U.S. has 2-1-1 lead in rain-plagued Ryder Cup

Newport, Wales-- (Tribune Newspapers) A long and frustrating opening day in Ryder Cup golf competition ended with new rain suits for team USA and a precarious 2-1-1 lead after a partial day of four-ball play.

The teams teed off at 7:45 a.m. and were called off the course one minute shy of two hours later, when a steady rain made much of the Twenty Ten course at the Celtic Manor Resort unplayable. There were deep puddles on many fairways and greens.

When that stoppage took place, Europe had a 3-1 lead and the only U.S. team on top was the rookie pair of Bubba Watson and Jeff Overton, who birdied the first two holes and were two-up on European veterans Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald. The three other U.S. teams of Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar; Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods, and Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, trailed at that point.

But when play was resumed at 5 p.m. and stopped again at darkness, Cink and Kuchar had rallied to go two-up over the Northern Ireland pair of Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy and Stricker and Woods had it back to all-square. Watson and Overton held on for a one-up lead, and Mickelson and Johnson had cut the once three-up lead of Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer to one-up.

The rain prompted both a schedule change for the rest of the weekend, and some embarrassment for the U.S. team.

As play was ending Friday, Ryder Cup officials, in an attempt to finish as planned on Sunday, revised the schedule, taking advantage of the usual open time on Sunday morning before the 12 singles matches. Now, Saturday’s matches are to begin with the completion of Friday’s four four-ball matches, followed by six foursome (alternate shot) matches. Then, Sunday’s singles will be preceded by two more foursome and four more four-ball matches.

That means that, after the completion of Friday’s matches, no player from either team will sit out a match. European Captain Colin Montgomery theorized that that would help his team because he had better alternate-shot players than Captain Corey Pavin of the U.S. Pavin said the new schedule was fine with him because he didn’t have to make any more decisions about which players to sit.

“They’re all going out both days now,” Pavin said. “I like that.”

The embarrassment factor for Team USA occurred as they played through the early rain and some of the players started to complain about their rain suits leaking. The suits, especially selected as part of the two-year preparation process by Pavin and the PGA, were then hurriedly replaced by PGA officials, who merely went to the public merchandise tent during the long rain delay and bought new ones.

The weather forecast was better for Saturday, not quite as good for Sunday. If the event needs to be pushed into Monday, it will have a mandatory ending of 6:43 p.m. Whatever the score is of completed matches at that point will be the final score.

bdwyre@tribune.com