BLOOMFIELD HILLS, United States (AFP) - Stung by the savage cricitism levelled at them by captain Hal Sutton, the United States team fought back to salavge their pride in a dramatic second day of the Ryder Cup.
They managed to get themselves ahead early Saturday in three of four four-ball matches.
After Friday's performance that left them a record-busting five points behind the Europeans, Sutton laid into his team.
"They weren't themselves out there. You saw very few of the Americans really show up. We just didn't get it done," he complained.
Saturday morning's American press also attacked the US team, calling their performance a disgrace.
Davis Love, one of the Americas who 'failed' to show up on Friday, led the US fight back with playing partner Stewart Cink as they heaped the pressure on European heroes Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington.
Only 24 hours earlier, Montgomerie and Harrington had run over the Dream Team of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. But on Saturday morning they found themselves on the rack as an on-fire Love put his team three up after only six holes.
Love, who could not sink a putt on the first day, ran in four birdies in five holes.
Montgomerie and Harrington were reeling under the onslaught but at the seventh the Scot managed to sink a 14-foot birdie putt to pull one back for Europe and halt the rot.
Tiger Woods, playing with rookie Chris Riley, moved to a two-hole lead over Darren Clarke and Ian Poulter.
Before the start, Sutton said he was expecting great things from the world number two after his dismal showing on Friday.
"I expect Tiger Woods to play unbelievable," said Sutton.
Sutton added that putting was going to be the key.
"At some point you have to make a lot of 6-footers. It's inevitable. You will be called to either make them to win or to tie. I saw the Europeans doing it consistently and I saw the Americans miss them consistently," he explained.
"It gets a lot easier to make that point when there's no pressure on. What we've got to do is turn it around and shift the pressure to the other side."
The team clearly got the message.
European were suddenly facing six-footers to simply stay level.
On the first hole, Clarke missed a four-footer. David Howell, playing with fellow Englishman Paul Casey, had a six footer to win the hole but missed.
The Americans continued to keep up the pressure as they attemped to win a minimum of five points out of the eight available on the second day to give themselves a chance to pull off a stunning comeback on Sunday in the finals.
And the near-40,000 strong crowd who were stunned into silence on Friday by the European onslaught suddenly began to roar as the American players continued to squeeze the Europeans.