Continental lead by two points at Abu Dhabi Heroes Cup – Irish Times

The Continental side enter the final day of the Heroes Cup with a two-point lead following Saturday afternoon’s four-way showdown in Abu Dhabi.

Francesco Molinari’s men led England and Ireland by one point overnight and held on to a narrow lead as they took 2.5 points each from five foursomes on Saturday morning.

The afternoon game followed with a 3-2 win over Continental, giving them an 8.5-6.5 cushion ahead of Sunday’s singles match at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

GB&I skipper Tommy Fleetwood came out on the second day with two wins and two losses after losing his top-flight game on Friday. He teamed up with Tyrrell Hatton to beat Sepp Straka and Thomas Detry in a morning game that went to 18 points, then paired with Jordan Smith to beat Alex Noren and Thomas Pieters 2-1.

Callum Shinkwin and Matt Wallace birdied three of their last five holes to win a 2-1 win over Antoine Rozner and Adrian Meronk, but the other three afternoon games gave the Continental team a boost.

Molinari, like his friend Fleetwood, led by example on Day 2, partnering Nicola Hoygaard for a third straight match and beating Evan Ferguson and Richard Mansell 2-1 , scored 2.5 points on three-pointers.

Elsewhere, De Terry made a long birdie putt on the 17th hole to put him and Straka ahead of Sean Lowry and Hatton, who were ahead of Victor Perez and Guido Miguel. Riozzi held on to that before ending Robert McIntyre’s hopes with a 2-1 win over Robert McIntyre. Scotsman and Séamus Power.

Fleetwood said: “In the morning, played some great golf and literally when the players started to fatigue they had to pick themselves up in the afternoon, the standard of golf changed and there were more mistakes. Much more, it’s really important to stay fit and keep the language up and push it all the way to the end. I’m proud of how our players have done that.

“Either way, a couple of games could have been played. We finished the day down two points, but it’s okay to be two points behind, we still have a full singles game. We can look back on today and we’ll all be sitting in the team room Here, we’ll talk about our rounds and everything, but in general, we’ll go out tomorrow and start fast and we’ll go straight back into the game.”

Molinari is determined not to let that happen. He said: “Well, we need to win the meeting tomorrow. We did well, won two of the three games and halved the other. So we need to go out and win the meeting.

“Two points is nothing. We’ve been in a situation where bigger margins have been eroded. But I have a lot of trust and confidence in the other nine, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s challenge.”