Ryder Cup- Day 1

Today was certainly a day for the young guys on the US Ryder Cup team.

Tiger Woods continued his poor play in the Ryder Cup going 0-2 in the days matches while Phil Mickelson was buoyed by the strong play of Keegan Bradley and went 2-0 on the first day of play for the first time in his career. The shot Phil hit on the 17th hole in the afternoon Four-Ball match was simply magnificent. The day's good play gives the American team a lead going into the second day for only the second time since 1995.

The first match of the day with Rory and Graeme facing off with Furyk and Snedeker went much as one would expect before the Americans ran off 3 birdies in 4 holes on the back nine to extend the match. Indeed, the American team was lucky to make it past the 14th hole, as was mentioned on this site in the preview. From there, the teams of Mickelson & Bradley and Dufner & Z. Johnson won their matches, showing that perhaps these matches will hinge on the play of the  younger players on the American side. After those matches, the perpetual Ryder Cup underachiever Tiger Woods went off with Steve Stricker and Woods did what is somewhat standard for him in the Cup, that is, of course, lose. So with that, the American team came out of the Morning session with a 2-2 tie, which given recent American failures in Foursomes is solid.

In the afternoon, Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson came out of the gate like men beating out a fire and wound up winning the match 5&4, which is closer than the match really was given that the Americans were up 6 through 8 holes. From there the young teams came out and won two more matches before Woods & Stricker lost to the exceptional team of Colsaerts and Westwood; Colsaerts had 7 birdies and an eagle on his own ball. But that put the Americans up 3-1 in the afternoon matches for an overall lead of 5-3 after Day 1.

Captain Love should announce his pairings for Saturday shortly, though if he has any intelligence at all he will under no circumstances break up the pair of Mickelson & Bradley while breaking up Woods and Stricker quickly. But whatever he does, he need not stop this train while it's got good momentum. More to follow once pairings are released.