European captain Jose Maria Olazabal has given the biggest indication yet as to who he is planning to pair together for this weekend's Ryder Cup at the Medinah Country Club.
English duo Ian Poulter and Justin Rose were sent out to practice together earlier today and they were joined by fellow countrymen Luke Donald and Lee Westwood.
Meanwhile, the Northern Irish pairing of Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy went through their routines with Scot Paul Lawrie and Spaniard Sergio Garcia.
Former world number one Martin Kaymer, Nicolas Colsaerts, Francesco Molinari and Peter Hanson rounded off the 12-man squad.
Prior to the session, McDowell told reporters that a number of the pairings pick themselves.
"The established partnerships are fairly obvious. Myself and Rory, Poulter and Rose, Donald and Garcia, perhaps Westwood and Lawrie," he said. "There's your eight, the first two groups today, fairly predictable. You can pretty much predict our first eight players Friday morning. Will we be that predictable? Who knows.
"But I'm looking forward to seeing how the next three days pan out in practice and how Jose kind of assembles us all."
The competition gets underway on Friday afternoon.
Liam Apicella
