Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia have continued a positive afternoon for Europe in Saturday's foursomes by beating Hunter Mahan and Jim Furyk by a 3&2 scoreline.

McIlroy and Garcia raced into a two-shot lead in as many holes after consecutive bogeys from Furyk and Mahan, but the Americans hit back on the third to stay in contention.

Remarkably, the next 10 holes were shared as both teams battled for a point that could change or improve their fortunes in the match before Europe struck at the 14th to reopen a two-shot lead.

Both McIlroy and Garcia have only showed their undoubted ability in patches throughout the first two days but they were playing some superb matchplay golf to close the door on their opponents.

After reaching the 16th with a two-shot margin still intact, McIlroy and Garcia got their ball in close to pile the pressure on their opponents, who could only make bogey, and to ultimately take their team to 9.5 points, just 4.5 short of the total that is needed to retain the Ryder Cup.