For the first time since 1993, the European team has chosen to open the Ryder Cup with Foursomes rather than Fourball.

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When asked why he made the decision, European captain Luke Donald indicated that he wanted to get out to a “fast start”.

• Related: Brooks Koepka explains why he understood the case for and against picking Dustin Johnson for the Ryder Cup

“It’s pretty simple really, we feel like as a team, statistically, we are stronger in foursomes within our team than we would be in fourballs.”

“Why not get off to a fast start? That’s it.”

However, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee has questioned the decision calling it a “mistake” on Golf Central.

“It is very important to win the first session from a momentum standpoint. But it’s significantly more important to lead after the first day. If you go back to 1997 to present, starting with fourballs allowed them to end with a strength on the first day, and mostly they’ve dominated in the foursomes.

“If you win the first session, you win the Ryder Cup about 60% of the time. But if you win the first day, you win 70% of the time. So in one fell swoop, he’s potentially thrown away a 10% chance, which is a monumental advantage given to the European side, and I think that’s a mistake.”

Team Europe shared their practice groups on Monday, giving a hint at what the potential pairings will be.

The European practice groups for today ??#TeamEurope pic.twitter.com/6hiccEULqP

— Ryder Cup Europe (@RyderCupEurope) September 26, 2023

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According to a report, Celine Boutier asked for a partner change after her partner, Georgia Hall, underperformed during morning session of the Solheim Cup on Friday.

• Related: 5 examples of how Lexi Thompson has been treated harsher than any of her peers

Boutier and Hall lost to the United States pairing of Andrea Lee and Danielle Kang one up.

• Related: Brooks Koepka explains why he understood the case for and against picking Dustin Johnson for the Ryder Cup

Apparently, the European team captain Suzann Petterson obliged the request, and offered to put the Frenchwoman with Leona Maguire in the afternoon, but Boutier didn’t like that pairing either.

The report indicates that after Boutier refused to play with Maguire, she was sat by Petterson for the afternoon session. It did seem odd that one of Europe’s best players sat in the afternoon session after going down 4-0 after foursomes.

The report comes from Handicap 54 on X, who has gotten some interesting scoops in the past. His initial report told a similar version of the story without names.

I tell a “funny” situation that I found out about @thesolheimcup , from different sources. I'm not going to name names, for now.

Captain of one of the two teams receives the request from one of her best players (player A), who complained about the level of her teammate (player…

— HANDICAP 54 (@handicap_54) September 23, 2023

“Well, now I will give the names of this story. At the same time, I take this opportunity to clarify a detail that I explained poorly, but it is a detail that does not affect the fact. Why didn’t I tell them until now? I wanted to wait for the celebrations, and I wanted to wait for the Golf Sin Tags friends to say it (@gfcgolf and@alexlarrazabal1), who I knew had the same information and were on the course (I considered them to have priority).”

“The issue went like this: Céline Boutier, after Friday morning, asked Suzann Pettersen to play with someone other than Hall. Pettersen told [Boutier] that [s]he would play with Maguire (I explained that detail poorly) and Boutier refused. Therefore, Pettersen decided that Boutier would not play on that Friday afternoon.”

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Scottie Scheffler is coming off one of the best ball striking seasons in the history of golf. The number one ranked player in the world had a solid season, coming away with both a PLAYERS Championship and a Waste Management Phoenix Open win. However, with the way he played from tee to green he would most certainly have liked to come away with a major or two.

• Related: Brooks Koepka explains why he understood the case for and against picking Dustin Johnson for the Ryder Cup

For the season, the former Longhorn remarkably ranked 1st in Strokes Gained Total, Strokes Gained: Ball Striking, Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and Strokes Gained: Approach. Unfortunately, he also ranked 151st in Strokes Gained: Putting.

After Scheffler arrived in Rome for this week’s Ryder Cup, he was seen on the putting green practicing with putting coach Phil Kenyon. Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis has since indicated that the duo began working together last week in Dallas, Texas.

Kenyon also works with Europe’s Tommy Fleetwood, so the dynamic of working with players on both Ryder Cup teams this week should be interesting to monitor.

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