Meh.
Morning Four-balls
Woods/Furyk beat Montgomerie/Harrington - 1 up
Casey/Karlsson halved with Cink/Henry
García/Olazábal beat Toms/Wetterich - 3 & 2
Clarke/Westwood beat Mickelson/DiMarco - 1 up
Four-balls score: EU 2.5 - 1.5 US
Overall score: EU 2.5 - 1.5 US
Afternoon Foursomes
McGinley/Harrington halved with Campbell/Johnson
Howell/Stenson halved with Cink/Toms
Westwood/Montgomerie halved with Mickelson/DiMarco
Donald/García beat Woods/Furyk - 2 up
Foursomes score: EU 2.5 - 1.5 US
Overall score: EU 5 - 3 US
For those of you unfamiliar with the Ryder Cup, it's a "matchplay" event - most golf is "strokeplay".
In matchplay, it doesn't matter how many strokes you actually take, as it's all counted by holes. If you take less strokes on a hole than your opponent, you take the hole - 1 up. If you take more, you lose the hole - 1 down. If you're even, you square it.
A matchplay round ends either with the game tied - all-square, half a point each - or when one team cannot possibly level the game, because they are more holes down than there are left to play. This is described as "the number of holes up" and "the number of holes left" - 3 and 2 means the winning team were 3 holes up with only 2 holes left to play. "1 up" means the winning team won by a single hole. The highest possible winning margin in matchplay is 10 and 8 - having won the first ten holes straight, there are only 8 left.
Four-ball games have two teams of two. Each player has his/her own ball and plays it. The winner of any hole is the team which has the player with the lowest score.
Foursomes are slightly different - still two teams of two, but only two balls. Players take it in turns. The winner of any hole is the team which has the lowest score.
The maximum number of points available in the Ryder Cup is 28. The winner is the first team to 14.5 - in the event of a tie, the holders retain the trophy.
