Ryder Cup 2014 Standings: Fourball Results and Updated Points for Day 2

Team USA battled back brilliantly to win a magnificent morning session of fourball matches on Day 2 of the 2014 Ryder Cup. The Americans couldn't quite even the overall score, but they won two of the session's four matches and halved another.

If Day 1 of the fourball was slightly sluggish, Day 2 was anything but. All of the fourball matches were very closely contested, as Team USA showed a real determination to overturn their first-day 5-3 deficit.

Here is a breakdown of the results from a brilliant morning session that was bookended by a pair of classic matches:

USA	Score	Europe	Overall
Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar	Team Europe 3&2	Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson	Team Europe 6 1/2
Jim Furyk and Hunter Mahan	Team USA 4&3	Luke Donaldson and Lee Westwood	Team USA 5 1/2
Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth	Team USA 5&3	Thomas Bjorn and Martin Kaymer
Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker	A/S	Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter

The game that best symbolised the spectacular golf played of the morning session was between the Justin Rose and Bubba Watson-led pairings. Players certainly weren't wasting any time or settling for par.

Birdies became a theme of the day, as the Sky Sports Golf Twitter feed illustrated:

Rose was the standout player. He produced several masterful tee shots and displayed some excellent putting:

With the game all square after 11 holes, former Solheim Cup winner Karen Stupples reserved special praise for Rose, per BBC Radio 5 Live (h/t BBC Sport): "Justin hasn't put a foot wrong. He's playing with real ease here. This is like watching heavyweights trading blows."

Stupples expressed the right sentiment; despite Rose's brilliance, Watson and Matt Kuchar wouldn't be easily shook off on the scorecard, per AP reporter Doug Ferguson:

Eventually, Rose's consistent run of birdies was too much for even Watson and Kuchar to resist. Rose and Henrik Stenson finished with a staggering nine-straight birdies to close things out on the 16th and give Team Europe the point.

Of those 16 holes, Rose and Stenson were under par on 12. Quite staggering stuff:

Elsewhere, one very impressive member of Team USA was rookie Jordan Spieth. The precocious 21-year-old proved his mettle to coolly claim the par-4 10th by sinking a putt in the middle.

That putt left Spieth and fellow rookie Patrick Reed two up. For Spieth, it was an ample rebuttal to team captain Tom Watson, who declined to use him for yesterday's foursome matches.

The decision drew immediate criticism, per NBC's Johnny Miller (h/t Golf Digest writer John Strege):

"

The way that Reed and Spieth played, they should be playing this afternoon. Keegan Bradley and Phil Mickelson, they need a guide dog... they’ve been all over the golf course, whereas Reed and Spieth shot six-under this morning, I think, the best of anybody.

They have a lot of momentum. They’re young. Mickelson’s going to be tired, I think. Even though [Bradley and Mickelson] haven’t lost as a pairing, I still think Reed and Spieth were a better choice.

"

Spieth's fine performance was part of a surge of momentum earned by Team USA. The highlight of this fightback was provided by Rickie Fowler on the 10th.

He couldn't reach par, but instead holed from the bunker following a deft chip. It was a superb shot that put immediate pressure on Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter, who was having a rare Ryder Cup off day, to make par.

The European pair failed to make it after a shock miss from McIlroy, who was too soft with his putt. The miss reduced McIlroy and Poulter's lead to just one.

Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

Fowler began the par-4 11th with an exceptional tee shot. As if to sum up his day, Poulter responded by driving just a little too far and watching his ball drift off the fringes of the green.

Things got worse for Poulter when he overshot a potential putt from the right-hand edge that would have halved the 11th hole and preserved Team Europe's lead.

Instead, Fowler and Walker squared the match and the pressure was well and truly on Europe's premier pair. Their problems increased when McIlroy failed to coax a late turn from a potential putt to par the 13th with the hole all square. Walker then birdied the 13th.

When Kaymer missed a putt to continue his match, Spieth and Reed added another point after Jim Furyk and Hunter Mahan went 3 up and never relented against Jamie Donaldson and Lee Westwood:

Those results meant everything hinged on McIlroy and Poulter overcoming Walker and Fowler, who were 1 up headed into the 15th. That's when the Europeans caught a break.

Fowler teed off at the 15th, but he cut across the ball, dragging his shot to the left. That meant he began off the fairway.

At this point, former European captain Bernard Gallacher called on Poulter to pick up the slack, per BBC Radio 5 Live (h/t BBC Sport): "Ian Poulter really needs to help out McIlroy, take the strain off him. He just can't buy a putt. Medinah he was holing them regularly."

Sadly, Poulter didn't oblige. He fouled up his own tee shot and had to play his second from the rough.

BBC Sport's Chief Sports writer at Gleneagles, Tom Fordyce, refused to sugarcoat Poulter's surprisingly shaky performance:

"

Rose might be blooming, but Ian Poulter is wilting badly, and that spells trouble for his partner Rory McIlroy. While Jimmy Walker is now starting to match the fizz and pop of Rickie Fowler, McIlroy has the weight of the pairing on his shoulders. And, as they turn to head for home, that is taking this critical match across the Atlantic.

"

But in trademark fashion, Poulter steeled himself when it mattered most. He was in fine form on the 15th:

The pressure was firmly on Walker and Fowler, but that was nothing compared to the tension surrounding Poulter when he faced a putt to square the match on the 16th.

It was a straight-line shot from a fair distance—it was no easy putt. Yet, that's exactly how Poulter made it look as he smoothly rolled the ball home.

But Fowler wasn't about let Poulter have all the fun. He delivered a brilliant stroke with his second shot from the edge of the fairway on the par-5 18th. The ball dropped perfectly in the middle of the green.

But Poulter soon countered by dropping a long-range drive that backed up nicely to give him a very inviting potential putt. McIlroy continued the European revival by pitching a shot to the edge of the hole.

However, the relentless back and forth continued when Walker lofted a superb chip from the bunker to answer McIlroy's effort. That left Fowler with a put to square the match.

He promptly did just that, thus halving the hole and completing this marathon match.

Crucially, Europe maintain the slenderest of leads ahead of the afternoon sessions. Here are the pairings for the foursome matches in the day's second session:

Poulter again finds himself sat down for the afternoon's play. That might not be the best decision now his blood's up and familiar swagger is back.

However, Team Europe should feel fortunate to still have an advantage after such a valiant fightback from USA.