DARREN CLARKE’S foursomes policy of throwing the names in the air to see where they would land paid off, thanks to one of the greatest fightbacks in Ryder Cup history.
Sergio Garcia and Rafa Cabrera-Bello trailed the Ryder Cup’s “next great pairing” – Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed – by four shots with just six holes to play, and looked destined for a heavy defeat.
But this competition always brings out the best in Spain’s best golfers – just think Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olzabal, the greatest combination of them all with just two defeats in 15 matches together.
Garcia and Cabrera-Bello seemed to be coated with some of the same magic as they somehow drew level heading to the 18th tee, and they almost pulled off a win for the ages.
They played all the golf coming down the stretch, but Reed eventually converted a knee-knocker from six feet to secure the half, and all of America breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Not since Colin Montgomerie came back from four down with four holes to play and halved his singles match with Mark Calcavecchia in 1991 has any one produced such heroics while performing under the European banner.
That improbable half point in the final match meant Europe had taken the third session 2 ½ – 1 ½, and went into the fourballs trailing by just one point at 6 ½ – 5 ½.
That was a position Clarke could not have dreamed off when his team were whipped 4-0 in the opening foursomes session.
But the European captain would have been hard pushed to claim much of the credit for the dramatic change of fortunes in this second round of foursomes.
Apart from the no-brainer of keeping the Spanish duo together after their emphatic fourballs victory the previous evening – and doing the same thing with Rory McIlroy and Thomas Pieters – there has not been much evidence of clear thinking from the top.
Clarke became the first captain from either team to send out EIGHT different combinations in the foursomes. Not much continuity there, Darren.
His probable line-up for the first session was an open secret ever since the team was finalised.
But just one of the four expected pairings went to the first tee –that of Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose, who won three out of three together at Gleneagles.
The desire to keep Danny Willett out of the firing line influenced things a little –but Garcia and Martin Kaymer? Honestly?
But Clarke got lucky by stumbling onto a few winning combinations. Fourball titans McIlroy and Pieters were again in irresistible form to blow away Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler, and put Europe’s first foursomes point on the board.
Actually, on the theme of muddled captaincy, did anyone else in the game even consider Phil Mickelson a viable option for foursomes, apart from Davis Love?
Mickelson is to straight hitting what Peter Willett is to Anglo-American relations.
He should surely have been held back for the fourballs, even if he and Fowler did win their first match – but only after McIlroy and Andy Sullivan threw away a two hole advantage.
Splitting up Rose and Stenson for the second round of foursomes was another baffling decision, even if there was a feeling new boys Matthew Fitzpatrick and Chris Wood needed experienced shoulders to lean on.
In the end, that move half-worked. Rose and Wood delivered their point, while Stenson and Fitzpatrick were floored by a late birdie blitz from Brandt Snedeker and Brooks Koepka.
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That American duo also romped to the Americans’ only victory in the Friday fourballs, and as Snedeker’s putter got red-hot for the second day running it looked at times as if he would explode from a mixture of pride and passion.
The reward for their second impressive victory was an afternoon off for Snedeker and Kopeka. Mark another one up to this year’s ‘go figure’ brand of captaincy.
For most of the morning it looked like the foursomes would be shared two apiece, which would have been an acceptable outcome for Europe after that first day rout.
But Garcia and Cabrera-Bello were having none of it.
Spieth and Reed have been hailed as America’s answer to the legendary Seve-Ollie partnership. And it looked like their supporters might have a point early on.
The hungry twentysomethings rattled off a hat-trick of birdies to take an immediate stranglehold on the match, and went on to cover the first seven holes in five under par – incredible scoring in a foursomes match.
But their policy of getting together to constantly analyse every shot strikes everyone as mentally exhausting. Sure enough, they started to run out of steam with the match at their mercy.
Three bogeys in arrow from the 13th opened the door for the Spaniards, and they kicked it wide open with fantastic birdies at 16 and 17.
In the end it was the Americans who felt they had dodged a bullet. And they had a point.
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