Kilkenny’s Mark Power and Kinsale John Murphy will lead off in the foursomes as Great Britain and Ireland bids to overcome a 7-5 deficit and grab a shock Walker Cup win in Florida.
The Irish duo formed a fantastic partnership on day one of the 48th match at Seminole Golf Club on Saturday when they twice came back from three down to beat Quade Cummins and Austin Eckroat 1 up.
The first day foursomes were shared 2-2 but while the USA won the afternoon singles 5-3, the visitors can still win on US soil for only the third time in the event’s history.
Power (20) will lead off for skipper Stuart Wilson in the 10 afternoon singles having excelled on the opening day with a 3&2 win over world number three Davis Thompson.
Murphy (22) had a tough task against Texan Cole Hammer but while he was five down at the turn, he fought back to two down with two to play only to fall on the 17th, 3&1.
“It’s been a hard-fought day,” said GB&I captain Wilson. “The result is probably tighter than it would suggest. The guys are doing a great job and if we can tidy up a couple of things, it will be all to play for tomorrow.”
The Great Britain and Ireland side got some pointers from Paul McGinley last week and the Dubliner believes they can still pull off a shock win.
The sides play will play four foursomes followed by 10 singles in the race to reach the magic number of 13.5 points required for outright victory.
“The foursomes tomorrow is important, they can’t fall any further behind,” McGinley told Sky Sports.
“Two points behind going into the singles is going to be difficult but three points is going to be incredibly difficult. So if they can get 2-2 in the morning or even win half a point extra and eat into the US lead, you can reverse the pressure on the Americans.
“They are going to be going in as favourites tomorrow but if you start winning the first few matches, as we saw [in the Ryder Cup] at Medinah [in 2012] then the guys down the bottom are thinking, ‘Oh, I didn’t think my match was going to count and this would be all over by now.’ Now the American team is under pressure.
“This is far from over. I am a big believer and make no apologies for using the word momentum. It is so critical to this. So the big key is how the team is put out and it’s important the guys at the front of the order get off to good starts.”
The match has been marred by ill health with 15 players and both captains laid low by a stomach bug at some point during the week.
Due to the unusual circumstances, the captains were permitted unprecedented flexibility with their lineups for the first day’s four foursomes and eight singles matches.
Alternates were summoned into action and late changes were made to the pairings.
The highlight of the morning foursomes session was Power and Murphy’s dramatic come back to beat Quade Cummins and Austin Eckroat 1 up.
Three down after five, the Irish duo won the seventh and eighth with pars to reduce the deficit to just one hole, but they were soon three down again.
The Americans claimed the ninth in birdie and were gifted the 10th in par when Power was one of three GB&I players to pull his tee shot into a lake.
They were still three down through 12 holes but stuck with their strategy of hitting fairways and greens and went on to win the 13th, 14th, 15th and 17th to go 1-up before Murphy made a three footer for victory at the last.
“I think I said to Mark both times, I just said, we're playing great, we just have to stick to what we're doing,” Murphy said of those three-hole deficits.
“We got a couple of bad breaks early on, but let's not try and force anything. We're playing great; this is a golf course of mistakes so let's let them make the mistakes, and I think we stuck to our game plan really well and stayed patient, and proud of Mark here.”
The Irish duo first played together in the Munster Under 15's in Macroom and went on to play together for Ireland.
“Yeah, it's amazing,” Power told Golf Channel after their foursomes win. “We played together when we were 15 and 16, five, six years ago now, and just on the first tee, we were like, we're just going to enjoy today because look how far we've come, and why shy away from the challenge and just embrace it, and God, we stuck to it today.”
Gesturing to Murphy, Power added: “The old head in the group, he calmed me down and just said, look, just hit the fairways, hit greens and we'll wear these guys down, and that's what we did.”
United States leads Great Britain and Ireland, 7-5 (after first day)
Morning Foursomes
Cole Hammer and Davis Thompson, USA bt Alex Fitzpatrick and Barclay Brown, GB&I, 1 up
Mark Power and John Murphy, GB&I bt Quade Cummins and Austin Eckroat, USA, 1 up
Mac Meissner and Ricky Castillo, USA bt Jack Dyer and Matty Lamb, GB&I, 2 up
Angus Flanagan and Jake Bolton, GB&I bt Stewart Hagestad and William Mouw, USA, 1 up
Afternoon Singles
Pierceson Coody, USA bt Alex Fitzpatrick, GB&I, 2 up
Mark Power, GB&I bt Davis Thompson, USA, 3 and 2
Ricky Castillo, USA bt Ben Schmidt, GB&I, 5 and 3
William Mouw, USA bt Ben Jones, GB&I, 4 and 3
Matty Lamb, GB&I, bt Quade Cummins, USA, 2 and 1
Austin Eckroat, USA bt Angus Flanagan, GB&I, 1 up
Barclay Brown, GB&I bt John Pak, USA, 2 and 1
Cole Hammer, USA bt John Murphy, GB&I, 3 and 1
Sunday's foursomes and singles pairings (All Times Irish time)
Morning Foursomes
13:20 Mark Power and John Murphy, GB&I v. Pierceson Coody and John Pak, USA
13:35 Alex Fitzpatrick and Barclay Brown, GB&I v. Ricky Castillo and William Mouw, USA
13:50 Angus Flanagan and Ben Schmidt, GB&I v. Davis Thompson and Cole Hammer, USA
14:05 Matty Lamb and Jack Dyer, GB&I v. Stewart Hagestad and Tyler Strafaci, USA
Afternoon Singles
19:15 Mark Power, GB&I v. Austin Eckroat, USA
19:26 Alex Fitzpatrick, GB&I v. Pierceson Coody, USA
19:37 Joe Long, GB&I v. John Pak, USA
19:48 Matty Lamb, GB&I v. Davis Thompson, USA
19:59 Barclay Brown, GB&I v. Quade Cummins, USA
20:10 Angus Flanagan, GB&I v. William Mouw, USA
20:21 John Murphy, GB&I v. Ricky Castillo, USA
20:32 Jack Dyer, GB&I v. Tyler Strafaci, USA
20:43 Ben Schmidt, GB&I v. Cole Hammer, USA
20:54 Ben Jones, GB&I v. Stewart Hagestad, USA