Europe off to good start

Europe’s golfers made a strong start in their bid to claim the inaugural Royal Trophy but were faced with the prospect of a fightback from Asia this morning.

A 3-1 lead had been established after the foursomes, when only the vastly experienced duo of Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam failed to win.

Asia, though, regrouped and in the fourballs showed why the European players did not downplay their opponents’ abilities before a ball was hit.

David Howell and Kenneth Ferrie may have seen off SK Ho and Keiichiro Fukabori by two in the foursomes, but the fourballs were a different matter.

After nine holes against Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa, the stuttering all-English pairing found themselves two down.

Ho and Zhang Lian-wei held a two-hole advantage over Graeme McDowell and Paul McGinley, who both found the water at the gimmicky floating eighth green.

After their disappointing early displays Faldo and Woosnam were split up for the fourballs and each made a solid start – Faldo with Henrik Stenson was one up after six and Woosnam with Thomas Bjorn was two up through seven.

Earlier, the decision of Seve Ballesteros’ to partner the Ryder Cup stalwarts was called into question.

The veterans, picked by the European captain as his two wildcards, paid for their rustiness as they were thumped by Asian stars Thaworn Wiratchant and Thongchai Jaidee 6&5 in their foursomes.

Faldo, who is the leading European points scorer in Ryder Cup history, and Woosnam found themselves three down after three holes before bogeys at the fifth and eighth, coupled with a birdie for Asia at the seventh, left them staring defeat in the face before halfway.

Some pride was salvaged when par was saved after the Thai pair had bogeyed the ninth and 11th, but two successive bogeys for Europe sealed their fate.

McGinley and McDowell beat Indian pair Atwal and Randhawa 4&3 in their alternate-shot format match.

McDowell said: “I thought we played pretty well. We’re a pretty good combination as we have similar games which helps.”

“This Asian team is very strong and we’ll have to play well to beat them,” cautioned his playing colleague.

In the other foursome, Bjorn and Stenson narrowly defeated Yasuharu Imano and Zhang Lian-wei.

The pairings were tied after posting one-under par scores on the front nine before a pair of bogeys handed Asia a one-hole advantage on the 15th.

But the Europeans picked up two shots in two holes to lead by one, with par at the 18th giving them the win.

The fourballs rounds off today’s action but tomorrow there are eight singles matches at the Amata Spring Country Club, which is an hour outside Bangkok.