Leonard teamed with one of those rookies, Hunter Mahan, and they won both matches without reaching the 17th hole. The afternoon victory came at the expense of Sergio Garcia, who finally looked ordinary in the Ryder Cup.

It was the first time Garcia failed to win a match in a single day.

Garcia had been undefeated in foursomes (8-0) but had to settle for a halve with Westwood in the morning. Kenny Perry, the lone disappointment for Kentucky, missed a 5-foot par putt that would have won the match on the 17th, then drove into the water on the 18th hole to allow Europe to catch them.

Leonard and Mahan then handed Garcia only his second loss in team matches by going 9 under through 15 holes, with Leonard finishing it off with a chip-in for birdie that had him pumping his fists.

It was a familiar scene across Valhalla.

Weekley, with a pinch of snuff jutting out of his lip and his arms flapping to exhort a spirited crowd, knocked in a 50-foot birdie from just off the green at No. 12 to give his team a lead it never relinquished.

And while Weekley and Holmes didn’t win the match, they illustrated the Americans’ resolve.

Europe had the lead in all four morning matches in the first hour and only came away with one point. It was the first time since 1991 that the United States won the opening session of the Ryder Cup.

In the afternoon, Europe had the lead in three matches going to the back nine, and came away with only 1½ points.

The Americans had watched 11 consecutive matches go to the final hole without winning until Chad Campbell, the final captain’s pick, hit a 5-iron to 20 feet on the par-5 18th as he and Stewart Cink went 1-up over Ian Poulter and Justin Rose.

Poulter and Rose won the only match for Europe, a 4-and-2 victory over Steve Stricker and Ben Curtis.

But that wasn’t enough to quiet the crowd.

“There was a lot of noise all day, from the first tee on,” Cink said. “Just to hear them excited about the way we were playing for a change in the Ryder Cup was refreshing. I’ve never been able to experience that myself when we were ahead. So it’s great.

Azinger told the Kentucky crowd — he called them the “13th man” — at a pep rally Thursday night that it was OK to cheer if Europe missed a putt. He defended that remark as educational, and said the crowd did nothing to embarrass itself.

Westwood, however, took issue with Weekley whipping the crowd into a frenzy before the hole was completed.

“You walk a fine line when you start doing that sort of thing,” Westwood said. “I don’t mind raising your arms and whipping the crowd up. But at 12 when Boo holed off the back (of the green), I’ve still got a putt for the halve. There’s no need to do it between shots. At least wait until we’re walking off the green.”

Westwood glared at him, and occasionally shook his head. But he kept his opinions to himself on the course.

“It’s not my job to tell people how to behave,” he said.

Harrington, Europe’s best player with three majors since the last Ryder Cup, had no problem with the exuberance from the 23-year-old Kim, who high-fived Mickelson after an array of great shots and clutch putts.

None was bigger than Mickelson, who has struggled with his putting all summer, knocking in the 20-footer on the 17th hole that gave the Americans a 1-up lead going to the 18th in a match that swung momentum to his side.

“Anthony, it’s his first Ryder Cup and he was excited out there,” Harrington said. “And he hit some great shots at times, and he had a right to be excited.”

So did the rest of the American team.

Even though they were on home soil, they found themselves in foreign territory — in the lead at the Ryder Cup.

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