Scotland's Wallace Booth starred on the first day of the St Andrews Trophy at Kingsbarns with an excellent display in the afternoon singles matches that helped the Great Britain & Ireland team to a 7 1/2 – 4 1/2 lead at the half-way stage.
 
Booth fired seven 3’s and seven 4’s in fourteen holes to dispatch highly-rated Spaniard Jorge Campillo – the world number six – by 5&4. His afternoon performance further enhanced by a 4&3 victory in the morning foursomes alongside Ireland’s Shane Lowry.
 
It looked for a while as if the home team’s lead would be far greater: they dominated the morning foursomes, winning all four matches, before suffering a narrow defeat in the singles.
 
First to register a point in the morning sessions were Matt Haines and Chris Paisley, who won four holes in a row from the 12th, to beat Stephan Gross and Jesper Kennegard.  Following behind, Shane Lowry and Booth chalked up a point after three birdies in four holes completed their 4&3 win.
 
With Jonathan Caldwell and Callum Macaulay beating Reinier Saxton and Tim Sluiter 3&1, it was up to Andrea Pavan and Jorge Campillo to try to rescue a point for the Continent.  Despite taking the match to the 18th, it was not to be, and their one-hole loss to Sam Hutsby and Dale Whitnell put GB&I firmly in the driving seat going into the afternoon.
 
GB&I moved into early leads in seven of the eight afternoon singles matches, but a spirited fightback from the Continent of Europe team saw them turn things around to win the afternoon session 4 1/2 – 3 1/2, thanks particularly to Benjamin Hebert, Andrea Pavan and Alexandre Kaleka, who all managed to turn deficits into victories.
 
That fightback bodes well for tomorrow's conclusion, as does the general standard of golf on display. Jesper Kennegard was six under par for his first nine holes of the singles against Dale Whitnell, who found himself on the wrong end of a 3&2 defeat without really putting a foot wrong.