Asia good, but Europe better

The only bright spot for the Asians was local superstar Thongchai Jaidee’s 2 and 1 win over Sweden’s Niclas Fasth in the day’s final game.

Jeev, who had grabbed half a point each from his first two matches in foursomes and fourball, was trailing four-down after five holes, before he made a great recovery.

He closed the gap to one-down at the tenth. But then Karlsson, who won three titles last year in Europe, found his rhythm a gain and went three-up with two to go and closed the match on the 16th.

Ballesteros, who captained the team in the inaugural contest last year, added: “The Asian team must be very proud of what they did, but the European team was just so much better.”

Westwood trailed for much of the front nine against Japan’s Toru Taniguchi but birdies on the 10th, 11th, 13th and 14th holes helped the Englishmen continue his unbeaten run on the European team.

“That’s 13 matches in a row for me representing Europe without losing —there’s nothing unlucky about 13 for me,” he said. “You would never have thought it would have been such a convincing victory when we walked away from the eighth with Toru still one up.” Veteran Darren Clarke salvaged a half point from his match with in-form Thai Prom Meesawat after giving up a three-shot lead.

The Ulsterman was two ahead at the turn but Prom closed the gap with birdies on the 10th and 11th, then went ahead with another birdie on the par-four 13th hole before stretching his lead to two holes with three to play.

However, Clarke battled back to ensure Europe retained the cup by birdying the 16th and 18th to share the point with his 22-year-old opponent.

Irishman Paul McGinley made four successive birdies after the ninth hole in his 2&1 win over Thaworn Wiratchant, while Johan Edfors opened up a three-shot lead at the 12th before beating SK Ho 3&2 as Europe added more points to their total.

Asia picked up their second half of the day after Sweden’s Henrik Stenson bogeyed the 12th hole and doubled bogeyed the par-four 13th to surrender a three-stroke lead to YE Yang.