NATCHEZ — A beautiful rainbow provided the perfect setting for the final two matches in alternate shot play late Saturday afternoon as Day 1 of the 2010 Beau Pré Cup was coming to a close.

After taking the lead in the morning’s best ball matches by winning four matches to three for St. Andrews, Carnoustie was not able to sustain its momentum. St. Andrews had already won three matches to just two for Carnoustie to tie things up a 6 points each.

Then a thunderstorm with heavy rain and lightning forced play to be suspended for an hour. Day 1 ended with each team having seven points.

“We had some good rounds today. Comes down to singles (matches),” Team Carnoustie captain Lloyd Trisler said. “It turned out the teams are pretty even, about as even as you could get. the golf course is in great shape.”

Chad Huber and Al Conn of Team Carnoustie defeated Woody Allen and Jody Helbling of Team St. Andrews for a 7-6 lead. But Bill Byrne and Craig Bradford of Team St. Andrews made sure that Team Carnoustie would not keep its lead very long as they defeated Wesley Rogers and Mike Cook.

Allen, the captain of Team St. Andrews, said he was proud of the players on his team for overcoming adversity and giving St. Andrews an opportunity to win the Beau Pré Cup for the first time since 2008.

“The players fought hard and came back. We had some good team matches,” Allen said. “It ought to be a lot of fun (today).”

Allen noted that in the 11-year history of the Beau Pré Cup, which started in 2000, this is the first time the two teams will be tied going into Day 2. Today’s singles matches start at 1 p.m.

Jordan Farmer, assistant captain on Team Carnoustie, and Gary Farmer overcame an early deficit to defeat Howard Jones and Stephen Hollingsworth. Jones is the assistant captain on Team St. Andrews.

“We had a rough start and had two bogeys. Then we had like five or six birdies. It was a lot of fun and we played well together,” Jordan Farmer said. “We knew it would be a tough match. They missed a few putts.”

Jordan Farmer teamed with Trisler to defeat Casey Ham and Kevin Smith Jr. in a best ball match Saturday morning. Another team that played for Carnoustie was the team of Huber and Fields, which defeated Allen and Punches.

“We brothered-in-law well. It was a pretty good showing by me and Lloyd this morning and we had a lot of birdies,” Farmer said.

One team that did really well for Team Carnoustie was that of Tom Matthews and Dr. Jeff Anderson. In both the best ball and alternate shot matches, Matthews and Anderson defeated Jason Rooks and Joel Dupre’.

In their alternate shot mach, Anderson and Matthews won holes No. 11, 12, 14 and 15 to take down Rooks and Dupré. Anderson added that Dupré was playing with a sore knee.

In another alternate shot match, Punches and Keith Rayborn of Team St. Andrews defeated Fields and Jerry Beauchamp of Team Carnoustie.

One team that stepped up for Team St. Andrews was that of Hayden Kaiser III and Chris Kelley. In their best ball match, Kaiser and Kelley defeated Mike Cook and Al Conn. In their alternate shot, they defeated Bill Lambert and Billy Ulmer.

“They played really well. They got up and they never let us back in it,” Lambert said.