucky not to be further ahead.

Casey holed from 30ft for birdie on the eighth only for Furyk to follow suit, and Campbell then holed a tricky par putt on the ninth to stay just one behind.