And again, it is the Europeans who are leading.

This should really be no surprise, and much of it has to do with the format.

The golf event that captivates the masses unlike any other is contested under rules that are foreign to all but the hardiest of players. Match play is one thing, but alternate shot? Who plays the game that way?

Hardly anyone, except when it comes time for the Ryder Cup, which began Friday at The Country Club, where the top-two ranked players in the world -- Tiger Woods and David Duval -- were on the losing end of their morning matches, and then dropped another as teammates in the afternoon. The U.S. trailed 6-2.

Once again, the Americans struggled in the morning foursomes, the formal name for alternate shot. It is the most difficult of the formats to master and one that has gotten the American team in trouble against its European rivals in almost all of the competitions of the past decade.

The difficulty in alternate shot lies in the fact that a player must go stretches without hitting the ball. He might hit a driver off the tee, and then not do anything until he putts on the green. Then he must wait another hole before hitting a tee shot.

"In alternate shot, that's where it's important to talk a little bit more," said U.S. team member Justin Leonard. "You almost have to play as one person, because you are out there and dependent so much on your partner. You want to get in there and help, depending on the type of people you're playing with.

"I try to get involved, go through and get the yardage to where I feel mentally I'm doing everything I would normally do to hit the shot but actually picking out the club and swinging it."

Determining the matchups was one of the most difficult tasks for U.S. captain Ben Crenshaw and European captain Mark James. And they had to do it again for Saturday morning's foursomes.

"It's a terribly hard and complex thing," Crenshaw said.

The U.S. team has traditionally fared poorly at alternate shot. Two years ago at Valderrama and four years ago at Oak Hill, the Europeans won five of a possible eight points both times.

Since 1985, when Europe managed to keep the Cup for five of the following seven Ryder Cups, the U.S. has fared better in foursomes just twice.

Crenshaw has a theory. It has to do with the way Americans approach golf. In Europe, foursomes, four-ball -- and match play in general -- is an accepted way to play the game. In fact, it was the popular way to play in 19th century Britain.

"That's how they prefer it over there," Crenshaw said. "Americans are pen and card. They would rather put down a score and show it to their friends. In Europe, they would rather say, 'I won my match.' The team games, and match play, are a different element. In the team games, whenever you stand over a shot, you have to think for two."

That's why so much thought goes into the pairings. Some believe it's best to put players together whose games are similar. Others feel it is better to put players together whose personalities are alike.

When Jack Nicklaus captained the U.S. team, he preferred to pair long hitters with long hitters, short hitters with short hitters, figuring that each player would then be left with yardage to the green and clubs they were used to hitting.

That worked well for the Americans in one pairing, as Hal Sutton and Jeff Maggert were the only U.S. team to win their foursomes match. In fact, they were the only American team to win a match all day.

"We both drive the ball fairly straight, so we're going to be in the game most of the time," Sutton said. "We both hit the same iron clubs. We're going to both be playing from similar places. I think we'll do well together."

But not everyone adhered to that philosophy. In 1997, U.S. captain Tom Kite sided with good friends and comparable personalities. He put Tiger Woods and Mark O'Meara together in foursomes, and saw them lose 5 and 3 to Colin Montgomerie and Bernhard Langer.

There are other factors to consider once the pairings are made. Who will tee off on the first hole? That person then would tee off on every odd-numbered hole. The other player tees off on even-numbered holes. Because of the setup at The Country Club, there are advantages to certain players teeing off on certain holes.

Whatever the order, history says there are no guarantees, especially in this format.

"I think this format leads to shocks," said England's Lee Westwood. "Certainly 18 holes is a very short space of time. So the chances are there for you to have a good round and beat anybody."

None of this, of course, explains the Americans' poor play at four-ball, where they get to play their own ball and choose the best one. They were unable to win a single match in the afternoon, matching their largest first-day Ryder Cup deficit.

"I thought we saw some great scoring out of both teams," Crenshaw said. "My team thought they played very well. But I've said for a long time, holing out is the name of the game in match play. Again, we saw a number of putts graze by the hole where we needed to get that one putt. It means so much in match play. ... I can't believe we're looking at a four-point difference."

Bob Harig, who covers golf for the St. Petersburg Times, writes a column every Tuesday for ESPN Golf Online.