Europe's Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald, along with playing captains Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari, have announced the pairings for day one's play at the Hero Cup in Abu Dhabi.
The Hero Cup pits ten players from Continental Europe up against ten from Great Britain and Ireland, similar to the Seve Trophy that took place eight times between 2000 and 2012.
Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood act as playing captains, with Molinari choosing Nicolai Hojgaard as his partner in the fourth match and Tommy Fleetwood teaming up with Shane Lowry in the opening game.
Nicolai was a late addition to the event, replacing his twin brother Rasmus who withdrew with an injury.
The format for day one is five fourball matches, with five points up for grabs. Day two will two sessions of five foursomes games before 10 singles match-ups in Sunday's final round.
The first group goes out at 11.05am local time on Friday in Abu Dhabi, which is 7.05am in the UK, 2.05am Eastern Time and 11.05pm on Thursday night Pacific Time.
Hero Cup Day One Pairings And Match-Ups
- Thomas Pieters & Alex Noren vs Tommy Fleetwood & Shane Lowry
- Thomas Detry & Antoine Rozner vs Tyrrell Hatton & Jordan Smith
- Victor Perez & Guido Migliozzi vs Callum Shinkwin & Matt Wallace
- Francesco Molinari & Nicolai Hojgaard vs Ewen Ferguson & Richard Mansell
- Sepp Straka & Adrian Meronk vs Seamus Power & Robert MacIntyre
“I think there are some great matches," Francesco Molinari said. "We’ve been saying all week, there are two very talented teams and there will be some exciting golf played in the next few days.
“Nicolai is a great player and I like to play with great players, like Tommy. We’ve got guys who are easy to pair up. We might mix it up in the next few days a bit but I think his is the best way to start tomorrow.”
“We’ve loaded up all the way through really," Tommy Fleetwood said. "We have a great team but there are no easy matches. That’s a great team as well but I feel very confident in my guys, like we all do. It’s great to see the pairings finally out and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen.
“I concentrated on our guys but it’s worked out really well. I think the matches look great.”
HERO Cup Schedule
- Friday: five fourball matches
- Saturday: Session 1 - five foursomes matches
- Saturday: Session 2 - five foursomes matchesches
- Sunday: ten singles matches
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