Great Britain and Ireland lead continental Europe by 3½-1½ after the first day of the Ryder Cup-style Team Cup competition at the Abu Dhabi Golf Resort.
The aim of the three-day competition is to give European captain Luke Donald a chance to get a look at some of the players competing in September’s Ryder Cup match against the United States in New York.
On the eve of the event, Donald said it was of “huge importance” as players on both sides chanted “USA, USA” over the public address system during training days in preparation for expected hostile crowds at Betpage.
Ryder Cup veteran Justin Rose is the playing captain of Team GB&I, while Francesco Molinari, who has three caps as a player, is in the same position for the continental European squad.
Both faced players hoping to make their debuts in New York. However, both lost their first fourball matches.
Rose and fellow Englishman Matt Wallace were defeated 3-1 in the most important match, with the first point secured by French duo Matthieu Pavon and Romain Langasque.
Molinari, playing with resurgent Italian Matteo Manassero, suffered his biggest defeat of the session, beaten 4-2 by Tommy Fleetwood and Aaron Rai, who climbed to No. 22 in the world after winning his first PGA Tour event last August.
Fleetwood played as captain of the GB&I team in 2023 when the event was resurrected to help Europe regain the Ryder Cup in Rome later that year.
Northern Ireland’s Tyrrell Hatton and Tom McKibbin, the only non-English in the 10-man GB&I team and the man who will reportedly join Hatton on the LIV Golf circuit, defeated French pair Antoine Rozner and Julien Guerrier 3&2.
Jordan Smith and Laurie Canter defeated Rasmus Hojgaard and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen by one hole, and the match pitting Matthew Jordan and Paul Waring against Thorbjorn Olesen and Niklas Norgaard ended in a draw with both sides earning half a point each.
Referring to these two matches, which were the only ones played on the 18th.
All 20 players will play in all sessions over three days. There will be two sessions of alternating foursomes on Saturday and 10 singles matches on Sunday.
With 25 points to be scored, the team that scores 13 points will win the trophy.
