Europe
produced a dominant opening day display to take a firm grip of the
EURASIA CUP presented by DRB-HICOM, establishing a 4 ½-1½ lead over
their Asian counterparts.
Ian Poulter and Bernd Wiesberger set the tone in the opening
fourballs match by beating Anirban Lahiri and Jeunghun Wang 4&3,
with the English duo of Lee Westwood and Chris Wood setting the seal on a
superb start for Darren Clarke’s team by beating Kiradech Aphibarnrat
and SSP Chawrasia in the sixth and final match at Glenmarie Golf &
Country Club.
In between, there were convincing victories for Ross Fisher and
Kristoffer Broberg (6&4 over Prayad Marksaeng and KT Kim), and Andy
Sullivan and Shane Lowry (2&1 over Shingo Katayama and Wu Ashun);
whilst the only defeat for Europe came in match two, which went the way
of Asia as Byeonghun An and Thongchai Jaidee defeated Matt Fitzpatrick
and Danny Willett 3&1.
Perhaps the only potential cloud on the horizon for Team Europe is
the knee injury suffered on the 15th hole by Victor Dubuisson, who
played through the pain barrier in helping Søren Kjeldsen secure a half
in their match with the Malaysian duo of Danny Chia and Nicholas Fung.
But Captain Clarke was confident the diagnosis was nothing serious,
and that the Frenchman would be fit to take his place in the Saturday
foursomes.
Key quotes:
Ian Poulter: “It worked out nicely today. I think we for the
most part put two balls in play. When you do that and you have good
looks, you don't both have to make it on the same hole and that's
exactly what we did. Darren said, listen, go out there first and get it
done, that's exactly what we did today. And we dovetailed nicely. We put
two balls in play for the most part and we kept them under pressure.
Holed a few key putts. Especially around the turn, 12, 13, were key
holes for us, and obviously that was enough to get the job done.”
Ross Fisher: “I didn't really have an inkling me and
Kris were going to play together until probably Thursday, so I was
quite excited. Clarkey explained why he put us together: apparently we
make the most birdies together as a pairing. So we were really up for
the challenge come the first tee, and just kept saying to each other,
come on, let's keep the pedal down. Let's get two balls in play, that's
what Clarkey reiterated to us last night at the meeting and that's what
we tried to do today.”
Søren Kjeldsen: ““That
was a great match. None of us really gave anything away. I thought we
had the advantage after I chipped in on 17, but he made a great chip
there also. Victor plays like a rock star. He is a rock star, and I just
love playing with him.”
Lee Westwood: “We
dovetailed well. Made quite a few birdies, no bogeys, didn’t give any
holes away. Woody played well, especially around the back nine and he
made some lovely putts when he needed to. They were always going to be a
tough combination to beat as they are both good players and they hit a
lot of fairways, so we knew we had to be on top of our game.”
Darren Clarke:
“A three-point lead after day one, it's a wonderful start for Europe.
There was a lot of matches there that it could have swung either way on
the back nine. Halfway around, Europe were leading in all the matches. I
was on the radio to a few of the other guys and said, this is match
play, Asia are going to come back at some stage on the back nine, and
that's exactly what they did. We had a strong couple of matches and
managed to finish with a very good result.”
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