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HALMSTAD, Sweden (AP) -- Par of the century. Best par in history. Unbelievable.

And that's just what the other team was saying about the magic act Laura Davies conjured up on the 16th hole at the Solheim Cup on Friday.

Davies called her amazing par from the bushes and bramble behind a sinister creek called Backen a "hit and hope," a "500-1 shot," something that a "36-handicapper might try for."

Or, quite simply, the best par of her life.

Even with the half point Davies helped salvage with that par, the United States still led the Europeans 4 1/2 to 3 1/2 after a windy, wet and frigid slog in Sweden -- a good sign for a team that hasn't been ahead after the first day of this event since 1998.

But it was the Europeans who walked off the course with all the momentum and buzz.

And all because of Davies, who cemented herself in Solheim Cup lore with a hack through the tree roots and a 50-yard chip-in for par, saving her match and turning a rough opening day for the Europeans into something much better.

"Considering the circumstances ... it was beyond belief, really," Davies said. "I would say it was a pretty good moment."

Playing in the final fourball match of the day, she was the last player to hit on the tricky par-3 16th hole. She didn't learn a lesson by watching Americans Morgan Pressel and Paula Creamer and her own teammate, Trish Johnson, all hit to the wrong side of Backen -- the creek that runs in front of and down the right side of the green.

In fact, Davies hit the worst shot of the foursome. So bad, that she found herself climbing through the shrubbery simply to get to her ball.

"We're walking by. I'm like, 'Where's your ball?'" Creamer said. "She's like, 'Oh, I'm just hoping to get through those trees.'"

Davies did more than that. Pulling out her wedge -- or was that a machete? -- she took a wild swing and a took huge gash out of the underbrush. She blasted the ball out to the fringe on the opposite side of the green. Still away, she chipped in her next shot from 50 feet to win the hole and draw even in a match she and Johnson had trailed all day.

"We both kind of looked at each other and just went, 'Wow,'" Pressel said. "I think that's the par of the century."

"Probably the best par you've seen in history," Cristie Kerr said.

Then Creamer: "It was unbelievable."

But what could have been academic -- a collapse by the Americans after watching such a spectacle -- wasn't anything like that.

Pressel and Creamer played the last two holes to a draw and actually had two decent looks at winning the match on the 18th green. They missed. Still, given the things went down on No. 16, maybe it was really the young Americans who salvaged the half point.

"What are you going to do?" Creamer said when asked how she and Pressel rebounded. "We had two holes left. It's not over. At that point, it was all square. There's a lot of golf left."

It was definitely a moment to remember, and on the 18th green, Pressel and Creamer added another.

After they missed their putts, Davies and Johnson each had testy 3-footers to ensure the tie. The Americans conceded the putts to finish the match, which took nearly six hours to complete, at all square. It was a classy act of sportsmanship that events like these are designed to bring out in players, but too often don't.

"We both deserved to win that match with the finish we had on the last couple holes," Creamer said. "I think that's the way you play the Solheim Cup."

Besides the shot by Davies, it was the weather that made this day memorable.

The day started with breezy conditions under foreboding gray clouds, then turned nasty with a cutting wind, lashing rain and an occasional heavy squall. Then sunshine, then more squalls. And finally, a rainbow on the horizon as the Davies foursome finished its exciting match.

"From start to finish, probably one of the worst I've ever seen," said Johnson, who is from England and is used to bad conditions.

"You don't get a lot of this in South Florida," said Pressel, a native of Boca Raton.

It could be more of the same Saturday with a low pressure system coming in off the North Sea that isn't expected to clear out until late in the weekend.

"The course is very, very long and with these conditions, it's almost too long for them, too," Kerr said, speaking to the conventional wisdom that the big-hitting Europeans have an advantage one the lengthy North Course at Halmstad Golf Club.

Given the crazy finish and the wild weather, neither team was too disappointed with where it stood.

The Americans don't often play as well in fourball and foursome games as they do in the Sunday singles, so they're in good position to win the Solheim Cup on foreign soil for only the second time in history.

The Europeans were trailing all four afternoon matches at one point, so salvaging two points from that set seemed like a victory to them.

"It's not a bad day, considering," Davies said.

Easy for her to say.

Saturday Morning Foursomes:
2:05 a.m. ET: Sherri Steinhauer and Laura Diaz, USA, vs. Maria Hjorth and Gwladys Nocera, EUR
2:20 a.m. ET: Juli Inkster and Paula Creamer, USA, vs. Sophie Gustafson and Suzann Pettersen, EUR
2:35 a.m. ET: Pat Hurst and Angela Stanford, USA, vs. Iben Tinning and Bettina Hauert, EUR
2:50 a.m. ET: Nicole Castrale and Cristie Kerr, USA, vs. Annika Sorenstam and Catriona Matthew, EUR

Friday Morning Foursomes:
Suzann Pettersen and Sophie Gustafsson, EUR, vs. Pat Hurst and Cristie Kerr, USA, halved
Sherri Steinhauer and Laura Diaz, USA, def. Annika Sorenstam and Catriona Matthew, EUR, 4&2
Juli Inkster and Paula Creamer, USA, def. Laura Davies and Beckey Brewerton, EUR, 2&1
Gwladys Nocera and Maria Hjorth, EUR, def. Natalie Gulbis and Morgan Pressel, USA, 3&2

Friday Afternoon Fourballs:
Catriona Matthew and Iben Tinning, EUR, def. Pat Hurst and Brittany Lincicome, USA, 4&2
Annika Sorenstam and Maria Hjorth, EUR, vs. Angela Stanford and Stacy Prammanasudh, USA, halved
Nicole Castrale and Cristie Kerr, USA, def. Sophie Gustafson and Gwladys Nocera, EUR, 3&2
Trish Johnson and Laura Davies, EUR, vs. Paula Creamer and Morgan Pressel, USA, halved

Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved.