Great Britain & Ireland close in on historic PGA Cup win

28/09/2019

Great Britain & Ireland produced one of their best performance on American soil to come back from two points down overnight and take a 10-6 lead heading into the 2019 PGA Cup singles matches.

After a disappointing opening day at Barton Creek Resort in Austin, Texas, Cameron Clark inspired his ten-man team to an emphatic 7-1 victory in Saturday’s fourballs and foursomes.

It is the best performance by either team on a Friday or Saturday in the competition since 2003, when the United States won Friday’s session by 7½ - ½ at Port St Lucie, Florida.

“It’s just been an incredible day,” said a delighted Clark. “The players were down last night and for them to do what they did today takes a lot of courage.

“The players knew they had a job to do today. We didn’t want to get further behind and be pushing it into the singles. We tasked them to try and get into double figures last night and they’ve achieved that. We just can’t ask for any more from the players.”

The day started with a 4-0 whitewash in the fourball session. Rob Coles and Alex Wrigley were the first over the line after comfortably getting the better of Ben Cook and Ben Kern with six holes to spare.

Coles picked up half a point from his two outings on Friday and blew a three-shot lead with as many holes to play in the afternoon foursomes alongside Alastair Forsyth.

“I was really pleased to get that win,” said Coles. “I had a tough day on Friday and we fell behind a little, but to get out there and really put one to them was fantastic.

“We played really well on the front nine, I think we were nine-under-par through nine holes. We dovetailed well, Alex played great and I made some birdies so it was good.

“It’s tough playing in a PGA Cup. You have to earn your points and although I think it was a big win, we got in front and they were struggling to match it so we played it pretty good today.”

Alastair Forsyth was paired with fellow Scot Paul O’Hara again and they produced an exceptional performance to take Great Britain & Ireland’s second win of the day. The highlight of their match was O’Hara’s hole-in-one attempt at the third that was just a couple of inches away from the cup.

Elsewhere, the ever reliable Matt Cort continued his impressive PGA Cup run in Texas, with the Leicestershire-based professional winning once again alongside debutant Jordan Godwin.

2015 winner Jason Levermore and Richard Wallis secured Great Britain & Ireland’s fourth point of the session with three holes to spare.

“You never expect to go and win a session 4-0,” Clark continued. "That kept the momentum going for this afternoon. When that last match finished this morning, the guys that were going out in the afternoon knew they’d won 4-0 and it was just a case of telling the guys to keep it going as much as they could.”

The Great Britain & Ireland team did just that. Coles paired with Forsyth who maintained his unbeaten record with a 5&4 victory in the opening foursomes contest.

The reliable duo of Cort and Wrigley delivered again as Great Britain & Ireland celebrated their six consecutive win.

O’Hara and David Dixon were the only defeated pairing on Saturday but Craig Lee and Richard Wallis wrapped up a comfortable 7-1 victory for the visiting team.

Clark added: “The job is a long, long way from being done on Sunday. We know they’re going to come out all guns blazing so we’ll just have a quiet night, get them back down to earth a little bit then move on to Sunday.

“All these boys really want to win over here and create history again. We’re in a good position to do that.”