RYDER CUP CAPTIANS Colin Montgomerie and Corey Pavin have announced the first matches of this year’s Ryder Cup series, by indicating their choices for tomorrow morning’s fourball pairings.

At this afternoon’s opening ceremony, it was confirmed that all three Irishmen on the European dozen will tee off in the morning’s opening exchanges.

The pairings are as follows:

• Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson will play Lee Westwood of England and Germany’s Martin Kaymer at 7:45am
• Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar face Northern Irish pair of Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell at 8am
• Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods will face Englishmen Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher at 8:15am, and
• Bubba Watson and Jeff Overton will face Luke Donald of England and Ireland’s Padraig Harrington at 8:30am.

In the Fourball system, each golfer plays their own ball, with the lower score on each hole being counted. Only one of the pair is required to complete each hole; and the winners are the team with the lowest aggregate score over the 18 holes.

For those of you who simply can’t wait for the full action to get underway tomorrow morning, here’s Manchester United’s own internal Ryder Cup, with three Europeans taking on three (South) Americans.