Paper talk sees GB & Ireland surprise rivals

Against a line-up containing six of the world’s top 10, Edwards told his side: “It’s not played on paper”.

With his fellow Welshman Rhys Pugh – at 17 easily the baby of the team – and Northern Ireland’s Paul Cutler unbeaten, the strongly-fancied United States were beaten 14-12.

It ended a run of three successive defeats for Britain and Ireland and was their biggest margin since the 15-9 victory in 2001, when the team included current world No 1 Luke Donald and last year’s US Open champion Graeme McDowell.

After taking a 7-5 overnight lead, the gap became five with another outstanding performance in the four morning foursomes.

Having dropped just one point in the opening session, Edwards’s men did even better and would have completed a whitewash if only Tom Lewis and Michael Stewart had not halved from four up with six to play against Jordan Spieth and Patrick Rodgers.

A mere three points were needed from the 10 concluding games, but when Lewis lost to Russell Henley and Andy Sullivan to teenager Jordan Spieth there was still work to be done.

Stewart, one of the two Scots, beat world No 3 Patrick Rodgers 3&2, then Lancashire’s Jack Senior, who two weeks ago reached the semi-finals of the US Amateur, sank a 35-foot putt on the final green for a half with Nathan Smith.

Pugh, who beat Rodgers on the first day, added the scalp of American champion Kelly Kraft and the celebrations started when English champion Steven Brown won his final hole for a half against Blayne Barber.

Cutler could argue he was the one who secured the win because he was already four up with four to play in the bottom game, but, spared the need to go through the agonies that compatriot McDowell did in last year’s Ryder Cup, he lost them all to give Cantlay a half.

Pugh said: “I couldn’t have dreamt of better – I’ve never felt anything like this kind of thing before.”

Stewart added: “I knew what I had to do and it meant a lot.”

Edwards summed it all up by saying: “Fantastic. They are a very special bunch of guys and have a lot of passion and desire to be successful.”