ROME — The first pairings are in for the 44th Ryder Cup matches, which begin Friday morning at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club.

The first session, which is foursomes (alternate shot format), features Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 ranked player in the world, and his good friend Sam Burns, a Ryder Cup rookie and one of the six captain’s picks, against Jon Rahm, ranked No. 2 in the world, and England’s Tyrrell Hatton at 1:35 a.m. Eastern time.

Scheffler, who’s played in only the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, has a 2-0-1 overall record, but has never played in a foursomes match.

Rahm, in his two Ryder Cups, has a 4-3-1 overall record and is 2-0-0 in foursomes.

The second match, which begins at 1:50 a.m., features Max Homa and Brian Harman, two first-timers in the Ryder Cup, against Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg, also a Ryder Cup rookie.

Hovland has played in only the 2021 matches and is seeking to deliver his first point, having gone 0-3-2 at Whistling Straits.

The third match, at 2:05 a.m., will have Rickie Fowler and Collin Morikawa against Shane Lowry and rookie Sepp Straka.

Fowler, a veteran of four Ryder Cups, has a 3-7-5 record and that includes 1-3-2 in foursomes.

Morikawa was 3-0-1 in 2021, including 2-0-0 in foursomes.

The fourth match, at 2:20 a.m., has Xander Schauffele and his close friend Patrick Cantlay against Europe stalwart Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood.

Schauffele and Cantlay had a remarkably successful Ryder Cup debut in 2021, with Cantlay 3-0-1 and 2-0-0 in foursomes and Schauffele 3-1 and 2-0-0 in foursomes playing with Cantlay.

So, for the first session, both the Americans and Europeans are sending two first-timers out with Homa and Harman for the U.S. and Aberg and Straka for Europe.

“I’m really at peace with where things are,’’ U.S. captain Zach Johnson said. “Extremely confident in our 12 guys. The eight guys I have down on paper (for the first session) are the ones that we feel best put us in the position to get off to a great start, obviously. We know it’s not a perfect science (making the pairings). There comes a point when you’ve just got to let your thoroughbreds run, and I think we’re at that point.’’

European captain Luke Donald feels the same — starting with that Rahm-Hatton pairing in the heavyweight opening match.

“They’re both world-class players, to start,’’ Donald said. “Both fantastic ball strikers. They are very passionate. I think Jon feeds off a playing partner with similar kind of fire and passion. He wants to feel like he’s out there with a teammate that’s really engaged with him. Tyrrell really fits that bill. The Ryder Cup means a lot to both of those.’’

Rahm raved about his “great partnership’’ with Hatton, saying, “We’ve played quite a bit of golf together and we approach the game quite the same, so I think we’re really mixing really well together.

“And we get the honor of opening the Ryder Cup, we’re the first group out, and I can’t wait to get started and share the stage with this man, which we’ve done before, and can’t wait to get our first full point on the board.’’

Hovland sounded confident in what he believes will be a fast start for the Europeans.

“Our team, and with the way the golf course is set up, it really suits our games,’’ he said. “We’re looking forward to getting off to a nice start, put some blue on the leaderboard early on.’’

Hovland then cited the European women last week retaining the Solheim Cup and the European Junior Ryder Cup team routing the U.S. Thursday at Marco Simone.

“I think we’ve got the momentum,’’ Hovland said.

“We had a pretty good plan in place,’’ Donald said. “It was always going to be a plan that could change, but I didn’t really need to because the guys are playing fantastic golf. We’re coming off a very difficult defeat two years ago, and the U.S. are definitely confident, and we’re going to have to play some good golf. I’m excited to see it get started.’’

So is everyone else.

“I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like on the first tee,’’ Straka said. “Today it wasn’t even packed the whole way, and it was already crazy.’’