Miguel Angel Jiménez is looking forward to extending his record of appearing in every Seve Trophy by Golf + when the eighth staging begins near Paris on Thursday.
The veteran Spaniard made his debut in the inaugural event in 2000 when Continental Europe gained their only victory, and has been on the losing side against Great Britain & Ireland six times since.
He will partner fellow veteran Thomas Björn in the opening
fourballs
match against Paul Lawrie and Stephen Gallacher, becoming the only player on either side to line up for all eight contests.
“It's a great
honour
to be playing all the matches in the Seve Trophy,” said Jiménez.
“Playing with Thomas, we played together many times and we both are hitting very well now.
“Tomorrow will be a nice match, because Stephen and Paul, they both play very well.
“It's going to be a very solid match tomorrow. It's going to be very interesting and we hope tomorrow that we can get the first point for us; that's what we are looking for.
“We won the first one and you know, every year, we have good teams and I think people give 100
per cent
of what they have, at the end, the clubs and the golf balls say the things and have 6 to 1.”
Jiménez is one of six Ryder Cup stars taking part, and Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts
is looking
forward to returning to the team format after his remarkable experience at Medinah last year.
“I'm looking forward to playing in a team event again,” said Colsaerts, who will partner Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño against Marc Warren and Scott Jamieson in the anchor game.
“We don't really get a chance to play that format quite often. The atmosphere in the group is fantastic, everybody gets along really well.
“We fancy our chances and obviously
fourballs
is a very exciting format in match play.
“Gonzo and I, we get along really, really good. We have known each other a very long time and he's also a fantastic player.
“He's won a bunch of times on The European Tour and he's quite acclaimed in match play. So I'm really looking forward to
play
with Gonzalo.”
England’s Paul Casey is another looking forward to a change of format, as he prepares to partner Simon Khan against Italians Francesco Molinari and Matteo Manassero in the third game out.
“I love any opportunity that I get to play team golf and represent my country,” he said. “I jump at the chance. I’m just looking forward to it, trying to maintain our
record
. Obviously it's what they are after; they want to take it away from us and we want to maintain it.”
