McIlroy and Hovland set to go all five as Saturday fourball pairings are announed

Both Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland will play all five matches in this year’s Ryder Cup as Luke Donald has selected the duo to again participate in the afternoon fourball session as Europe again stretched their advantage in the morning session.

On the US side, Max Homa will be the only player to feature in all five matches, with world number one Scottie Scheffler sitting out after a crushing defeat alongside Brooks Koepka.

Hovland will play with Ludvig Aberg in the opening match, taking on Sam Burns and Collin Morikawa. The Scandinavian duo put Scheffler and Koepka to the sword in the foursomes, recording a Ryder Cup record 9&7 win, and after winning their opening foursomes match against Brian Harman and Max Homa, they’ll get their first opportunity to compete together in fourball format.

Match number two sees Tommy Fleetwood and Nicolai Hojgaard face off against Harman and Homa. Fleetwood, who’s gone two-for-two alongside McIlroy in foursome action, plays his first fourball session of this year’s event, while the big-hitting Danish rookie impressed alongside Jon Rahm on day one. Harman and Homa are the only US partnership to register a full point, and will pair up for the first time in fourballs.

The third match sees Justin Rose and Bob MacIntyre reprise the partnership that came from two-down with two-to-play to secure a half-point on day one, and this time, they’ll square off against Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. Along with Homa and Harman, Thomas, whose selection was the source of much controversy after a poor season, has been one of the few bright sparks in the US side, though Spieth’s play has been extremely erratic.

The final match sees another outing for the Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick partnership, and they come up against Wyndham Clark and Patrick Cantlay. Fitzpatrick, who secured his first ever Ryder Cup point on day one, was incredible on the opening nine, and should they get another full point for team Europe, McIlroy will get the opportunity to emulate Dustin Johnson at Whistling Straits and record a perfect 5-0-0 record.