Rónán MacNamara in Rome
Despite some patterns emerging, European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald says his Tuesday practice pairings won’t determine his opening foursomes pairings on Friday morning.
Donald took all twelve of his line up for a practice session at Marco Simone on the Monday before the BMW PGA Championship in Wentworth were he requested his team play with each other for the opening two rounds.
Rory McIlroy went out with Shane Lowry – who was joined by Wentworth partners Tommy Fleetwood and Sepp Straka – on Tuesday morning prompting hopes of a potential all-Irish pairing while 2021 partners Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton were together this morning and in Wentworth as were Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Åberg.
“In terms of the pairings, some of that is determined on media rotations,” said Donald on his potential pairings. Six of the guys today will be doing media, so you send those off in the early groups. So I wouldn’t read too much into it. Obviously you know, we do have a plan in place, and that plan can be adjusted throughout the next few days. We’ll obviously — the vice captains are out there watching the players and seeing how they look and how they feel and all that goes into it. But yeah, there’s certainly a plan that is in place.
“I’ve had multiple conversations with everyone about potential pairings, but nothing is set in stone yet.”
Donald has elected to have the foursomes first on Friday morning which might tempt him to send out four experienced pairs. In 2018 Europe won the afternoon foursomes 4-0 in a session whitewash in Paris and haven’t lost a home foursomes session since 2010 in Celtic Manor.
“Well, why have we chosen foursomes first, it’s really just a deep dive into statistics of the team. Within our team, we feel like we have some very strong foursomes pairings, potential pairings. We feel like we are just slightly stronger statistically in foursomes to four-balls.
“You know, in Ryder Cups, you want to get off to a fast start. You want to get off to an early lead. It was decided amongst myself and the vice captains that that was the best way to go, to open with foursomes, and simple as that, really. I think we have an opportunity to send out four very strong pairings and hopefully grab an early lead.”
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