Europe battle back in Kentucky

The Ryder Cup was compelling viewing last night as the European team clawed it's way back into the competition. After the poor first day and a three point deficit, there was a chance yesterday that the Yanks could have been out of sight by the close and at one point they looked like they might stretch their lead to five points. 

However, in a nailbiting last couple of hours, the European team fought back to square the fourballs having won a point back in the morning's foursomes.  Ian Poulter and Graeme McDowell held off a late challenge from Perry and Fury, with Poulter sinking a testing last putt to win by a hole. Poulter was one of the pair controversially chosen ahead of Clarke and Montgomery,  but he showed yesterday what a competitor he is and the beady stare, hand pumps and "come-on" roars throughout his round showed just how much this means to him. 

Garcia and Casey had a titantic battle with Curtis and Stricker to halve their match on the final green and Stenson and Karlsson came back in the last couple of holes to do just the same against Mikelson and Mahan.  So Europe finished two points adrift at 9-7 with the twelve singles matches to be played out later today. Captian Nick Faldo has taken another risk with his singles line-up as he is banking on a strong finish to halve or win the match to retain the cup. Sergio Garcia plays first against Antony Kim and Faldo will be looking to the Spaniard to put the first blue on the board, He will then need Casey, Karlsson, Rose, Stenson, Wilson and Hansen to keep us in it before the experienced big guns of Jimenez, McDowell, Poulter, Westwood and Harrington close the competition out. 

It promises to be thrilling viewing and I am going for Europe to do it. The Americans will be under enormous individual pressure and I can see too many of them choking. There's nothing that hurts them more than losing Ryder Cups and it's great to see a confederation of Europeans uniting to tweak their noses.