SUNDAY FOURBALLS:AT 1.30PM yesterday Ross Fisher and Pádraig Harrington stood on the ninth tee and awaited the arrival of the second foursomes match to allow them to play through. From that vantage point they watched Zach Johnson hole a birdie putt on the eighth green to reduce a three-hole deficit by one in the game involving Irish duo Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy.
Harrington recalled a notice that Lee Westwood had posted on the door to the team-room just before play resumed in which he warned his team-mates that the Americans would pursue a fast start and the importance of matching that mindset. There would be no scope for blinking.
The partnership of Irish Open champion Fisher and Harrington held a one-hole advantage over Jim Furyk and Dustin Johnson with 10 holes remaining. Westwood's words were given added resonance when Furyk birdied the ninth but Harrington matched that feat.
Few would have envisaged how this match would change fundamentally, how Fisher from the 11th tee box to the 17th green would produce a marvellous individual performance. Harrington would later enthuse: "He (Fisher) played some fantastic golf; quality-wise he played the best golf anybody has probably every seen in a Ryder Cup. He made all the shots, all the putts."
The Irishman's fluency so evident in the foursomes and the opening nine holes of this fourball, disappeared under several errant shots but Harrington still managed to salvage a role; a selfless one. Fisher explained: "Paddy was huge in both our matches. I struggled in the first game with Poults (Ian Poulter). I was trying to hit good putts and they just weren't going in. Once I started holing some putts, it gave me a lot of confidence. When you have a three-time major champion reading your putts, you've got a fair chance. All I had to do was start it on line and every time I seemed to do that, they seemed to drop. It was a tremendous help and to get two points with Paddy was great."
Dustin Johnson's short-range putting aberration on the 14th green for bogey saw the Europeans previously precarious single-hole lead doubled courtesy of a misbehaving blade. It was on the 15th hole that this match was effectively decided. The two Europeans missed the green by an appreciable distance right in trying to drive it while Johnson's three wood hit the putting surface.
Harrington chipped adeptly from a lush lie on a steep bank to nine feet but Fisher's effort was even better and he holed the birdie putt for a half. The Englishman closed out the match two holes later when he rolled in a 15 foot birdie putt as his partner looked on approvingly. It was the impetus that European captain Colin Montgomerie craved and couldn't but serve as a galvanising influence.
The narrative in the remaining three fourballs included several plot twists where the ending was not discernible as the matches weaved a passage back towards the clubhouse.
In the bottom game Ian Poulter and Martin Kaymer appeared to be most in control when three up after eight holes but birdies from Mickelson at the ninth and 13th and Rickie Fowler's holed bunker shot at the 11th brought the Americans level.
Poulter's passionate determination coupled with some exquisite irons had yielded four birdies but his fifth - it came after the Americans gave away the initiative with a careless bogey on 14 - on the 15th demonstrated that timing can sometimes extend beyond hitting the golf ball.
Kaymer did not make a single birdie but in the next two holes grabbed the regulation figures that claimed victory.
Miguel Angel Jimenez and Peter Hanson had been railroaded in their opening game but they refused to be bullied by Jeff Overton and Bubba Watson especially down the stretch. Birdies at 15, 16 and a conceded one on 18 paired physical prowess and character, a unstoppable combination in claiming victory.
The win was emblematic of the European performance yesterday, one that championed the team dynamic. When one player struggled another stepped up and vice versa. When the Americans asked the questions, the Europeans provided the answers.
At least for now.
