The defending champions Team USA turned around an early deficit to lead into the second session at the Ryder Cup in Paris on Friday.
The Europeans got off to a fast start with Jon Rahm combining perfectly with Justin Rose to set the tone in the first match against Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau.
The American duo plugged away until Finau capatilised on a massive moment of good fortune. The rookie’s tee shot on the bounced off the wooden wall separating the water hazard and the green, sending it within five feet of the hole.
Finau made the putt for birdie, bringing the match to all-square. Both Americans found the 18th green with Rahm in the heavy rough and Rose matching his opposition in the fairway. Then disaster struck as Rose’s ball failed to hold the green leaving Rahm a lengthy effort to save the match with an up and down par. He missed to send USA 2-0 ahead after Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler easily saw off an out of sorts Rory McIlroy and debutant Thorbjorn Olesen.
Both pairs found birdies hard to come by before the US pair went into overdrive from the eighth hole as the stormed ahead with five birdies and a quick three-up advantage.
Tyrrell Hatton and Paul Casey produced a late fightback but failed to birdie the last to lose their clash against a resurgent Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas one down.
The final match did not need all 18 holes as Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari combined to great effect to send Tiger Woods and Patrick Reed into the afternoon pondering a 3 & 1 loss.
The momentum swayed to and fro before Fleetwood took care of business on 15 and 16 with his putter electric before the Open champion ended the contest with a birdie on the 17th.
Both Woods and Reed were rested for the afternoon foursomes.
