Preview: Strong Europe side primed to take on highly ranked USA in Rome

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry will both be in action in side-by-side matches in the opening session of foursomes of the Ryder Cup on Friday morning with McIlroy paired with Tommy Fleetwood and Lowry alongside the Austrian Sepp Straka.

Fleetwood and McIlroy (certain to be shortened to Fleetwood Mc by the end of the week) are up against the ace American pairing of Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay who have won four out of five matches together in Ryder Cup and President's Cup play over the last two years.

That will be the anchor match on the course in the morning.

Just ahead of them in the third match out will be Lowry and Straka against Ricky Fowler and Collin Morikawa.

The Ireland-Austria pairing have been together in practice over 27 holes over the three preparation days here and they played two rounds together at Wentworth in the BMW PGA Championship just two weeks ago.

They also play the same golf ball, the Srixon Z Star XV, which is a convenient coincidence in the technical equipment suitability of a foursome pairing where the nuances of spin rate and feel around the greens can be a significant factor.

Neither pairing is a surprise as Lowry and Straka share a very steady set of ball striking statistics while McIlroy and Fleetwood look to be a strong apparent fit with their premium tee-to-green games.

Europe will be led out in match one by John Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton against Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns at 6.35am (Irish Time).

Following them at a 15 minute interval will be Viktor Hovland and rookie Ludvig Aberg against Max Homa and Brian Harman.

So after a week of carefully worded player and captains' press conferences, actual golf shots will be fired in the morning to the relief and pent-up anticipation of just about