Trailing by five points, Sutton dropped Phil Mickelson for the morning’s action after the Masters champion and Tiger Woods combined to lose both their matches yesterday.

Woods was handed his 10th different partner in Chris Riley for the second match on the course this morning, and Sutton revealed the former world number one had tried to rally the stunned home side in last night’s team meeting.

“I told them you all have to take responsibility for the fact you didn’t play well,” said Sutton, who also pulled no punches in a frank press conference on Friday evening.

“I said let’s set some goals and Tiger agreed with that and he had a few things to say about that and we took it from there. He was a little more vocal.

“I said a reasonable goal was to score five points. Any more than that is the icing on the cake but let’s make sure we get the cake.”

European captain Bernhard Langer had warned his players to brace themselves for an American fightback and the majority of the 38,000-strong crowd quickly had something to cheer in the opening match.

Veteran Jay Haas and Chris DiMarco, the home side’s only winning pair yesterday, were up against Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood and Haas rolled in a 15ft birdie putt to win the first hole.

A long birdie putt from Garcia on the third drew the sides level but Haas, the 50-year-old wild card, birdied the fifth and DiMarco the sixth to take a two-hole lead – DiMarco taking every opportunity to fire up the crowd.

Woods missed a similar birdie putt to Haas on the first but still won the hole after Darren Clarke three-putted, Ian Poulter also unable to make par after finding trouble off the tee.

Riley’s birdie also gave the Americans the second and after Clarke’s par pulled one back, a much more animated Woods birdied the fifth to restore their two hole cushion.

Langer had unsurprisingly kept faith with the pairing of Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington, who had won both their matches on the opening day.

But they got off to a poor start with bogeys at the first to trail Stewart Cink and Davis Love, the first time for 143 holes that Montgomerie had been behind in a Ryder Cup match.

The all-rookie pair of Paul Casey and David Howell were taking on Jim Furyk and Chad Campbell in the third match of the day, and were level after three holes.

Harrington holed two good putts for birdies on the second and third but they were only good enough to halve the hole, and another pair of bogeys on the fourth gifted the Americans a two-hole lead.

Westwood looked like drawing the Europeans level on the ninth hole after a superb approach to four feet, but an inspired Haas holed from 25ft for birdie and the Englishman did well to secure the half.

Clarke and Poulter missed birdie chances on the seventh to remain two down and the third match was becoming critical, Howell putting the visitors ahead with a birdie on the sixth from eight feet.