A LITTLE like Chelsea in football and Tiger Woods in golf, when Colin Montgomerie paired Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington together for two days of fourballs he expected comprehensive victories to be a formality.

If one Great Britain & Ireland partnership would guarantee a point the Irish pair were the men to do just that and, at the second time of asking, they delivered. Montgomerie's decision vindicated in the latest instalment of play from the Seve Trophy.

A competition the critics claim lacks a competitive edge and is the poor relation of the more glorified Presidents Cup, taking place in the United States this weekend, came to life at The Wynyard Club when Monty's men clawed themselves back from the proverbial dead.

Facing the biggest first-day deficit of any team in the Seve Trophy's five years, Britain clawed themselves back from 4-1 down to within two with a show of guts, determination and excitement to make the weekend's play an enthralling prospect.

On Thursday, McGinley and Harrington were the last men to go out, seemingly destined to return with a point against French pair Jean-Francois Remesy and Thomas Levet, or so Montgomerie thought.

But things did not go to plan and the Scottish skipper, after dishing out a positive rollicking to his under-performing team, had a rethink and pushed his dream team out first yesterday in a bid to instill confidence from the start.

Eight years ago McGinley and Harrington ended a 39-year wait when they won the World Cup for Ireland at Kiawah Island and their friendship has blossomed on and off the greens ever since.

The tactic to keep the two together worked for Montgomerie, as the Irish smiles beamed across The Wynyard when they clinched a 3&1 win when Niclas Fasth and Peter Hanson conceded on the 17th green.

"Colin opted to put the team out as before and he showed some confidence in that," said Harrington, after walking of the second last a relieved figure. "He was quite happy for us to go out there and do what we could and it has worked. To win one of the first two points was important for us."

It had not always looked like going that way as Fasth's wonderful start to the match suggested Europe were going to enjoy another monumental day on their first visit to Tees-Valley.

While all were expecting Harrington to take the tie from the first tee, the Swede's approach shot from the rough landed within feet of the hole.

He casually strolled up to the green and sank an early knife into Britain's hopes of a quick revival.

But golfers of the calibre of Harrington and McGinley are made of stern stuff. They had threatened to draw level at the third and fourth but the former's putting seemed to be left in the clubhouse.

However, Harrington's heroics on the sixth hole recaptured his confidence and proved to be the platform for the British pair to build on.

For someone who holds an accountancy degree, the 34-year-old got all his calculations spot on from 130 yards to drop his approach shot to within four feet of the pin.

He putted out for a birdie and the contest was all square again.

Until this week Harrington has been an ever-present in the world's top ten since breaking into the elite pack four years ago and his class prevailed again at the next, when he clinched back-to-back birdies to put the Irishmen one up.

Although Hanson's birdie at the seventh pulled things level, McGinley got in on the act with a three at the par-four eighth and the men from the Emerald Isle never looked back, refusing to surrender their lead.

McGinley, still reeling from last weekend's defeat to Michael Campbell in the World Match-Play Championship, is best remembered for holing the winning putt at The Belfry in the Ryder Cup a year ago but is still very much regarded as the apprentice when he plays alongside his fellow countryman.

Although Harrington made three further birdies, it was the 39-year-old's three on the par-four 15th that put the skids under the Fasth-Hanson bid to save the match after they had threatened to level with a birdie at 13.

So, in total contrast to Thursday, when Harrington's bad day was summed up when his five-foot putt on the 18th barely reached the hole, it was left for Padraig to prove he has the perfection in his game to save Great Britain & Ireland from despair in the North-East

Published: 24/09/2005