Potential Ryder Cup Pairings – Team Europe
By Tom Kennedy
It’s nearly here – Day 1 of the Ryder Cup! Come official practice early next week there will be a lot made of the pairings for each day, hopefully we won’t need to see any leaked “sandwich” order sheets like in 2008 as we speculate on who will play with who come the big tee off on Friday 26th September at Gleneagles. There are always some obvious enough pairings for both sides in the Ryder Cup and some surprises of course, other times Captains can also stumble onto winning combinations. European Captain Paul McGinley has an embarrassment of riches to choose from and I think I can hopefully shed my particular kind of light on who might be paired together.
Just put 2 birdie machines together, easy task isn’t it? Short answer is yes but of course they must gel nicely too. Expect to see Stephen Gallagher in this format, he was shot a phenomenal amount of birdies and eagles around Gleneagles so he will be a popular pick here and could pretty much pair up with anyone. Even though the thorny subject of Scottish Independence is in the air I think his partner will be Englishman Lee Westwood. Westy is a superb partner and makes his fair share or birdies too, I’m seeing this duo as the first out on the morning of Day 1 – the Scotsman Gallagher will get an amazing reception on the 1st Tee at Gleneagles to get things going!
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Another likely Fourball pairing for me is Ian Poulter & Rory McIlroy, both make plenty birdies and teamed up successfully in Medinah in that crucial Saturday afternoon Fourball match in 2012 when Poults made putt after putt for birdie on the back 9 to clinch the match. Jamie Donaldson should prove another good Fourball player, as most rookies tend to get paired with a seasoned campaigner I expect Sergio Garcia to take the Welshman under his wing.
The quirkiest two in the European Team would have to be Henrik Stenson and Victor Dubuisson – I think they would make a superb pairing and will probably play at least one session of Fourballs. I expect the ice cool Kaymer to pair up with the Swede at some stage as well and the other Fourballs’ session could well provide the opportunity here. That leaves Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell and Thomas Bjorn potentially out of the Fourballs – expect them to definitely make an appearance in the Foursomes of course!
Day 1 Fourballs
Gallagher & Westwood
Poulter & McIlroy
Stenson & Dubuisson
Garcia & Donaldson
Day 2 Fourballs
Gallagher & Westwood
Garcia & Donaldson
Kaymer & Stenson
Poulter & McIlroy
Foursomes
This is the toughest format during the Ryder Cup, being alternate shot. Generally a Captain will pair his most solid and straightest ball strikers together as Par can be a good score here. I expect Sergio Garcia to continue his run of playing in the Foursomes and making a successful pairing with Henrik Stenson.
The obvious pairings of Ian Poulter & Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy & Graeme McDowell are definites for me (notwithstanding the current issues with Rors’ former management company). Lee Westwood has always been a superb foursomes player and the combination of Westwood and Bjorn could be a very difficult team to beat around Gleneagles. The US Open Champion, Martin Kaymer, should be fairly decent at Foursomes as well and would make a good playing partner for either Gallagher, Donaldson or Dubuisson – I think it will be a German-French alliance resulting in Martin and Victor going into battle together for Team Europe.
Poulter & Rose
McDowell & McIlroy
Westwood & Bjorn
Kaymer & Dubuisson
Day 2 Foursomes
McDowell & McIlroy
Garcia & Stenson
Kaymer & Donaldson
Poulter & Rose
Of course, form and fatigue have a lot to do with the pairings so there could well be changes to the above line-ups over the course of the 2 days at Gleneagles. The speculation will be rife over the coming week as we build up to tee off to the 2014 Ryder Cup and I’ll be enjoying that and of course when battles commences on Friday 26th September!