Day One

It was the best of times....oh heck, you know the rest.

The U.S. parlayed a gutsy, unexpected performance in morning fourballs into a two point deficit.  I had a Tivo malfunction so saw precious little of the afternoon festivities, and what I did see was hard

to watch.  Rory made an obvious unforced error earlier in the week by speaking of winning five points, but he and Sergio played like they belonged in the B-flight instead.

But Rory drops that bomb on No. 17 and, after Rory's errant tee ball catches a bare lie, Sergio hits a towering hybrid onto the green.  The two-putt birdie won a half point that will feel like much more, and a 3 1/2 - 1/2 rout of the afternoon session.

Watson put a brave face on it after the session ended, but he and his lads are in quite the deep hole.  There's still lots of golf to be played, but with Rory, Sergio, Poulter and several other Euro show ponies scraping it around, they can't be happy with their current position.

We're about 30 minutes for seeing the morning fourball pairings, but I don't expect too many surprises.  The Bubba-Webb team was just dreadful, but he needs those guys too much to sit them and He'll like them even less in foursomes.  There's a chance he'll break them up, but my guess is they stay together and Watson will be fingering his rosary.  Reed and Speith will no doubt stay together, and I just heard that Phil will not play in the morning.  Given that he looked like the Michelin Man in his Costanzaeaque puffy parka and winter golf gloves.

The Golf Channel analysts are criticizing Watson for leaving the Reed-Speith team on the bench, but we should wait at least until Monday morning for that nonsense.  The morning went exactly as he drew it up, and he needed to get the vets, whose games logically are better suited to foursomes, out there in the afternoon.  The guys simply did not perform, but there was no cause to change form his planning at 12:30 local time.

McGinley's big decisions will revolve around whether he wants anyone to play five matches.  Logic would seem to point towards making sure not to burn anyone out before Sunday, but no doubt he'll be tempted to ride the Rose-Stenson team hard.

Just a heads up that blogging will be limited for the rest of the event.  There's barely time to play and watch, much less blog, so you may well be on your own.  I'll check in when I can, but tomorrow morning will be big.