Europe captain Jose Maria Olazabal gave a strong indication of his likely team pairings for this week’s Ryder Cup with those he sent out together in practice rounds on the Medinah course.

The England four of Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood teed off first to be followed by the Northern Irish duo Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy in the second group along with Scot Paul Lawrie and Spaniard Sergio Garcia.

Next off was Germany’s Martin Kaymer, Belgian Ryder Cup rookie Nicolas Colsaerts, Italian Francesco Molinari and Sweden’s Peter Hanson.

The European Team and their respective caddies line up at Medinah. (Photo – Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)

Poulter, Donald and Rose are no strangers as they teamed in Valhalla in 2008 and Celtic Manor in 2010.

Indeed Poulter and Rose won two of three matches at Valhalla while Poulter and Donald combined to win their Foursomes session on day one two years ago.

McIlroy and McDowell are specials to be paired given they played together on three occasions in Wales winning two.

Kaymer can virtually play with anyone given he played two matches partnering Westwood in 2010 and one match alongside Poulter.

“We have quite a lot of players that have done well in the past, and then I’ve tried to mix … guys that I believe can complement each other and who understand each other really well,” said Olazabal.

“That’s why I put Paul Lawrie with the Northern Irish guys and Sergio, because Sergio is a guy that gets close to everyone; he can play with anyone.

“The last four guys, that’s where we do have four different nationalities, young guys, and we are trying to just figure out certain things still.”