Tuesday practice session at Whistling Straits gives an early indication about possible pairings for the opening day of the Ryder Cup on Friday; Watch the contest throughout the week live on Sky Sports' dedicated Ryder Cup channel.
Tuesday 21 September 2021 17:32, UK
USA captain Steve Stricker has elected to group Bryson DeChambeau with Ryder Cup rookie Scottie Scheffler for the opening day of practice at Whistling Straits.
DeChambeau was paired with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson during his Ryder Cup debut in 2018, losing both matches, with the former US Open champion now searching for a new playing partner for this year's contest in Wisconsin.
The duo were sent out by Stricker in a group alongside Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth, who won three of their four matches together at Le Golf National and are expected to play together again when the biennial contest gets under way on Friday.
When asked about the practice groups ahead of the tournament, Stricker said: "We have good ideas about our pairings, but we are still in the process of finalising things, ironing things out, which direction we want to go."
DeChambeau's rival Brooks Koepka was grouped with Tony Finau, who played together in both sessions of fourballs in Paris, with Ryder Cup rookies Harris English and Daniel Berger completing that fourball.
Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele are in the same practice group, having appeared together in all four sessions of USA's Presidents Cup win in 2019, with former world No 1 Dustin Johnson and two-time major champion Collin Morikawa also in that group.
The Tuesday practice session gives an early indication of the possible pairings that could be selected by the two captains for the opening day on Friday, with Padraig Harrington electing to keep apart the three rookies in his side.
Tommy Fleetwood, winner of all four of his matches alongside Francesco Molinari in his rookie appearance in 2018, has been put out with world No 1 Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton and debutant Shane Lowry.
Rory McIlroy is in the same group as Sergio Garcia, having played together in two of the last three Ryder Cup, while veteran Lee Westwood and rookie Viktor Hovland complete that fourball, while debutant Bernd Wiesberger plays with English trio Paul Casey, Matt Fitzpatrick and Ian Poulter.
Watch the Ryder Cup throughout the week live on Sky Sports' dedicated channel - Sky Sports Ryder Cup. Our daily build-up show 'Live from the Ryder Cup' is live from 2pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
