This prevented Naomichi 'Joe' Ozaki's Asia team from suffering the ignominy of losing all four foursomes to Europe. But they now go into Saturday's fourball matches trailing 3 1/2 - 1/2 in the Ryder Cup-style event. Despite hitting his tee shot out of bounds at 18 to lose the hole and allow Asia to escape with a half-point, captain Olazabal was delighted with his team's flying start.
"It's a good solid start for us," said Olazabal, who less than three months ago masterminded a famous European victory against America in the Ryder Cup. "I'm disappointed how I played the 18th hole, but looking at the big picture I'm happy." Swede Henrik Stenson and Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano produced a spectacular birdie barrage to put the first point on the board for Europe with a crushing 5 and 4 win over Japan's Ryo Ishikawa and Korean Bae Sang-Moon. Combining perfectly, the European pair made no fewer than nine birdies, including four in a row after the turn, which their opponents were unable to match.
Stenson and Fernandez-Castano were eight under par when victory was secured on the 14th green. Shortly after, Italian brothers Edoardo and Francesco Molinari completed a 2 and 1 success against Japan's Yoshinori Fujimoto and China's Wu Ashun. One-down through nine holes, the Molinaris struck a purple patch on the back nine to turn around their fortunes after the players had taken a two-hour break to observe the local Muslim prayer time.