Ryder Cup 2012: live - Telegraph 13.37 Luke Donald it is with the driver and that is some fairway kick. Partner Garcia - back playing Ryder Cup after a four-year hiatus - looks happy as larry. Rookie Keegan Bradley - quite some player over last 12 months - is off and running, too. Crowd chants "Major winners" to the US pair. 13.35 Two putts and the first is halved. 13.32 Next pair up is Donald and Garcia. And if one point could be assured today, you would invest all your money in these two Europeans to secure it. The pair have won four times in four attempts in foursomes and complement each other beautifully: Donald's glacial on-course persona offset by Garcia's Latin flamboyance. Mickelson brings the experience of eight previous Ryder Cups for the US but has a dismal record of 17 defeats in 34 matches, while Bradley must purge the nerves of the rookie. 13.30 A wedge from McIIroy - one half of the Blues Brothers, according to Simon Morris on email. High as a kite and it lands fractions away from the dancefloor. On the fringe, close to the left hand bunker. Snedeker's approach is over the flag, back left of the green. Westwood predicts birdies galore on the opener. Bar wayward tee shots, he will be proved right. 13.22 Absolute stealth quiet as G-Mac steps up. Decent swing and the Irishman hooks it left. Considering the pressure, that really will do and Rory will have a swing at least. Furyk up next. Anxious, stage fright moments too. He sends his left as well. Ryder Cup or Walker Cup? 13.20 The players are walking over the green bridge. The Europe pair greet the chants. They look relaxed, enjoying the experience. Are they heck. There will be no first shot down the middle by a golfing stalwart. It's into battle - for the 39th time - from the land of Lincoln. Oliver Brown is .... On the first tee, U S A chants overwhelming. Fred Couples playing the role of chief cheerleader for a febrile Chicago crowd. 13.10 We are just a couple of Justin Timberlake poem recitals away from the opening tee shot. The crowd - a frenzied mix of Cubs, Bears and White Sox fans - are being whooped up on the first tee. 13.05 Here's Rory McIlroy on the opening pairing. And it's going to be a tough 18 for the Ulstermen, that's for sure. To be honest they are not the opponents we were expecting. We know that their team is so strong all the way through, but it was a little surprise to see a rookie in their first group. It is a great honour to lead Europe out in the Ryder Cup. We are going to go out there and get the blue on the board early. 13.00 From Oliver Brown at Medinah: Friends, sidekicks and compatriots, McIlroy and McDowell form an ominous combination. The fellow Ulstermen might have taken just half a point from their two opening-day matches at Celtic Manor, but they rallied in the Saturday foursomes for a crucial victory. McIlroy is now firmly established as the world's best player, and will need to prove it in the face of consummate veteran Furyk and an emboldened Snedeker, who has warned the Europeans that he would "beat their brains out. 12.55 From those quite exceptional scenes with Darren Clarke at the K Club, to the swarming bee-like images of Cemtic Manor when G-Mac beat Hunter Mahan, comes Davis Love III's thoughts for 2012: The first tee is going to be unlike anything anyone has ever experienced. It might be the loudest first tee in the history of golf. 12.50 Thirty minutes until the off. And don't we just love the player stats of this three-day duel. Since 1997, Big Phil or Tiger (or both) have been off first in Ryder Cups every year, until Medinah. The pair won just one of those foursomes. Changing of the guard with Furyk and Snedeker out first? 12.45 Aside from whoever may end up winning this thing, Olazabal's hair - pictured below during his emotional speech with some very young-looking rookies - has already won golden plaudits all on its own. 12.40 From Paul Hayward in Medinah: This Ryder Cup feels like the end of the greatest sporting cycle we have witnessed. The trees are turning here in Illinois and acorns crunch beneath the feet as golf takes us by the hand towards winter.Behind us lay the Olympics and Paralympics, Andy Murray's US Open win and Bradley Wiggins" victory in the Tour de France: Ahead: a consuming diet of football, which managed to intervene again on the day of the Medinah opening ceremony with John Terry's four-match ban and £220,000 fine for using racial language against Anton Ferdinand. To say other sports are perfect while football is debased would be silly. But these three days of Ryder Cup action feel particularly precious. Football's tanks will soon move back in. 12.35 So, what's in store today? Well, 50,000 baying sports' fans for starters at Medinah. After missing out on the 2016 Olympics and Super Bowl, global attention finally centres on Chicago. We will open with four foursomes matches this morning - where two play together and each team plays one ball - and four fourballs in the afternoon. Same again tomorrow and 12 singles clashes on Sunday. Europe need 14 of 28 points to retain the trophy. Add in another half, and Olazabal's men will win it outright. 12.30 Strapped in for another biennial dust-up? Welcome to day one coverage of the 2012 Ryder Cup from across the pond. We will be bringing you undiluted coverage over the next three days. Step forward drama, colour, ups, downs, 'Oles!', 'U-S-A's, halves, points and hugs, until the winning captain lifts the Cup on Sunday night.