José María Olazábal will send his most experienced pairing out first to try and get an early point on the board in the opening fourball matches on Thursday as Continental Europe attempt to wrest the Seve Trophy by Golf+ from Great Britain and Ireland.
GB&I have held a vice-like grip on the Seve Trophy , winning the last six encounters with Continental Europe only tasting success the once in the inaugural contest in 2000. But Olazábal is looking to correct that statistic at St-Nom-La-Bretèche this week by overcoming Sam Torrance’s young team.
Thomas Björn and Miguel Angel Jiménez lead the way in the top match against the first Scottish pairing of Paul Lawrie and rookie Stephen Gallacher. Björn has played in all but one of the previous contests while Jiménez is the only player to have competed in all seven Seve Trophy contests. They are the two most capped players in the history of the biennial team event with a combined total of 59 matches between them.
Nordea Masters Champion Mikko Ilonen, making his second appearance, and Dane Thorbjørn Olesen represent the continentals in the second match against Chris Wood, also making his second appearance for GB&I, and debutant Tommy Fleetwood, who recently claimed his maiden title at the Johnne Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
The most experienced player of the GB&I team, Paul Casey, who is making his fifth appearance this week, is paired with rookie Simon Khan and they face the Italian pair of Francesco Molinari, one of three players from last year’s victorious European Ryder Cup team on show, and BMW PGA Champion Matteo Manassero, who two years ago became the youngest player to compete in the event aged only 18 at the time.
Joost Luiten and home favourite Gregory Bourdy, arguably the most in-form pairing of the Continental Europeans having both won on The European Tour over the past five weeks, present a formidable pairing against Jamie Donaldson and David Lynn in Match Four.
And the anchor match sees the second Scottish pairing of Marc Warren and Scott Jamieson take on another of the heroes from Medinah, Nicolas Colsaerts, and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño, a late replacement for the injured Peter Hanson.
“Our record is not very good in this event,” admitted Olazábal. “But we are here this week to change that. We are here to win, we have a strong team and that’s our goal this week. We have a little bit of experience in this team, players who have played Ryder Cup, and it is going to be a good match.”
Torrance, who led Europe to victory in the 2002 Ryder Cup, said: “It is fantastic to be here and an honour to be captain. I’ve got a good, young team that are desperate to get out and get some points. The pairings were pretty easy. They were all pretty compatible. I tried to put people I thought were good friends, played practice rounds together, to try to make them feel more comfortable out there and do the job that they do best. It is going to be a great match, exciting, and I think we have a great chance.”
- DAY ONE FOURBALLS: DRAW
