Flying Dutchman Joost Luiten took the starring role as Continental Europe claimed a 3 ½ – 1 ½ lead over Great Britain and Ireland after day one of the Seve Trophy by Golf+ at Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche on the outskirts of Paris.

José María Olazábal’s side are looking to end a run of six straight defeats in the biennial contest and took the first steps towards that goal with an impressive showing in the opening fourballs, a session spearheaded by Luiten, the winner of the recent KLM Open in his native Netherlands.

The 27 year old partnered Frenchman Grégory Bourdy – the only home player in the Continental side – and the bulk of the crowd spurred seemed to spur the Dutchman to great heights as he ended the front nine with three consecutive birdies, before closing the match out on the 17^th green with another birdie four to beat Jamie Donaldson and David Lynn by 2 and 1.

Reigning KLM Open winner Joost Luiten shakes hands with former KLM Open champion David Lynn after helping Europe win their match on the first day of the 2013 Seve Trophy. (Photo – David Lloyd/www.golffile.ie)

“It was a great match out there,” said Luiten. “We made three birdies in the first six holes and were only one up which is just typical of fourball match play. We then won another two holes to be three up by the turn and although we didn’t quite play as well on the back nine, we hung in enough to get the point.”

Olazábal had opted to send out his most experienced pairing first with Thomas Björn having played in all but one of the previous contests – captaining the side instead in 2009 – alongside Miguel Angel Jiménez, who is the only player to have competed in all eight Seve Trophies to date since 2000.

They are the two most capped players in the history of the event with a total of 59 matches between them – not to mention a combined age of 91 – but despite leading early on, they eventually succumbed 3 and 2 to the 1999 Open Champion Paul Lawrie and fellow Scot Stephen Gallacher.

However, Europe were ahead in the remaining four fourballs as that match finished, and went on to close out three of those before salvaging a half in the other.

Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño and Nicolas Colsaerts beat Marc Warren and Scott Jamieson 5 and 3 to level the scores before Mikko Ilonen and Thorbjørn Olesen survived a nervy finish to overcome Tommy Fleetwood and Chris Wood on the 18th, thus ending Wood’s unbeaten record in the event.

Francesco Molinari then birdied the last to ensure he and Matteo Manassero snatched a half against Paul Casey and Simon Khan, before Luiten and Bourdy brought the curtain down on the day on the 17^th green.

Asked what pleased him the most about the day, Olazábal said: “The way the youngsters played; Joost played extraordinarily well today and made a bunch of birdies, Thorbjørn also played very well.

“It was a great experience for them but the main thing is to win points and I think the team is really happy today.”

GB&I Captain Sam Torrance added: “They played very well. Our boys played very well too but they made a few more birdies than us. It’ll be our turn tomorrow.

Friday will see another session of five fourball matches with, unsurprisingly, Olazábal keeping faith with his five partnerships of the first day, although he has shuffled the order.

Torrance keeps three of his pairings the same, the only change being the splitting up of the Scottish partnership of Jamieson and Warren and the England/Wales duo of Lynn and Donaldson; Jamieson now playing with Lynn while Warren partners Donaldson.