France Surprises U.S. in Dunhill Cup

Defending champion United States was eliminated 2 1/2- 1/2 in the first round of the Dunhill Cup by France today, adding another bitter souvenir of a European trip for American golfers.

Also out was second-seeded Australia, with its top two players--PGA Tour money leader Greg Norman and PGA champion Wayne Grady--losing to New Zealand.

The unseeded French team of Marc Farry, Jean Van de Velde and Emmanuel Dussart led from the very first hole of the medal-match play series to beat U.S. golfing millionaires Mark Calcavecchia, Curtis Strange and Tom Kite.

Only a double-bogey 6 by Van de Velde on the 17th--the notorious Road Hole--enabled Strange to tie him for the lone American points.

It was the second straight year that France started the team event with a major upset. France beat second-seeded Australia in the opening round a year ago. It also was the first time since the initial Dunhill Cup in 1985 that the United States had been a first-round loser.

Farry, with a blue ski cap pulled tight against the cold, damp weather, beat Calcavecchia, the 1989 British Open champion, 70-73.

“There was no luck involved. He just beat me,” Calcavecchia said. “Their whole team played well, it looks like, and we didn’t play at all.”

Van de Velde led two-time U.S. Open winner Strange by two strokes when he hit his second shot into a bunker at No. 17, then missed a 4-foot putt. He and Strange tied at 69-69.

“I’m not saying a thing,” Strange snapped at reporters who tried to find out what happened.

Dussart, whose third-place tie in this year’s Tenerife Open was the best career showing for any of the French trio, then clinched the upset victory when he nailed a downhill 6-foot bogey putt on the 18th to seal a 73-74 victory over Kite, the leading money winner in golf history..

“I am elated,” Dussart said.

France plays eighth-seeded Japan in the second round. Last year’s runners-up beat Argentina, 2-1.

Norman lost to New Zealand’s Frank Nobilo, a journeyman on the European tour, 67-76. Norman collapsed on the back nine with three bogeys and a double-bogey 6 at the Road Hole.

Grady also had back-nine problems, including a quadruple-bogey 9 at No. 14 that turned a two-shot lead into a two-shot deficit. The PGA champ needed four shots to get out of a bunker there, then took a double-bogey 6 at the 16th to lose to Simon Owen, 74-78.

Rodger Davis got the lone Australian win, 66-75 over Greg Turner.