There were plenty of oohs, aahs, gasps, groans, hoots and hollers on the 18th green at CordeValle this morning as Great Britain & Ireland’s club professionals hauled themselves back on to level terms with their US counterparts on day two of the PGA Cup.
The nature of team golf means it usually has more twists and turns than a Sunday drive with Chubby Checker and these fluctuating fortunes were perfectly illustrated on the final green.
By the end of the morning’s fourball tussles, GB&I had edged the session 2 ½ - 1 ½ to leave the match evenly balanced at 6-6 heading into the afternoon’s foursomes exchanges. It could have better for the visitors, mind you.
The high-fives and back-slappings that greeted Niall Kearney’s birdie putt on the last, which gave the former Walker Cup player and his partner, Alex Wrigley, a slender one hole win over Matt Dobyns and Ben Polland was tempered somewhat a few minutes later when the American’s pinched a vital half-point on the same green in the last match left on the course.
Given that the GB&I pairing of Graham Fox and David Dixon had been three-up with just three to play against Omar Uresti and Sean Dougherty, there was a sighing sense of what might have been. You had to give credit to the Americans, though, and Uresti in particular was inspired as he launched a one man assault on the run-in just when it looked like GB&I would close out the match and take a morale-boosting one point lead into the afternoon’s jousts.
Uresti, the experienced 47-year-old from Texas who played on the main PGA Tour for 13 years, showed his class as he finished with a fantastic flourish. He birdied the 16th to reduce the GB&I lead to two and reeled off another birdie at the 17th to claim another hole back and crank up the tension. On the par-5 18th, it was make or break time and Uresti flung his second shot in to about 15-feet. With Dixon in the bunker, Fox, who had laid up with his second, plonked his third to within a few feet to set up a birdie opportunity. The Scot wouldn’t get the chance to putt it, though. Uresti curled his eagle attempt into the centre of the cup to win the hole, plunder the half point and complete a superb salvage operation.
It was a sore one for GB&I and, as team skipper Jon Bevan has always maintained, it’s these half points than can win PGA Cups.
The good news, of course, is that GB&I are right back in it again after a deflating second session on Friday that saw them fall a point behind after losing the foursomes 3 ½ - ½.
They came out with determination to make amends this morning and that purpose was demonstrated by Tartan Tour man Gareth Wright and playing partner Jason Levermore as they beat Michael Block and Stuart Deane 3&2 in the top match. The GB&I pairing were one down after eight but covered the next eight holes in five-under, with Wright rolling in a birdie from 12-feet on the par-3 16th to close out the tie.
The PGA Cup, CordeValle, Calfornia, Day two morning results
Fourballs (US names first)
M Block & S Deane lost to G Wright & J Levermore 3&2
M Dobyns & B Polland lost to N Kearney & A Wrigley one hole
O Uresti & S Dougherty halved with G Fox & D Dixon
A Morin & G Sturgeon bt M Watson & P Hendriksen 4&2
Fourballs result: USA 1 ½ GB&I 2 ½
Overall standing: USA 6 GB&I 6
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