Understandably most of the pre-tournament talk at this week’s limited field Mercedes Championship has centred on next week’s Ryder Cup clash in Valhalla.

Four of Nick Faldo’s European Ryder Cup team are playing their final warm-up in Cologne this week - including defending champion Soren Hansen.

StrokeAverage.com users feature strongly in the 78-strong field this week and among those who have been offering their thoughts on next week’s clash with the Americans in Kentucky is Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell.

The 29-year-old rookie is one of five golfers to have won twice on the European Tour this year — and two of the other four are also StrokeAverage.com clients.

While fellow two-time winner Richard Finch came up short in the qualifying race, the other Darren Clarke was controversially overlooked by the European captain for one of his two wildcards.

And the absence of Darren Clarke, a veteran of five Ryder Cups, and Europe’s talisman of the last three successive victories over the Americans — Colin Montgomerie — has turned the media’s attention to who will partner who when the 37th Ryder Cup gets underway on Friday week.

Nick Faldo has four rookies in his ranks compared to opposite number Paul Azinger’s six.

Most pundits agree that Nick Faldo has his work cut out in the coming days to come up with the pairings to replace the cornerstones of Europe’s record victories at The K Club in 2006 and four years ago at Oakland Hills, plus the last win on English soil at The Belfry in 2002.

Padraig Harrington is the man in form with world number one Tiger Woods relegated to the sidelines following his fourth operation on his left knee, back in June.

The Irishman became the first European ever to win back-to-back golf Majors at Oakland Hills last month, when he became the first European to win the USPGA in 90 years.

But having partnered Colin Montgomerie regularly and with Paul McGinley failing to make the team, Graeme McDowell became the first member of the European team to tip the nod to his captain that he would like to partner the team’s top golfer next week.

The Royal Portrush golfer, who won the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond, in July, and the inaugural Ballantine’s Championship in Korea, in March, said: “We've been toying with ideas the last few days, trying to match the players together.

“I think with another 10 golfers on the team I would love to play with Padraig, he's pretty much the best player in the world at the minute.

“I think Padraig is the obvious choice for me but I'm sure Nick has his own ideas.

"I have to say I would be excited to play with anyone. I feel like I get on well with Sergio and played with him a couple of times this year.

“So Padraig or Sergio, I don't think I'll be alone in those choices, no doubt about it!” added the 29-year-old Ulsterman.

"There's not a huge amount of obvious pairings that I can see. Maybe Henrik Stenson and Karlsson perhaps? Westwood and Garcia is obvious but Nick's mentioned that he's looking to guys like that to put an arm around some of the younger golfers.

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