Hopeful that his morning team can eat into Europe's two-point lead.

"The mood was extremely good last night, " he says. "We realised we played a lot of good golf yesterday but didn't make the putts." Ah. The putts. The noose around the neck of the Americans once again this year. At least the captain knew where to search for the answer to his team's problems and, amazingly, he's looking on Friday as a day that could have swung either way. "You know, it was a fine line between 5-3, 4-4 or even us leading."

A few hours later, with the morning fourballs tucked away and the points calculated, it's the putting of his players that has Lehman worried once again. All of his early players, bar his rookie Zach Johnson, failed to get their putters working.

"My players know they have to get it done, " Lehman said after the final game of the morning had finished. "They have to putt with conviction."

Before he announced his afternoon pairings, it was expected that Scott Verplank would play the foursomes.

The morning in general and Johnson in particular had changed his mind.

"He [Johnson] was playing too well. Conditions are tough out there and I just felt that Zach is playing so good we can't keep him out of the line up."

Though they shared it a little more equally, there were some Europeans who matched Johnson's heroics.

Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood's thumping win over the marquee US pairing of Woods and Furyk brought out the best in the Europeans.

When they shut the game out on the 16th, Clarke leaped at Westwood in celebration.

"People said we were a gamble [to get the wild cards] but the two who were sure it wasn't a gamble was the two of us, " Clarke said, pellets of rain popping off his head.

His match winning chip in was another reason for the hyped celebrations on 16. "It worked out that way, me finishing it off. I don't know who teed it up for me but the lie was lucky."

There were other European celebrations on the 16th.

Jose Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia notched up another win and again didn't have to go through the ordeal of walking up the 18th with the cooker boiling.

"The start was important for us, " said Olazabal. "We made some crucial putts.

They didn't. I felt comfortable today and yesterday."

"Yeah, " said Garcia, who had just secured his eighthstraight Ryder Cup victory.

"It was important to feel comfortable. Jose played amazing.

I don't think he missed a fairway. I missed out 13, he did well. It went like that. We got a bit lucky because they missed a few putts that could have levelled the match."

Ian Woosnam was just off the 18th green, right after Paul Casey and Robert Karlsson had won Europe the half point from their morning haul of two and a half. "It was huge to gain that half point, " he said. "It's another on the way to the 14 we're looking for and overall the morning has exceeded our expectations."

For long stretches, that was the tightest of the fourballs.

Though Casey and Karlsson didn't set the course alight, they led by one going into 16.

America's JJ Henry stepped up to the mound then and fired in an eagle to tie the game with two to play. He then birdied 17 and had a putt on 18 to win the match.

"I hit a few shots here and there and hit a great one onto 16 and then 17 to change the match, " said Henry. "It was a tough long putt on 18 and for a second I thought I made it.

Unfortunately we didn't win but we didn't lose, either. I'm not going to dwell [on the putt]. It wasn't an easy one. It just didn't go in and I'm proud of the way I played."

Paul Casey had his eye on another European victory though. " I thought Rob and I played better golf than we did yesterday. I thought we were going to win up until JJ made that fantastic eagle on 16. He played it well and stuffed us on 17 as well. We had a chance down 18 and I thought we could have snatched it. That would have really hurt [the Americans]."

Three points down, the American's were sore enough. Their leaders never fired. Tiger Woods had an awful morning.

Still, Lehman never thought of turning his back on his man for the afternoon.

"He's the best in the world, " said Lehman. "How could anybody leave him out?"

And so Tiger headed out into the unknown afternoon.

Another few hours of rain to contend with and worse, a deficit of three to haul back.