Britain and Ireland battle back
Britain and Ireland fought back in the Seve Trophy today despite a Bradley Dredge blunder and Ian Poulter being left in no doubt he had incurred the wrath of captain Colin Montgomerie.
Beaten 4-1 by Continental Europe in the opening fourballs at The Wynyard near Middlesbrough, Montgomerie spoke to Poulter about the fact that he was not around the 18th green as the day’s play was coming to a vital conclusion.
The colourful Englishman was away practising as Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley lost to French pair Thomas Levet and Jean-Francois Remesy, a defeat which left Britain and Ireland with a tough task to retain the trophy.
“He was the only man who was not with his team,” commented Montgomerie, who walked over to Poulter and told him what he thought of that.
“That’s fine, but there are times to work on your game and we all felt that was not the appropriate time.”
It explained what Montgomerie meant when he said in his post-round press conference that “there were certain things going on that will remain between ourselves".
He presumably did not realise that his exchange with Poulter had been captured by a television camera.
There were five more fourballs today and Dredge and fellow Welshman Stephen Dodd had to concede the first hole when Dredge discovered after teeing off that he had 15 clubs in his bag – one more than allowed.
A fairway wood should not have been there. In match play it meant loss of hole rather than the two-shot penalty suffered when their compatriot Ian Woosnam found he had done the same at the 2001 Open when joint leader.
Dredge was desperate to make amends and began to do so with birdies at the second and third – both for wins against Maarten Lafeber and Emanuele Canonica. However, Canonica birdied the next to level things.
David Howell and Paul Casey had a magical start of six successive birdies - Howell four, his partner two – to go five up on Continental Europe captain Jose Maria Olazabal and Miguel Angel Jimenez.
At the seventh, though, Jimenez birdied to cut the deficit.
Poulter was again paired with Nick Dougherty and they were one up after four. After matching the eagle of Remesy at the first Dougherty won the second with a birdie.
Harrington and McGinley lost the first to an eagle by Swede Niclas Fasth, but they turned that round to lead Fasth and Peter Hanson by one after eight.
So in a complete reversal of yesterday, it was only Montgomerie and Graeme McDowell who trailed – by one after six to Thomas Bjorn and Henrik Stenson.
