Forget the Hampden roar. This was the Bearsden bawl. When Ewen Ferguson stroked in a four-footer for par on the last green to clinch a vital one hole singles victory over Maverick McNealy, the din generated by the assembled masses who had made the journey south from the Glasgow suburb just about cracked the brickwork on the Royal Lytham clubhouse. “I don’t think there’s anybody left at Bearsden Golf Club,” said Ferguson with a smile after taking a point and earning plenty of plaudits on his Walker Cup debut.

By the end of a first day of keenly contested tussles, Ferguson and his Great Britain & Ireland team-mates had forged a 7-5 advantage over their counterparts from the USA. There’s plenty of golf left – four more foursomes and 10 singles – but Nigel Edwards’s men have their noses in front.

Having started in ominous conditions, the first day’s play ended in blue sky and it was the boys in blue who were in buoyant mood. Ferguson was cock-a-hoop. So too was his fellow Scot, Jack McDonald, who aided the home cause with a super 5&4 win in partnership with Irishman Cormac Sharvin during the foursomes. Ferguson sat out the morning activities, which GB&I won 3-1, but was thrust into action in the afternoon against the world No 2, McNealy, in a session full of fluctuating fortunes. The pendulous nature of the matchplay format always makes it predictably unpredictable, and, with every match through the turn, GB&I were up in five, all-square in two and down in just one. By the time the first three ties had finished, though, the advancing Americans had restored parity with wins for Hunter Stewart and Scott Harvey and a half-point from Bryson DeChambeau. Harvey, a 37-year-old former US Mid-Amateur champion, put Scotsman, Grant Forrest, to the sword with a trundling birdie putt of 55-feet on the 17th while Stewart holed his third shot for an eagle on the 11th and chipped in on the 14th en route to an eventful two hole win over Irishman Paul Dunne. DeChambeau’s joust with Ashley Chesters went to the wire and the colourful US Amateur champion managed to plunder a half when his birdie putt on the 18th grabbed the right edge of the cup and dropped in.

It was all very, very tight and Ferguson, 19, found himself embroiled in a nip-and-tuck jostle with McNealy as the tension mounted. Two-up after 14, the Scot was punished for a poor second shot into the 15th and lost the hole.

“I used my anger to my advantage on the next hole, though,” Ferguson said. A peach of a drive on the 336-yard, par-4 16th rolled to within six feet of the hole and McNealy, who had adopted a safer approach with an iron, eventually conceded him the eagle.

Ferguson wasn’t home just yet. After losing the 17th, the former British Boys’ champion was forced up the last. With McNealy bunkered off the tee, Ferguson plonked himself on the green in two but raced his first putt about five feet past the hole. McNealy put the pressure on with a par-putt of 15 feet, but Ferguson held his nerve and holed his knee-knocker to clinch a one-hole win. That posse from Bearsden roared their lungs dry.

Originally left out of the GB&I team and brought in as a late res-erve a fortnight ago, Ferguson just- ified his belated place in the team.

“I probably disappointed Ewan not picking him originally,” said team captain Edwards. “I was willing him to win this afternoon. We have given ourselves a great opportunity now so let’s go and do it.”