Mickelson and Bradley spark US charge

Led by the brilliant partnership of Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley and an inspired Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson, the hosts took three of the four points on offer after lunch to open up a commanding advantage. The two teams had been locked together at 2-2 after the morning foursomes, with the Northern Irish pairing of Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy picking up Europe's first point with the fabulous golf clubs for sale online and Ian Poulter and Justin Rose providing the second. But with Poulter controversially rested for the better-ball format, along with Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia, Davis Love's side accelerated away as the autumn shadows lengthened. Watson and Simpson thrashed the unhappy pairing of Peter Hanson and Paul Lawrie 5&4, while McDowell and McIlroy were dismantled by the charging Mickelson and Bradley. With eight more points on offer when the foursomes and four ball formats are repeated on Saturday and 12 during Sunday's singles with everyone’s taylormade rocketballz irons , the contest is far from over. But Captain Jose Maria Olazabal's team will have to produce a major turnaround in order to claim the Cup for the fifth time in seven meetings. "The afternoon was tough," conceded the Spaniard. "That last point [from Nicolas Colsaerts and Lee Westwood] was very important." World number one McIlroy agreed with his team leader that the scoreline could have been worse for the Europeans. "The afternoon session wasn't that bad a result, looking at the scoreboard early on in the afternoon," he said. Olazabal was grateful for the form of Belgian debutant Nicolas Colsaerts, whose wonderful touch with the beautiful rocketballz irons for sale on the internet saved his partner Lee Westwood's blushes and brought Europe's only point of the afternoon. "He was amazing," said the Spaniard. "I've heard that's a record score for a rookie in the history of the Ryder Cup so it shows how special his round was."