We all like a rummage in the record books. In the PGA Cup, those particular books can reveal some fairly eye-watering statistics as far as Great Britain & Ireland’s club professionals are concerned.
It’s not all grim reading, of course, and this morning’s opening fourballs in the 27th staging of the biennial contest with the USA at CordeValle in sunny California had folk thumbing through the pages again. By the end of a purposeful and profitable session, the impressive visitors had moved into an early 3-1 lead … and you have to go back 21 years to 1994 to find the last time GB&I had such a sprightly morning.
There’s still a long way to go – with an eight hour time difference, the afternoon foursomes were getting underway when most Herald readers were preparing to shuffle off to bed for the night – but this was a morale-boosting start to GB&I’s quest to win the Llandudno Trophy for the first time since 2005 and score a first ever win on US soil.
Scotsman Graham Fox formed an impressive alliance with former European Tour winner David Dixon and aided the war effort with a spirited 2&1 victory over the American pairing of Jamie Broce and Bob Sowards.
The GB&I boys had been one down through six holes but upped the ante and produced a telling thrust which swept them into a commanding lead. Fox and Dixon reeled off four birdies between them during a rousing run that saw them win the seventh, ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th as they turned a one hole deficit into a four-hole advantage.
The US duo rallied on the run-in and reduced the leeway to two holes with two to play but Dixon, the winner of the silver medal in the 2001 Open, trundled in a birdie putt of 15-feet on the 17th to stave off the menacing American advance and clinch the hard-earned victory.
Fox’s Tartan Tour colleague, Gareth Wright, also pitched in with a morning victory as the Edinburgh-based Welshman, and his partner Jason Levermore, eased to a 3&2 win over Alan Morin and Grant Sturgeon.
With Cameron Clark and Michael Watson striking a telling blow in the top tie by beating Matt Dobyns and Ben Polland 3&2 there was, at one stage, the potential for a GB&I clean sweep. The US salvaged a much-needed point though as Omar Uresti, who played on the main PGA Tour for over a decade, and Sean Dougherty overcame Lee Clarke and Paul Hendriksen on the last green. Three out of four was not bad at all, though.
“It’s one down and four to go,” said GB&I skipper Jon Bevan, after a successful negotiating of the first of five sessions over the three days. “The great thing is that I have a team of players here who all believe in each other. They are all reliable, solid individuals … it’s just me that’s struggling to stay calm.”
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