Monty's men rule at The Celtic Manor

Europe stormed back into contention on day three of the 2010 Ryder Cup ending the day 9.5 - 6.5 up. 

Colin Montgomerie's men closed day two 4-6 down, but up in all six matches on-course when bad light stopped play.  Monty game a stirring team talk in the dressing room before his players took to the course, even posting a sign on the door which read, 'The Americans will come out hard today; make sure you come out harder.'

The rain delay, which meant that all 12 singles matches will be played tomorrow, clearly didn't affect the Europeans' minds.  The foursomes pairs of Luke Donald and Lee Westwood, and Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell got the ball rolling with comfortable wins.

In the fourballs, Padraig Harrington and Ross Fisher, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Peter Hanson, and Ian Poulter and Martin Kaymer added to the tally. The Molinari brothers then took a half against Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar.

The spirit in the European camp is clearly high, down in no small part to Montgomerie and his vice-captains.  The singles pairings were announced earlier and the players line-up as follows:
L Westwood v S Stricker, R McIlroy v S Cink, L Donald v J Furyk, M Kaymer v D Johnson, I Poulter v M Kuchar, R Fisher v J Overton, MA Jimenez v B Watson, F Molinari v T Woods, E Molinari v R Fowler, P Hanson v P Mickelson, P Harrington v Z Johnson, G McDowell v H Mahan.

However, a note of caution. In 1999 at Brookline the Europeans led 6-10 going into the singles and went on to lose. There is plenty of work still to be done, but those European Sunday ticket holders lucky enough to be attending another day's golf, will be urging on Monty's lions to victory.

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