Continental Europe take a two-point lead on the final day of the Hero Cup after extending their advantage over Great Britain and Ireland in a foursome on Saturday afternoon.
The inaugural event gave European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald the opportunity to assess the players under pressure for match play ahead of September’s match against the United States outside Rome. give.
Francesco Molinari’s team maintained their lead overnight in points as the team scored 2.5 points each in five foursome matches at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club on Saturday morning.
Continental Europe then finished the afternoon 3-2 with an 8.5-6.5 lead in Sunday’s singles.
England & Ireland captain Tommy Fleetwood went 2-2 on day two. He linked up with Tyrrell Hutton to see off Sepp Straka and Thomas Detry in the morning match, paired with Jordan Smith, and his 2&1 victory over Alex Nolen and Thomas Peters.
Callum Sinkwin and Matt Wallace scored three birdies on the last five holes to secure 2&1 wins over Antoine Rosner and Adrian Melonck, but the rest of the afternoon’s three games were played in Continental European fashion.
Molinari teamed up with Nikolai Hougaard for the third straight game, beating Ewen Ferguson and Richard Mansell 2&1 to finish by 3 points with 2.5 points.
Elsewhere, Detry holed in a 52-foot birdie putt on the 17th as he and Straca took a 1-1 lead over Shane Lowry and Hutton, while Victor Perez and Guido Migliocchi made it 2&1 for a third straight victory for Robert McIntyre. They held the points until their hopes were dashed. Defeat Scott and Seamus Power.
Molinari said he was pleased with the team’s performance so far, but said the work was not done yet.
“I don’t care about two points. We were in a situation where a much larger margin was being eroded,” said the Italian. “But I have complete trust and confidence in all nine of us, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s challenge.”
Fleetwood said fatigue may have been a factor in the afternoon’s session, but he was hoping for a good start on Sunday.
“Some games could have gone either way. We ended the day two points behind, but two points is fine and we have a full singles session left,” he said. “We can look back on today and we can all sit in the team room and talk about the rounds and everything, but overall, tomorrow we will go out and have a fast start and get right back into the game.”
The event was added to the schedule to give Donald a chance to assess his options for Europe’s attempt to regain the Ryder Cup in 2021 after a 19-9 loss to the USA at the Whistling Straits. rice field.
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