Europe claimed a 5-3 lead after the first two sessions of the 40th Ryder Cup, despite star trio Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter contributing just half a point between them.
That half-point could be worth far more to the final outcome given the miraculous way it was achieved on a rollercoaster day at Gleneagles.
In the morning fourballs, Poulter suffered the biggest defeat of his Ryder Cup career, and first in eight matches, with a 5&4 loss alongside Scotland's Stephen Gallacher to rookie pair Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, while McIlroy and Garcia lost on the 18th to Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley.
European captain Paul McGinley kept faith with his top-ranked duo in the foursomes and they looked set for another defeat at two down with two to play against Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker.
However, world number one McIlroy then holed from 35 feet for a birdie on the 17th and Garcia smashed a brilliant approach from the rough onto the par-five 18th to set up another to strike a major psychological blow for the home side.
Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson had already secured their second win of the day, beating Hunter Mahan and Zach Johnson 2&1, while Lee Westwood and Jamie Donaldson shrugged off missing the morning session to beat Jim Furyk and Matt Kuchar on the 18th.
And with Graeme McDowell and rookie Victor Dubuisson then seeing off the previously unbeaten Mickelson and Bradley 3&2, Europe had the early edge in their quest for an eighth win in the last 10 contests.
Speaking about the dramatic finish, McIlroy said: "We needed it, we really did. We were making life difficult for ourselves out there. I don't think either of us was playing from the fairways very much.
"We just wanted to ask them a question and get them going and we were able to do that. And Sergio had the shot of the day at the last. It was big, and at least we got something out of the day. We played two really tough matches and we have half a point to show for it."
Garcia added: "We knew we weren't playing good. We fought as hard as we could. Half a point is just huge."
McGinley echoed that sentiment, adding: "That was probably as good as a win, to come back from where they were."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article