Europe hold upper hand

Continental Europe were enjoying the better of the first set of foursomes matches midway through the morning session on day three of the Seve Trophy by Golf+.

José María Olazábal’s side had seen their lead trimmed to 5 ½ - 4 ½ after Great Britain & Ireland had the better of the second day fourballs, but star pair Nicolas Colsaerts and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño remained in excellent form.

Having won 5 and 3 on day one, they then beat Paul Lawrie and Stephen Gallacher by a tournament record 6 and 5 yesterday.

Faced with the same opponents today, Belgian Colsaerts and Spaniard Fernandez-Castaño looked unlikely to give their Scottish opposition the chance to avenge their defeat as they raced into a 3 up lead after eight holes, although a birdie at the short ninth saw Lawrie and Gallacher cut the deficit to two.

Jamie Donaldson and Marc Warren were one up for Sam Torrance’s side against Gregory Bourdy and Joost Luiten in game two, while the third match between Thorbjørn Olesen and Francesco Molinari and Chris Wood and Scott Jamieson was all square at the turn.

For the third time this week the anchor game was going Continental Europe’s way, this time courtesy of Miguel Angel Jiménez and Matteo Manassero, who were two up on Paul Casey and Tommy Fleetwood.

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