One of the main attractions of the Team Cup this week is to see if Luke Donald is as clear as he seems about pairing the Hojgaard brothers together. Logic suggests that this will be the case, but then we must listen to Edoardo Molinari, the numbers man and assistant to the Ryder Cup captain. The fact that Nicolai and Rasmus are twin brothers does not automatically grant them an unbeatable pair status. In fact, it could even be argued that putting them together might add unnecessary pressure in a competition like the Ryder Cup.
The ones who have no doubt are the twins themselves. They could say it louder, but not clearer. They were practically born to play together in a Ryder Cup, or at least that’s what they believe. The one who put it in writing was Nicolai, who already has experience from the Team Cup and the 2023 Ryder. “It would be fantastic. The most important goal for us right now is to play together in the Ryder Cup. Doing it here in the Team Cup as a pair would be a great start. Hopefully, Luke (Donald) and Fran (Molinari) see it that way when it comes to making the pairings. We hope we get the chance. We both really want it; it has almost become an obsession since the Team Cup returned to the calendar,” Nicolai said today in Abu Dhabi.
Straightforward and without subterfuge. Rasmus and Nicolai want to play together and have expressed this both privately and publicly. Really, after hearing their words, it would be a real surprise if they don’t play together as a pair in the first day of fourballs matches on Friday. Remember that Friday is for fourballs, Saturday will have two sessions of foursomes, and Sunday will feature the ten singles matches.
Almost certainly, we will see them together on Friday in the best ball format. Then, of course, we’ll have to see how things go, but it shouldn’t be ruled out that they play all three pairs points together, or at least two of them, a fourball and a foursome. In each game session, all ten players from each team participate, so there are no breaks like in the Ryder, but Donald could choose to change them in a foursome to try other alternatives with Bethpage Ryder in mind.
In any case, on Friday there will be ten pairs competing in five matches. We could well say it will be Rasmus and Nicolai and nine more.
