Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy lead up the title defense
Pairings for Friday were announced at the Opening Ceremony and there were quite a few surprises from the Americans.
As usual for the Europeans, the Irish duo of Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy will lead the title defense at Medinah Golf and Country Club. They, however, will be up against a surprise package, of Jim Furyk and Brandt Snedeker.
The pairing of Snedeker and Furyk is an interesting one, Snedeker being a rookie and Furyk is someone who has loads of experience on his back.
Snedeker has been in a fine form and that was the reason the team thought to go first up with the current FedEx Cup champion. His recent success in the FedEx Cup playoffs was enough to convince Davis Love III to start off with the rookie.
The Europeans were pretty surprised with this as they thought Americans will come with heavy arsenal. Graeme McDowell and the world number one, Rory McIlroy, are not much of a surprise. The Irish duo was instrumental in the Europeans’ success at Celtic Manor.
Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley will go out against the former world number one, Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia. This will be the ninth Ryder Cup outing for Phil, he has been a great service to USA.
Rookie, Jason Dufner will team up with Zach Johnson and they will face Lee Westwood and the Francesco Molinari.
Tiger Woods will once again team up with Steve Stricker and they will face their old rivals, Ian Poulter and Justin Rose.
"This is the best four we felt like to start us off," Love said.
"And order wise, there was not a whole lot of rhyme or reason to it, except that maybe pace of play. We wanted to get Brandt going - Brandt likes to get out there and get after it. Brandt was a good one to lead off.”
Jose Maria Olazabal did not gamble with his formation, he knows the daunting task that lies ahead of him.
"The way my players are playing is the most important thing. They believe we can win here even though the US have the crowd advantage and the experience of playing here”.
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