Walkthrough at Wentworth?

Pre-tournament mojo only goes so far, but it certainly feels as though the last few weeks have brought momentum to the European Ryder Cup team. Following good performances from Euro team members in Switzerland and Ireland, all 12 players are at Wentworth for this week’s BMW PGA Championship. And wouldn’t you know it, they’re all in the same groups! What a coincidence. Time to hypothesize what the Europeans may be planning for Rome based on their pod setup in England.

Group 1: Rory McIlroy/Ludvig Aberg/Viktor Hovland – This threesome should scare the daylights out of the Americans, especially in fourball matches. Pairing either Rory or Hovland with Ludvig would be an elite fourball duo as you’d be guaranteed two of the best four drivers of the golf ball in the world. McIlroy does also need a new foursomes partner as he’s played with Ian Poulter in each of the last two Ryder Cups, but I doubt that person is in this group.

Group 2: Tommy Fleetwood/Shane Lowry/Sepp Straka – Neither Fleetwood nor Lowry played in either session of foursomes at Whistling Straits but this group could signal who mighgt pair well with one another in alternate shot. All three are elite iron players with above average driving ability.

Group 3: Jon Rahm/Nicolai Højgaard/Tyrrell Hatton – An intriguing group to dissect as we try to figure out how the Danish rookie fits into the team. He’s incredibly long off the tee but tends to be inaccurate with driver and doesn’t have an elite iron game. My guess is that he plays one match the first two days in Rome and it’s either alongside Rahm in fourballs or Hatton in foursomes.

Group 4: Justin Rose/Robert MacIntyre/Matt Fizpatrick – A threesome the U.S. should be salivating over if this holds at Marco Simone. All seem to be three-match maximum players this year and none are particularly exciting in the statistical categories. The Englishmen do combine to make an intriguing foursomes pairing but would you be afraid of any foursomes group from this trio?

This piece originally appeared in The Fried Egg newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.