Given we’ve got the same names, literally, on the European team sheet, Luke Donald’s task of picking the morning foursomes looks to be a straightforward one.
In Italy the overall victory was set with the foursomes. On Friday the hosts claimed all four matches and then added three more points on the Saturday.
If ever you wanted a demonstration of Donald getting things very right, then you only had to look at how he went about his alternate-shot pairings.
This is how Europe went about their foursomes pairings in Italy two years ago.
Friday
Rahm/Hatton
Aberg/Hovland
Lowry/Straka
McIlroy/Fleetwood
Saturday
McIlroy/Fleetwood
Aberg/Hovland
Lowry/Straka
Rahm/Hatton
And this is how we see Donald setting up the pairings on the Friday morning.
1 – Rahm and Hatton
Let’s start with where McIlroy goes. Only once has he gone out first (2012 with Graeme McDowell) and he will definitely play in both matches on the Friday. So let’s not think about the Masters champion leading Europe off.
Why would you deviate from what happened in Rome? The atmosphere, even at that time of the day, is going to be wild so stick with what we know and get Rahm and Hatton out there.
They won both their matches so it’s unthinkable that they won’t feature on the Friday morning and their energy and attitude will be ideal for whatever America throws at them.
2 – Aberg and Hovland
Again, here we have two players who went off second on both mornings and brought in two points. They don’t strike you as lead-off men – they’re far too nice – and you would imagine they like to be tucked away in the engine room.
On the Saturday Scottie Scheffler and Brooks Koepka were getting bussed back in from the 11th green and the Scandinavians were similarly electric on the opening morning. They might go out third but why mix up something so good?
3 – Rose and Straka
Last time around we had Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka and these two beat Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa before a loss the next day. If there were any question marks over any players then these two might be near the top of the list so would you want them out on the first morning, as opposed to a Saturday foursome?
You could probably exclude rookie Rasmus Hojgaard and Matt Fitzpatrick from your Friday morning plans, and Bob MacIntyre for that matter despite his new-found confidence, but you would still have Justin Rose who only played in the fourballs in Italy.
My guess is that he will team up with Straka early doors and big Shane will be held back for the fourballs.
4 – McIlroy and Fleetwood
Two more points and, finally, what looks like the perfect sidekick for McIlroy. The anchor match two years ago looked crucial on paper and these two got the better of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele to really kick Europe on and the following morning, another tried-and-tested pairing of Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth went the same way.
You’ll struggle to find a more popular or stronger European pairing and the sight of some blue in the bottom match could be very welcome.
Read next: The European Ryder Cup team Luke Donald really should have picked
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Article Link: Ryder Cup: First look at Europe’s Day 1 line-up with foursome predictions revealed