A pairing made in heaven

A partnership made in heaven? That's the way it looked after the first day's fourballs as Europe's most unlikely pairing of Jesper Parnevik, the volcanic-dust eating Swede, and Sergio Garcia, the Spanish teenager they call "El Nino", produced the sort of golf that could only be described as, well, sexy.

Indeed, on a quite dramatic evening of fourballs, a stream of birdies and eagles brought temperatures - on day one of the contest - to feverpitch. And, in the heat, Europe's players' kept their cool to improve enormously on their foursomes advantage by dominating the fourballs (winning 3 1/2 to 1/2).

And if the Parnevik-Garcia pairing captured the ethos of the European doctrine, then it was also given credence by Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood - recovering from their foursomes loss - who took the scalps of the world's top two players Tiger Woods and David Duval. "We got the putts that mattered," acknowledged Clarke, "but we still have two tough days ahead of us."

If the foursomes had rocked the Americans, then the fourballs knocked them for six. Out of four matches, they could only manage one halved match. And that required a 15-foot birdie putt on the last green from Davis Love (partnering Justin Leonard) to give them a share of the spoils in the match against Colin Montgomerie and Paul Lawrie.

The top fourballs match produced remarkable play and, if captain Mark James felt that pairing Garcia with Parnevik would produce some fireworks, he was proven correct: on the eighth hole, Parnevik holed out with his second shot, a nine-iron approach of 135 yards, for an eagle and, later, on the 14th hole, Garcia holed out with his 30-yard pitch shot for an eagle.

Both shots produced wins for the European pairing, but it was a measure of the intense competition offered up by Phil Mickelson, in particular, and Jim Furyk that the outcome wasn't decided until the 18th green where Mickelson, who had missed a short putt on the 16th, had a six-foot birdie to share the match. But, incredibly, Mickelson again fell down on his responsibility.

It was a truly remarkable match, and Parnevik actually covered the front nine in 30 strokes and, for the 18 holes, contributed six birdies and an eagle. The European pair had turned one up but Furyk's chip in birdie at the 13th levelled matters until Garcia hit back by chipping in from 30 yards for a eagle at the 14th to restore their advantage. Mickelson had two chances to draw them back in but, on each occasion, missed - and the win served to increase the feel-good factor in the matches behind them.

Nowhere was it better exemplified than in the bottom match where Clarke, his putter obeying his instructions, was unquestionably the strong man. Clarke had three birdies on the front nine to keep his fourball level with Woods and Duval - and even when Woods chipped in for birdie at the 10th, he remained unfazed and responded with a birdie at the 11th to level matters again.

Woods and Duval, the top two players in the world ranking, couldn't break the opposition. And, instead, it was Clarke who provided the breakthrough with a birdie at the 17th which gave them a one hole advantage playing the last.

Duval effectively "choked" twice - pushing his drive wildly right and, after playing a superb recovery to the right side of the green, then duffing his chip - while Woods put his approach into a bunker. It meant that when Westwood pitched this third shot dead, the match was conceded and the Europeans took a one hole win.

After sitting out the foursomes, Jose Maria Olazabal returned to team-up with his compatriot Miguel Angel Jimenez in the fourballs against Hal Sutton and Jeff Maggert. The Europeans never trailed in the match: Jimenez set the trend with birdies at two of the first four holes to enable them to turn two up and Olazabal, despite one or two wayward tee-shots, rowed in with a number of birdies of his own to keep the Americans at bay and secure a 2 and 1 win.