The two teams ready to tee off on Friday

The fifth Ryder Cup Challenge started today in auspiscious, sunny conditions at Tudor Park in Kent. The opening fourballs draw, revealed the evening before, had thrown up some interesting and even-looking match-ups and it felt like each pairing drove off down the generous fairway of the untaxing par 4 first hole with genuine hopes of bringing back a point for their team.

First off for the South were Mark Wallis and David Bell, a twice-losing foursomes partnership put together in morning play for the first time here, who faced the experienced Steve Hardwick alongside rookie high-handicapper Graham Copley. If it was hoped that the fourballs format would suit the South pairing better, then that turned out to be mistaken. They held their own for a while in the face of some spectacular long putting from North, particularly from Copley, but had a dreadful time around the turn after which they never took their opportunities to get back into it and ran out losers at the sixteenth. Perhaps tee-to-green there was really not much in this match but with this added to their record it would now be a surprise to see Bell & Wallis paired together in future Cups.

The second match saw Peter Forster and Mark Wallis, who took two from two playing together in 2009 at Owston Hall, take on the South’s Simon Cole and Gavin Whitworth, a strong pairing who maybe even looked slight favourites in this one. It didn’t turn out that way though as North did more than enough to take it, 4 up with the 3 to play, having led all the way. Kevin Ulla, South team first-timer off 14 handicap, was paired with the returning Dave Hubbard for the South in match three, and they faced North captain Darren Mountain alongside another of his three rookies, Phil Cawtheray. This one looked difficult for South on paper and so it proved – despite Ulla playing an excellent round the consistency of the opposition, dove-tailing well, saw them win 3&2 without every being in real danger.

North Team on first tee, Friday

The matches were well strung out on the course and it is doubtful whether Ben Moyle and Ian Grundy, bringing up the rear against 2007 veteran Jimmy Curley and debutant Adie Clough, were aware that they were by now the only hope for South to salvage even a half point from the opening four on offer. North had been three holes to the good in this match through seven, Curley’s reliable driving being the bedrock of their effort, but South then took the 8th, 10th and 11th to bring things back to all square. Unfortunately though for Moyle & Grundy the momentum thoery did not hold and the game drifted away from them again thereafter, finally ending 3&2 to North.

So, what a start for North, 4-0 up on foreign soil at lunch, the first ever whitewash in fourballs competition! Points in the bag also of course for each of their three newcomers. South were noticeably despondent. Their strategic focus prior to the match had been very much on improving in the foursomes where their past record is so poor (only 3½ gained from 16 overall) – perhaps they had been taking a decent fourballs showing for granted: in all events they faced an uphill battle now and that past record must mentally have loomed ever larger.

North management considering their options

Despite the excellent morning results Mountain chose to change all of his pairings for the foursomes, and with South captain Cole (more understandably) doing likewise, the afternoon draw did hold out some hope for home team. Cole had himself out first with Grundy, and they drew the formidable combination of an in-form Hardwick and the always solid, 7-handicap Forster. This match was very tight through 13 holes, with eight of those halved. But South, having come back from two down earlier on to lead by one standing on the fourteenth tee, then proceeded to capture the next three holes, taking excellent advantage of the shot they were receving on each of them, to get a very welcome first point on the board.

The second foursomes match pitched close friends Mark Wallis and Ulla against the higher handicap North pairing of Mark Wallis (yes, some confusion for commentators here) and Copley. This looked like a great opportunity for South but the shots they were conceding proved too much to overcome as, without them playing badly, some more excellent golf from Copley in particular took North to victory four up with two holes remaining.

Match three of the afternoon play should have been a real cracker, with all four participants off the same 18 handicap: Moyle & Whitworth versus Mountain & Curley, a no holds barred scrap was in prospect. But the contest transpired to be one-sided, and also perhaps slightly marred by an incident at the par 3, steeply downhill 4th hole. South already held a two up lead at this stage, but hooked their tee shot into the trees and, cutting a long story short, wound up hitting their subsequent provisional drive twice more before recovering the original ball and playing on to hole out with that in 6. This would have been academic were it not for the fact that North, though in reasonable shape off the tee, contrived to do no better than a 7. The question of whether South had acted legally was later resolved in their favour, but whilst the match continued there was real doubt amongst the players about whether South led by three holes or by only one. In the end it mattered little, Mountain conceding the game on the fifteenth, having slipped four further holes behind, and the the score officially went down as 5&3.

Hardwick encouraging his opening fourballs opponent Bell

Last off for North were the all-rookie team of Clough & Cawtheray and they faced Bell & Hubbard, a pairing that had something of a sacrificial look to it. So when North led the match four up through five holes nobody was particularly surprised, although the southerners had not disgraced themselves to that point – their opposition had essentially played bogey golf. But perhaps the leaders relaxed a bit too much because as the two Davids held their nerve, mistakes from North let them right back into the contest, which quite unexpectedly stood all square again at 11th. From there on it was very tight, but South never quite managed to get their nose in front, conspicuously failing to take advantage of the holes where they were receiving shots, and Clough & Cawtheray gradually put their game back together to win it proudly on the 18th.

So the foursomes had been halved and the match stood at 6-2 to North, just as it had two years previously at the same stage. On that occasion of course South came back very strongly in the Saturday singles to almost tie the match, just as they had done from slightly less of a deficit to tie the 2007 renewal. But can they really pull of such a feat for a third time in succession? That seems unlikely but we will have to wait for tomorrow to find out.