World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and No. 3 Jon Rahm of Spain will lead off the 44th Ryder Cup in Friday’s first foursome at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club near Rome.
Scheffler and Sam Burns are in the opening pairing for the defending champion U.S. team against Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton of England for Team Europe, starting at 7:35 a.m. local time (1:35 a.m. ET).
American captain Zach Johnson is going with two Ryder Cup rookies in the second match, with Open Championship winner Brian Harman and Max Homa facing Norway’s Viktor Hovland and Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg — also a rookie.
“I don’t envy Zach’s job at all,” Harman said. “I’d be happy to play with any of the guys. They’re all super talented and they’ve won a lot of golf tournaments and they’re all very, very good.”
Collin Morikawa and Rickie Fowler are in the third foursome against Ireland’s Shane Lowry and Austria’s Sepp Straka.
The anchor match pits the familiar pairing of Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay against World No. 2 Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland and England’s Tommy Fleetwood.
Schauffele and Cantlay partnered at Whistling Straits in 2021 and swept both foursomes matches. They are five-for-five in foursomes, including three wins in Presidents Cup play in 2019 and 2022.
“He’s just great to be out there with,” Cantlay said of his chemistry with Schauffele. “Any situation that we’re in, he seems like he feels comfortable, so I’m not worried about him or feel like I could ever do anything wrong out there. We play a lot of golf, you know, at home, and then practice rounds out on tour. So it’s just like another day in the office for us.”
European captain Luke Donald rolled out his heavy hitters in the first session, with McIlroy, Rahm, Hovland (No. 4) and Hatton (No. 11) all currently ranked in the top 11. Europe fell behind 3-1 after the opening foursome two years ago in Wisconsin en route to a historic 19-9 defeat.
The U.S. hasn’t won a Ryder Cup on European soil since 1993.
–Field Level Media
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