GLENEAGLES, Scotland -- For the longest time, they appeared on their way to American glory, final-hole dramatics saving the morning, a big victory over two of the game's heavyweights in the afternoon.
Of course, it didn't work out that way. Just as Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker produced an unlikely tie in their match against Martin Kaymer and Thomas Bjorn, the U.S. duo also suffered a stinging tie against Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia. One tie felt like a win. The other tie felt like a loss.
Together it goes down as one point for the U.S. side on a day in which they would earn only three out of eight.
But that afternoon half against the top two players in the Ryder Cup will sting.
Remember match No. 7 of the 2014 Ryder Cup if the Americans -- again -- suffer a close defeat.
"Half point is still a half point,'' said Fowler, who has yet to win a Ryder Cup match in five tries, with the unusual record of 0-1-4.
"It puts a half point on the board for us. Unfortunately, it hurts a little bit because we were up and we had control of the match coming in.
"Rory made an awesome putt on 17, and that's out of our control. Jimmy and I played well today. We had a great ball-striking day. We didn't get many putts to go in. We'll get after it tomorrow.''
They will have to, now trailing 5-3 on a day that looked so promising after a surprising morning comeback that gave them a 2½-1½ lead.
The bottom line for Fowler and Walker: They were 2-up with three to play and couldn't close it out, Walker skimming the edge with a birdie putt on the 16th hole.
Still, 2-up with two to play, all they needed was to halve one of the final two holes against McIlroy and Garcia and they couldn't do it.
Granted, McIlroy rolled in a 30-footer for birdie at the 17th, an unlikely putt that the Europeans seem to make in Ryder Cups. That kept them alive, and then Garcia hit a terrific second shot setting up a two-putt birdie in the alternate-shot format, one that Fowler and Walker could not match.
"We needed it, we really did,'' McIlroy said. "We were making life difficult for ourselves out there. I don't think either of us was playing from the fairways very much. We were 3-under for the last three holes. We just wanted to ask them a question and get them going and we were able to do that. And Sergio had the shot of the day at the last. It was big, and at least we get something out of the day. We played two really tough matches and we have half a point to show for it.''
That's the deal: so do the Americans. But you can second-guess and agonize and scrutinize over this one until the final putt drops Sunday.
A full point -- in a session in which the Americans lost the other three matches -- would have been huge.
And it is especially haunting knowing how this event has played out, knowing the underdog status of the Americans. The past two Ryder Cups were decided by the same score in Europe's favor: 14½-13½. That means had simply one match out of 28 gone from a U.S. loss to a tie, or a U.S. tie to a win -- the overall match would have been tied. And 13 of those matches went to the 18th hole.
That highlights the importance of every match, every turning point.
In the morning, Fowler and Walker battled valiantly for their half point. They lost the first hole and never drew back to even until Walker's birdie putt on the last. They fell 3 down, got closer, then Walker closed it out with a birdie that felt like theft.
How Kaymer and Bjorn felt after failing to close out that match is how the Americans felt five hours later when they failed to close out their match.
"The last hole, it shifted their way,'' Walker said. "It's amazing how different a feel it is from the morning to the afternoon.''
Ah, the beauty of the Ryder Cup. Walker is playing in his first one, having never even competed in the Presidents Cup.
He got thrown right into the breathing fire of the European home-course juggernaut, and performed admirably. Still, not quite enough.
The scoreboard says the same thing by their names, morning and night. But the vibe is completely different.