KILLENARD, Ireland -- Raphael Jacquelin and Gregory Havret stayed unbeaten as Continental Europe dominated the greensome matches Saturday to take an 8-5 lead over Britain and Ireland in the Seve Trophy.
Europe won three and halved one of the four greensome matches (both players drive and play alternate shots with the preferred tee shot), with Bradley Dredge and Phillip Archer salvaging a tie for Britain & Ireland against Markus Brier and Mikko Ilonen.
Havret, this year’s Scottish Open champion, had a hole-in-one at the 189-yard seventh with a 4-iron before he and Jacquelin birdied three straight holes from the 15th to beat Nick Dougherty and Graeme Storm 2 and 1.
‘I was full of confidence at the seventh and Raphael asked me to hit the best shot I could,’ Havret said.
Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, a late replacement for an ailing Thomas Bjorn, joined with Robert Karlsson to beat Justin Rose and Paul Casey 3 and 1.
Fernandez-Castano and Karlsson birdied five successive holes around the turn and added an eagle two holes later to win handily after trailing early.
Soren Hansen of Denmark sank a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th as he and Swede Peter Hanson beat Oliver Wilson and Simon Dyson 1 up.
Brier and Ilonen birdied the last two holes to get half a point for Britain & Ireland, which has won the trophy three times out of four.
The competition ends with four alternate-shot foursome matches Saturday and 10 singles on Sunday.
Casey, with one win and two losses, was dropped for the afternoon foursomes.
‘He’s struggling,’ Britain & Ireland captain Nick Faldo said.
Faldo said the Europeans seemed more inspired than his team.
‘That’s the bottom line,’ he said. ‘We won only seven holes in four matches. We need to win more holes.’
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