ESPN 2008 Ryder Cup

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Stewart Cink figured it was best to get the awkwardness out of the way early. The flag waving and "U-S-A!" chanting had already begun Friday morning at Valhalla Golf Club with the start of the 37th Ryder Cup when Cink took a few minutes on the putting green and had a quick chat with his partner, Chad Campbell.

"I told him before [we] teed off that I want to go ahead and apologize for all the crappy shots I'm going to hit," Cink said. "I don't want to waste time out there saying I'm really sorry. You can't get caught up in trying to be perfect out there."

Perhaps the Americans really have learned something from all their Ryder Cup woes of the past. Instead of getting down on themselves -- which has been easy to do -- they instead accepted the inevitable highs and lows and went with it.

This time, the result was something not seen at the Ryder Cup since 1991 at Kiawah -- the U.S. leading after the first morning session.

Thanks to two U.S. comebacks from 3 down, the Americans grabbed a 3-1 lead after the first four matches, winning two and tying two. The only downside was a blown 2-up lead with two holes to play by Kenny Perry and Jim Furyk, who settled for a half point against Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood. That kept Garcia's incredible run of never having lost a foursomes match intact. He is 8-0-1.

Still, seeing as the Americans had not led after any session of the Ryder Cup since their comeback at Brookline in 1999, nobody was quibbling.

"It's nothing we didn't know," said Hunter Mahan, who, along with partner Justin Leonard, rebounded from losing the first two holes to post a 3 and 2 victory over Henrik Stenson and Paul Casey. "We know the history, we've seen it on TV, heard how bad we've been. We wanted to change it and do something about it."

"We had a couple of great comebacks today," said U.S. captain Paul Azinger, who is attempting to reverse a losing streak that has reached three for the Americans at the Ryder Cup. "Stewart Cink's match was 3 down after 7. Mahan and Justin Leonard were 2 down after two holes. I was real proud of them the way they hung in there and scratched and clawed and were able to finish.

"It's early, but I feel like we're in a pretty good place mentally right now, and I just want to keep everybody on point. It's a nice start. I guess we haven't been ahead in the morning in a long time and can only be happy about it."

Things did not look good at the start, however.

Three European teams won the first hole, and the Americans did not take a lead in any match for the first 90 minutes. There was certainly a "here we go again" type of feel to the proceedings.

But after falling 2 down, the Leonard-Mahan team won three straight holes and went ahead for good with a birdie at the seventh, eventually putting away the Europeans for the first point of the day with a par at the 16th and earning Leonard his first Ryder Cup victory.

Phil Mickelson and Anthony Kim were in the first group out, against Padraig Harrington and Robert Karlsson, and -- after a back-and-forth front nine -- dropped the first three holes on the inward nine. But they came back to win the next three holes, and they were all square through 18, where Kim faced a tough par putt to assure a tie.

"I felt a little nervous," said Kim, 23, a Ryder Cup rookie. "We battled all day, and you don't want to give it to them on a missed 5-footer. So I steadied my nerves, and I hit it."

And it went in, giving the U.S. a feeling of victory, even though the team received just a half point -- especially considering that Harrington had had a 10-footer for birdie that would have won the match.

"I think we're a little disappointed," Harrington said. "They came back strong, and obviously it was tight over the last three holes."

But no team looked worse off than Cink and Campbell, who looked shaky on the greens and fell 3 down through seven holes to Englishmen Ian Poulter and Justin Rose when the Americans made a bogey at the par-5 seventh. But after making their first birdie of the day at the par-3 eighth, Cink figured it was time to get serious.

"I told Chad after 8, we were 2 down … we decided we were going to press," Cink said, referring to a common form of gambling in golf when a team is down in a match. "We didn't tell them, but it was a press. We wanted to put a lot of heat on them and start chiseling back away from that 3-down lead."

It was about that time that Cink invoked the message given to the team Tuesday night by Hall of Fame football coach Lou Holtz.

"He said that rule No. 1 when you're in a hole, stop digging," said Cink, who, with Campbell, won the match by claiming the 18th hole with a birdie. "But we were digging. We were digging big time on No. 7. And we had to start putting the pressure on them. It wasn't perfect, but it was effective."

And that probably would sum up the American effort for the morning matches on the first day of the Ryder Cup.

Bob Harig covers golf for ESPN.com. He can be reached at BobHarig@gmail.com.