Continental Europe lead the final day of the Champions League by two points after ending their four-match lead over Britain and Ireland on Saturday afternoon.
The opening tournament is giving European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald a chance to assess the players who will be under match-play pressure in September’s showdown with the United States outside Rome.
Francesco Molinari’s side were one point ahead overnight and maintained that advantage as the teams took 2.5 points each from four of the five games played at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club on Saturday morning.
Continental Europe then finished the afternoon 3-2 to take an 8.5-6.5 lead from Sunday’s singles.
Great Britain and Ireland captain Tommy Fleetwood made it two wins from two on day two. Jordan Smith was met by Tyrell Hutton in the 18th round with a 2&1 win over Alex Noren and Thomas Peters.
Despite a 2&1 win over Anthony Rosner and Adrian Meronk for Calum Shinquin and Matt Wallace, three birdies in the last five holes, the remaining three afternoon games went the way of continental Europe.
Molinari tied Nicolai Højgaard for the third straight game and went 2&1 over Ewen Ferguson and Richard Mansell to go 5 from 3 points.
Elsewhere, Detrey holed a 52-foot birdie putt on 17 to put him and Strachan together over Shane Lowry and Hatton, and Victor Perez and Guido Migliozzi held on for a point before ending Robert McIntyre’s hopes of a third straight win 2&1. They win over Scott and Seamus Power.
Molinari is happy with his team’s performance so far, but says his work is not done.
“Two points is nothing. We were in situations where very big margins were eroded. “But I have full faith and trust in the other nine guys, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s test,” the Italian said.
Fleetwood may have suffered from fatigue in the afternoon sessions but was hopeful of a good start on Sunday.
“Two matches could have gone either way. We are two points late, but two points late is good and we have a full single session left,” he said. “We can reflect today and we’ll all sit in the group and talk about our round and everything, but overall we’ll go out tomorrow and start fast, get straight back into the game.”
In the year The event has been added to the schedule to give Donald Europe a chance to reassess its bid to regain the Ryder Cup in 2021 after a record 19-9 loss to the Americans at Whistling Streets.
