Saturday Fourballs: The Ryder Cup seems to contrive occasions when it is not the marquee names upon whom greatness is bestowed but those whose initial role in the tournament is a little more peripheral. Saturday morning provided one such moment.
The European ship was listing badly, holed twice and with the real prospect of being shipwrecked on a tide of American momentum. In the middle of the maelstrom were two English Ryder Cup rookies, Paul Casey and David Howell.
Casey was known to the Americans by virtue of a stellar amateur career at Arizona State University but the local media just couldn't get a handle on his partner. David who? It was a familiar refrain prior to Saturday but his exploits that morning have imprinted him upon the American consciousness.
Pitted against former US Open champion Jim Furyk and Chad Campbell in what proved a very tight contest, the Europeans received a stunning blow on the 16th when Campbell drained a 30- foot, curling birdie putt to put the home team one up.
Howell had an opportunity to follow him in from closer to the hole and on roughly the same line but saw it slide under the hole. Disappointed he strode to the next tee to produce the shot that silenced Oakland Hills and the majority of the 48,000 spectators.
He explained the background to his six-iron at the treacherous par-three 17th that came to rest six feet from the pin and set up a winning birdie.
"The two guys hit five-iron before us and clearly had gone through the green. It was just on the limit for me with a six-iron. I decided that was the play.
"I put a good swing on it but it wasn't the purest stroke I've ever made, and that accounted for my strange reaction. It was a case of is this going to get there?
"And luckily, just before I had attempted to swing, the wind probably got as strong as it had for that whole, one, two-minute period. I just wasn't sure whether it was going to get there, which is why I just wandered off.
"The great thing that happened that hole is Paul had an unbelievably difficult up-and-down. If Paul made four it made my putt so much more difficult because I had to think about the one back. He concentrated on a great chip, a great putt and that really made it a whole lot easier for me to be aggressive with the putt."
Having squared the match, the four players marched to the 18th tee; Howell was quickly reduced to a peripheral figure having caught sand with his first shot and a tree with his second.
Europe's hopes rested squarely on Casey's broad shoulders.
He smashed a 202-yard five-iron but his ball drifted a little right on the wind and he finished the wrong side of a mammoth hump that divided the green into two separate plateaus.
Furyk caught a bunker with his second and couldn't do better than five.
Campbell, though, was in the neck just short of the green but his adrenaline-fuelled chip skated eight feet past the hole - the return would be a right-to-left slider, downhill, down grain.
Casey's putt was even more treacherous but buoyed by a little advice from European captain Bernhard Langer, who approved his rookie's choice of line, he rolled the 35-footer, initially way above the hole and then watched as it trickled to two and a half feet under the hole. He demonstrated remarkable touch and composure.
Casey smiled: "The pace was probably more important than the line. I felt I made a great putt and put it in a perfect place. The second one: very rarely do I get somebody else to help me look at a line on a two-foot putt but I needed it with David.
"We were very good at reassuring each other, instilling confidence into each other."
Europe had stolen much more than a point to finish the morning fourballs at just 2½ to 1½ behind, they had punctured the American's confidence and provided the momentum for their team-mates to embrace the afternoon foursomes with vigour.
S Garcia and L Westwood halved with J Haas and C DiMarco
D Clarke and I Poulter lost to T Woods and C Riley 4 and 3
P Casey and D Howell bt J Furyk and C Campbell 1 hole
C Montgomerie and P Harrington bt S Cink and D Love 3 and 2
