With less than two hours to go until Luke Donald and Keegan Bradley reveal their opening foursome pairings for the Ryder Cup, we take a look at how the Team Europe captain set up last time out.
Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton were deployed in Europe’s first match against Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns, winning 4&3. Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland then secured a win over Max Homa and Brian Harman with the same score in the second grouping.
A team of Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka were then fielded to take on Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa, running out 2&1 victors, before Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood dispatched of Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay with the same score.
In a selection masterclass by Donald, Team USA failed to take a single point from their first session of the tournament.
In terms of Friday’s fourballs at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, Hovland and Hatton halved a point with Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, while Rahm and Rasmus Hojgaard fared the same against Scheffler and Brooks Koepka. Bob MacIntyre and Justin Rose could also only manage half a point against Homa and Wyndham Clark.
However, a pairing of McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick stole the show for Europe, beating Morikawa and Schauffele 5&3 to lead the session overall.