Shane Lowry has pleaded with Europe Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald to put him in an all-Irish pairing with Rory McIlroy when the event gets under way.
The pair went out together on the first day of practice at Marco Simone in Rome on Tuesday and are close friends.
They were part of a fourball duo which failed to make its mark at Whistling Straits two years ago as Europe suffered an all-time record defeat to the United States.
But Lowry said: “Rory and I are great friends, so I think we would love to play together and we’d love to go out there at some stage.
“We probably feel like we didn’t do ourselves justice in fourballs at Whistling Straits, and I think we maybe would like the opportunity to… go at it again and try and win a point this time.
“Anybody would want to play with Rory. He’s one of the best players in the world. He’s in the top players of all time already, and he’s not even nearly finished. It would be nice to go out there with him.”
Lowry prepared for the week in Rome by attending Ireland’s Rugby World Cup pool match win over South Africa at the weekend with McIlroy.
The pair were all smiles on course throughout Tuesday, Lowry seen throwing McIlroy’s ball in the water at the eighth after his fellow Irishman won the hole.
Skipper Donald said earlier he had a clear idea of his opening foursome line-ups going into the opening day on Friday but insisted “nothing is set in stone”.
Lowry was one of the Englishman’s captain’s picks for this year’s event but said his skipper would not allow sentiment to get in the way of him making any hard decisions.
“Luke has been amazing,” he said. “Luke doesn’t say much but, when he says it, you listen and he’s always been that way. I think he’s that type of captain.
“He will do everything in his power, he will call the right shots, he’ll make the hard decisions. It’s a tough one for a captain coming into this event, maybe being friendly with players… and then having to maybe leave them out, drop them, make tough decisions.
“I think Luke won’t be afraid to do that, and I think that’s what’s going to make him a great captain.”
