Atrocious conditions on first day

The sixth Ryder Cup began under threatening skies at the excellent Rudding Park, probably the best Ryder Cup venue yet. The wind, rain and cold which followed would make it the longest Ryder Cup day on record. Home captain Jimmy Curley led from the front in the morning fourballs with rookie brother Joe as his partner. The Southern pairing of vice captain Whitworth and rookie Holliday proved too strong and the South struck the first blow 7 & 5.

Horner and Oakes looked to be the North’s strongest pairing and so it proved against Moyle and rookie Ephremesen. The North took a 4 hole lead by the 8th, helped by Moyle miscounting and picking up his marker when having a short putt for half. However Ephremesen birdied the 9th and Moyle’s putter became hot to reduce the deficit to one with 3 to play but the home pairing closed out the game 3 & 1 on the 17th.

The first tee – the weather was to worsen further

The remaining 4 games would all be close with 3 going to the 18th and the other to the 17th. Lister and Hardwick looked delighted to have salvaged a half on the 18th against rookies Johnstone and Soanes but the half turned into a full point when South could not hole out from 2 foot. Tattersfield and Copley versus South captain Wallis and newcomer Rich was the match of the morning with never more than a hole between them. The southern pair both missed from 8ft for the match on the 18th and the North grabbed a vital half.

Clough and Mountain took down Ulla and Bell 2 & 1 whilst the final tie saw another nail biting halved match between Forster and Wallis and southern rookies Thorngate and Clements.

So 4-2 to the North at the much delayed break, a score which could so easily have been the other way round. It was an improvement on the fourballs whitewash of 2011 for the South and reason to believe they were well in the match. Unfortunately the afternoon foursomes would prove depressingly familiar for the visitors.

With Captain Curley electing to send his unchanged pairings out in the same order the South were hopeful of an early point with Ephremesen and Holliday taking on the brothers. However the match would provide a shock result in controversial circumstances. Oakes and Horner behind, noticed early that the match wasn’t following Foursomes rules. It transpired that both sides had been playing alternate shots incorrectly and as such, after some discussion amongst captains and senior match players, the shock 6 & 4 win for the North was later allowed to stand.

Maybe these fellas enjoyed it more

Once again the North’s domination of the foursomes format had proved vital and the 5-1 margin saw a final day one score of 9-3 in favour of the buoyant home team. Southern hopes were in tatters and even a fabled southern singles comeback, so often a feature of these matches, seemed improbable given the margin.