MARANA, Ariz. -- Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, a No. 8 seed, defeated Italian Francesco Molinari, a No. 9 seed, 2 up in the completion of their first-round match Friday morning.

Fernandez-Castano advances to play Shane Lowry in the second round. Lowry, the last seed in the field, upset top overall seed Rory McIlroy in the first round. Last year in his first start in this event, Fernandez-Castano lost to Tiger Woods in the first round.

With the match all square through 15 holes when play was halted Thursday, Fernandez-Castano took the lead Friday when Molinari bogeyed their first hole, the par-3 16th, when play resumed.

Trailing 1 down going into the last hole, Molinari pressed the issue and suffered a final bogey.

The Spaniard played solid, with two birdies and one bogey on his card. Molinari, who has lost in the first round in three of his four starts here, had three birdies and four bogeys.

MARANA, Ariz. -- Two of the 32 first-round matches of the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship were halted by darkness on Thursday and will be finished on Friday morning at Dove Mountain.

Carl Pettersson is 1 up on Rickie Fowler through 17 holes. Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and Francesco Molinari are all square through 15 holes. Both matches will resume at 9:30 a.m. local time (11:30 a.m. ET).

The winner of the Pettersson-Fowler match will play Shane Lowry in the second round of the Jones bracket. Lowry knocked off top overall seed Rory McIlroy 1 up.

The Fernandez-Castano-Molinari winner will face Charles Howell III in the second round of the Player bracket. Howell upset Tiger Woods, the No. 2 overall seed, 2 and 1.

 

 

U.S. (Jason Dufner & Zach Johnson) def. Europe (Francesco Molinari & Lee Westwood), 3 and 2 Click for more: Hole by hole

MORE MATCH RECAPS: McIlroy-McDowell def. Furyk-Snedeker, 1 up | Mickelson-Bradley def. Donald-Garcia, 4 and 3 | Dufner-Johnson def. Molinari-Westwood, 3 and 2 | Poulter-Rose def. Woods-Stricker, 2 and 1 | Four-ball -- Watson-Simpson def. Lawrie-Hanson, 5 and 4 | Mickelson-Bradley def. McIlroy-McDowell, 2 and 1 | Johnson-Kuchar def. Rose-Kaymer, 3 and 2 | Westwood-Colsaerts def. Woods-Stricker, 1 up

By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM

MEDINAH, Ill. – The U.S. team of Zach Johnson and Jason Dufner defeated Lee Westwood and Francesco Molinari 3 and 2 Friday morning’s foursomes match in the Ryder Cup.

MATCH FLOW: This match was a tale of two nines. Europe held the edge on the front and the understated Americans seized control on the back. Europe won the first hole when Zach Johnson was unable to convert a 5-footer for save par. The front nine was a see-saw battle after that with Europe going 1 up two more times and the Americans squaring the match three times. Jason Dufner made back-to-back birdie putts at Nos. 9 and 10 and the Americans never trailed again. The Americans decided to lay up at the drivable 15th and Lee Westwood found the water for another U.S. win. The Americans closed out the match at the 16th hole as Dufner makes a 30-inch putt for par after Westwood misses from 7 feet.

BY THE NUMBERS: The U.S. team won six holes and shot a combined 3 under. The European team won three holes and shot a combined 1 over.

TIPPING POINT: Dufner's 15-footer for birdie at the ninth hole. It appears to stop to the left of the hole but drops in as Dufner walks to tap it in. The iceman cracks a slight smile and the U.S. never trails again.

NOTES & QUOTES: “I think today was a day that when it comes to foursomes, we did exactly what you should do, and that was never really take yourself out of the hole, put yourself in a position to make putts and stay and just keep fighting and staying in the moment.” Zach Johnson …

“Zach put me in a good spot on the ninth hole. The European Team had putted one maybe about 10 feet by. We had a good read on the putt. I felt like I hit a really nice putt and it just looked like it was going to hang on the edge. And to be honest with you, I almost felt like the roar of the crowd and the anticipation of the putt missing actually willed that ball into the hole because it felt like the crowd's cheer came from the right and the ball kind of fell into the hole. So that was a pretty good moment there.” Jason Dufner …

Zach Johnson is now 2-1-1 in Foursomes and 3-2-1 in team play. …

With his loss this morning, Westwood drops to 7-2-4 in Ryder Cup Foursomes play.

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Is the third time the charm for Francesco Molinari? The younger of Italy's two world-ranked brothers isn't thinking about that. He would be happy just to finish in the top 10 this week. "It all depends on that the other guys do,'' said Molinari, who shot 70 and is at 2-under 214. "The most realistic goal for me is to finish in the top 10. The course is getting firmer and tougher and the wind is changing. It's getting tougher out there." Molinari, whose best finish was a T-30 in his Masters debut in 2010, birdied 12, 13 and 14 to get to 4-under before giving two shots back with bogeys at 17 and 18. He hit it to 1 foot at the 12th, two-putted from the middle of the green at the 13th and, at 14, he dropped one in after pulling the approach. "My knowledge of the golf course is getting much better,'' he said. "At the same time, last year I got too excited about it and I didn't focus.'' He missed the cut last year after rounds of 75-71. This year both he and his brother made the cut, but Edoardo is at plus-nine, 11 shots behind his little brother. Fast forward to tomorrow? "I made two bogeys at the end of the day today,'' Francecso said. "I won't do that tomorrow."  

BETHESDA, Md. -- The first round of the U.S. Open continues Thursday afternoon as rain skirts either side of Congressional Country Club but spares the golfers.

Rory Sabbatini, sporting a beard under his white Stetson, just rolled in a 15-footer at the 15th hole -- his sixth of the day -- to tie Y.E. Yang for the lead at 3 under.

Francesco Molinari had been tied at the top, as well, after birdies on his three of his first four holes. But consecutive bogeys at Nos. 7 and 8 have dropped him back to 1 under.

Rory McIlroy, Sergio Garcia and Bubba Dickerson are also making afternoon moves and stand 2 under. Dickerson is through 11 holes and Garcia through eight, both having started on the front.

McIlroy, meanwhile, is the only one in the Featured Group with Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson who is prospering on the back, their first nine of the day. McIlroy has played eight holes and has yet to make a bogey.

Mickelson is struggling to hit fairways -- finding just one of his first eight -- and is 2 over. He put his tee shot at the 10th in the water and made double bogey, birdied the 12th and bogeyed No. 14.

Johnson, who led entering the final round of last year's U.S. Open, is 4 over. He did most of his damage on the 11th hole, hitting into the water, and also bogeyed the par-3 13th.

DORAL, Fla. -- The story of the second round was, without a doubt, the wind. How much of a difference did it make from Thursday to Friday? Martin Kaymer, who’s tied for second at 8 under with Francesco Molinari and one shot back of Hunter Mahan, said it was at least a four or five-shot difference.

While the wind actually lessened a bit as the day went on, it wasn’t exactly easy to score. The average for the second round was 72.379 -- more than 1 1/2 strokes higher than in the opening round.

Mahan, who played his first 11 holes of the opening round in 7 under on Thursday, was just 1 under through his final seven holes of the delayed first round on Friday morning. He followed that with a 71 in the afternoon, and no one caught him.

While Mahan leads, he still has plenty of company right behind him -- 13 players are within four shots heading to the weekend. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Graeme McDowell aren’t among them, however.

McDowell is eight shots back, while Woods and Mickelson are nine off the pace. -- Brian Wacker