Team Cup: GB&I lead Continental Europe after day one of Ryder Cup-style event in Abu Dhabi
Great Britain and Ireland lead Continental Europe 3.5-1.5 after the first day of the Ryder Cup-style team competition at the Abu Dhabi Golf Resort.
The three-day tournament is designed to allow Europe captain Luke Donald to get to know some of the players vying for a spot in September’s Ryder Cup match against the United States in New York.
Donald said it was “very important” on the eve of the event, while players from both sides heard chants of “USA, USA” over the public address system during practice days in preparation for what was expected to be a hostile crowd at Bethpage.
Ryder Cup veteran Justin Rose captains the GB&I team, while Francesco Molinari, who has three caps as a player, does the same for the Continental team.
Both are paired with players looking to make their New York debut. But both ended up losing their first four-goal match.
Rose and fellow Briton Matt Wallace were beaten 3-1 in the top flight, with French pair Mathieu Pavin and Romain Langesque claiming the first points.
Molinari, who plays alongside resurgent Italian compatriot Matteo Manassero, suffered his biggest defeat of the campaign, being beaten 4-2 by Tommy Fleetwood and Aaron Rye, who After winning his first PGA Tour event last August, he rose to No. 22 in the world rankings.
Fleetwood captains the GB&I team in 2023 as the tournament is relaunched to help Europe regain the Ryder Cup title in Rome later that year.
Tyrrell Hatton and Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin (the only non-British member of GB&I’s 10-man squad, who is rumored to join Hatton on the LIV Golf Tour) went 3&2 The result defeated the French combination of Antoine Rozner and Julien Guerrier.
Jordan Smith and Lauri Kanter beat Rasmus Hoggard and Rasmus Nergaard-Petersen by one hole, while Matthew Jordan and Paul Welling take on Torbjörn The match between En Olesen and Niklas Norgaard ended in a draw, with both sides scoring half a point.
Speaking about the only two games played on the 18th, Rose told BBC Sport: “There were some good moments because if they had gone in the wrong direction it would have changed the whole day, so the team ended the game well” .
All 20 players competed in all matches over the three days, with two rotating four-man doubles matches on Saturday and 10 singles matches on Sunday.
There are 25 points and the first team to score 13 points will receive the trophy.