Rival Captains Praise Teams On Dramatic Opening Hazeltine Day.

Chaska, Minnesota …

Rival Ryder Cup captains Darren Clarke and Davis Love 111 were quick to praise the efforts of their team on a dramatic changing opening day to the 41st Ryder Cup at Hazeltine.

Clarke’s team fought back from a humiliating 4-nil Foursomes morning defeat to win three of the four afternoon matches and end the day trailing 3-5.

Coincidentally, it is the same margin Europe trailed four years ago at Medinah whereas two years ago at Gleneagles, Europe was ahead 5-3 after the first day ahead of eventually winning by five points.

Europe had also was down 3-5 after the 1995 opening series of matches at Oakhill before going onto to claim a 14 ½ to 13 ½ triumph, and in what set the remarkable trend in Europe then capturing seven of the next nine Ryder Cups.

It was a day for biting nails as these European fans will testify.  (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

It was a day for biting nails as these European fans will testify. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

“The European Team were not firing on all cylinders this morning and the American Team rightly took advantage and played some wonderful golf,” said Clarke.

“Then we came out in the afternoon and won the session in a commanding fashion.  Of course, they were down in the dumps earlier today but they still believe in what we are doing and they couldn’t wait to get back out on the golf course again.

“Certainly as a captain, I am very proud of what they this afternoon.

“But then looking at the match-ups that we have for tomorrow morning (SAT), we are in for another really, really exciting morning.  And hopefully, from a European point of view, we’ll do a little bit better than we did this morning.

Love 111 admitted his USA Team had all the fun in the morning Foursomes and it was Clarke’s men who had the Fourballs fun.

“We got hot this morning and then the opposite happened this afternoon,” said Love 111.

“They got on a roll with the putter and they seemed to make all the putts, and we had a couple of matches where we just couldn’t get them to go in.

“But then I like being ahead.  You know, there’s no two ways about it.  Being ahead’s great. I keep telling our guys, there’s eight points a day and then there’s 12 points on Sunday.

“So there is a lot of points out there still and, all in all, it was a good day and I’m really happy with the way everybody just hung in there till the end.”



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