Those of you keen on golf history – and there are some folk who can tell you how many checks were on Old Tom Morris’s bunnet – will know that Great Britain & Ireland’s club professionals have never won the PGA Cup on American soil. Oh, you didn’t? Well, you should, because we’ve mentioned it enough times in the daily bletherings from CordeValle this week.
There’s just one more session to go in the 27th staging of the biennial battle with the USA and the current crop of GB&I players have the opportunity to scribble their names into the record books. With the match evenly poised at 8-8 heading into the closing series of ten singles, this tranquil corner of the Santa Clara Valley is set for the kind of ferocious shoot-out that would make the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral look like a merry giggle with water pistols.
It was a purposeful, profitable day for Jon Bevan’s team. Trailing by a single point heading into the second day, GB&I hauled themselves level by winning the morning fourballs 2 ½ - 1 ½ and grabbing a spirited share of the afternoon foursomes. The Llandudno Trophy has been in American clutches since 2007 but there is genuine belief in the GB&I ranks that it can finally be ripped from those hands.
“We set out to win the day and we did that,” said Bevan, who was part of the GB&I side that narrowly lost by a single point on American turf in 2007. “This was a small victory in an epic battle but we are back in the game and we’re in a position where we have a chance. We never stopped believing.”
Graham Fox, the lone Scot in the team, and his partner, David Dixon, demonstrated this sturdy resolve as they clawed their way back from two down at the turn to claim a vital half-point against Matt Dobyns and Ben Polland on the final green. The American pair were left kicking themselves after three-putting the last but the GB&I boys deserved the share of the spoils. “From the moment they birdied the first we were fighting but we fought all the way and didn’t hand them anything,” said Fox, who holed a birdie putt of 25-feet on the 10th to kick-start the recovery.
The other matches were equally as nip-and-tuck. Gareth Wright, the Tartan Tour campaigner from Wales, and his partner, Jason Levermore, were two-up with four to play against Bob Sowards and Jamie Broce but the US duo hit them with a couple of rapid fire birdies at 15 and 16 in another halved match. “It was a little bit disappointing but a half-point is a half-point and they all help,” said Edinburgh-based Wright, who will lead GB&I out in the top singles tie on Sunday morning.
The full point that Cameron Clark and former Walker Cup player Niall Kearney earned certainly helped. The duo’s opponents, Sean Dougherty and Grant Sturgeon, reeled off three birdies towards the end of the front nine to move one hole ahead but three birdies in five holes after the turn flipped the match around and had GB&I two up. It was Clark who sealed the deal in spectacular style on the 17th as he trundled in a raking birdie putt of 50-feet to halve the hole and complete a 2&1 win.
Two years ago, GB&I went into the final day at Slaley Hall trailing by five points and produced a rousing recovery to salvage a 13-13 draw. Here in 2015, there is nothing between the teams and history beckons for Bevan's boys.
The PGA Cup, CordeValle, Calfornia, Day two results
USA 8 Great Britain & Ireland 8
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
Foursomes
B Sowards & J Broce halved with Wright & Levermore
Block & Deane bt L Clarke & A Wrigley 2&1
Dobyns & Polland halved with Fox & Dixon
Dougherty & Sturgeon lost to C Clark & Kearney 2&1
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