America set out their stall in their defence of the Llandudno Trophy with an impressive three point haul in the opening morning foursomes at The Carrick on Loch Lomond.

The US, led by an inspirational performance from 49-year-old Sonny Skinner and Kyle Flinton, won the session 3-1 with Jon Bevan and Will Barnes registering the sole success for GB&I.

Skinner even survived a tumble out of a buggy on the 11th as he was being taken back to play a provisional ball but the fall didn't little to disrupt his rhythm as he hit a shot stone dead on the 12th to set up a birdie on their way to an emphatic 6&5 victory against Jamie Harris and Barry Taylor.

It proved a baptism of fire for PGA Cup rookie Taylor who came in as a last minute replacement for Paul Simpson - the West Berkshire pro taken ill last night with a bug.

"I got the call at 6.10am this morning just before we were leaving for the course but I was half expecting it because we knew Paul ill last night," said Taylor.

"We played okay, just missed a couple of shots but they played really well to be honest and we weren't quite on it. It was a bit disappointing."

Harris admitted the late change wasn't ideal but had no complaints about the result: "It's difficult playing with someone for the first time you don't really know but it wasn't a major problem, we just needed to play bit better."

GB&I posted their first blue on the leaderboard through Bevan and Barnes. The pair got birdies on the third, eigth, ninth, 11th, 15th and 16th to complete a 4&2 victory over the strong pairing of Ryan Benzel and Lee Rinker.

"It was very comfortable, or as comfortable as it can be playing against guys who are that good," said Bevan.

"We knew we were in for a battle but we were never really out of position and Will putted well and had good pace on the greens."

"We knew they were going to be strong, Will had a lot to deal with, more than just playing with the whole business of getting used to it, taking everything in but he dealt with it all fantastically well and I was very aware at no stage were we to let up. If they got a glimpse of anything they were going to come hard. We just played very solid golf and apart from one or two holes we must have been two, three or four under which in foursomes golf on this course is pretty good.

Barnes added: "I wasn't nervous until the club started going backwards and the ball went all blurry but I hit a good tee shot and the more I got into it the more I relaxed and let my golf do the talking."

A bad middle spell proved costly for Welsh duo James Lee and Andrew Barnett who lost 3&2 to Scott Hebert and Craig Thomas.

"I hit a couple and then Andy hit a bad one and suddenly we find ourselves three down and it's tough to come back from there. They were nice and steady and nothing spectacular," said Lee.

"If they played really well, then you'd take your hat off to them but I felt I was a little disappointing this morning and hopefully I can make up for that."

The final match of the morning was a topsy-turvy affair for experienced campaigners Paul Wesselingh (Kedleston Park) and Jeremy Robinson (Twyford) who were two up early on but were eventually beaten 2&1 by US national champion Mike Small (University of Illinois) and Mark Sheftic (Merion.

"We halved 10 and 11 in birdies and then never really got back to them. They played very well and we played well, so you don't mind losing so much if you play alright," said Robinson.
"It wasn't like we played badly as we pushed them almost to the wire. We had some chances coming down the home stretch. They made a good par on the 15th for a half and we had chances on 16 and 17, where we could have had them but they played very well."