Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton will lead off Europe’s bid to regain the Ryder Cup against the USA when they take on the world’s top golfer Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns in the opening foursomes match in Rome.
After that match gets things underway at 05.35 GMT on Friday (15.35 AEST) at Marco Simone golf club, Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg will face Max Homa and Brian Harman in a match containing three rookies, followed by Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka up against Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa.
The morning line-up will then be completed by a European heavyweight pairing in Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood taking on potentially the Americans’ top pair of Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay.
When the two captains named their opening pairings on Thursday, home captain Luke Donald changed Europe’s opening strategy as he bids to extend their 30-year unbeaten home run against the United States and grab back the Cup that the Americans won at Whistling Straits.
The home side gets to choose whether to start the first session with four foursomes or four fourballs matches, with the other format following in the afternoon session. Saturday sees two more sessions of the team matches before Sunday’s 12 singles.
Europe have started with fourballs since 1997 but Donald said he had flipped things round after “a deep dive into statistics of the team”.