After Friday’s fourballs in the Team Cup, a team event taking place at the Abu Dhabi Golf Resort serving as a testing ground for the European team for the Ryder Cup, the team made up of players from Great Britain and Ireland leads 3.5 to 1.5 against the team formed by golfers from Continental Europe. One would expect significant changes in the second of the two teams for Saturday morning’s foursomes, but nothing could be further from the truth…
This afternoon, the matches to be played tomorrow at the crack of dawn (from shortly after half-past four in the morning in Spain, just past half-past seven in Abu Dhabi) have been revealed, and in the Continental Europe team, there is only one significant change. The Italian pair of Francesco Molinari and Matteo Manassero is split; the former will play with Julien Guerrier and the latter with Antoine Rozner. The other three pairs, of which only the one formed by Matthieu Pavon and Romain Langasque managed to win their fourball match, remain unchanged.
The pairings of the Great Britain and Ireland team are more intriguing. Despite their good performance on Friday, all pairs except the one formed by Jordan Smith and Laurie Canter change. The pairing of Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood stands out, with a total Ryder Cup vibe. Also noteworthy is that Matt Wallace, who played and lost with Justin Rose in the fourballs, is now paired with Tyrrell Hatton, another regular in the team for Bethpage. Clearly, Wallace is a candidate to be under Luke Donald‘s command in September, and they are testing his rapport with other regular members of the Old Continent team.
