Ryder Cup 2014: Schedule, pairings announced for Sunday singles matches

The USA will need a miracle on Sunday to win the 2014 Ryder Cup and we now know the lineup that will try to pull it off at Gleneagles. Down 10-6, Tom Watson’s group must win 8.5 of the available 12 points in Sunday singles in order to take away the Cup from Europe. The Euros only need 4 of the 12 points to retain the Cup.

When you’re trailing heading into Sunday singles, the typical strategy is to send your best players out early to try and get some momentum for a comeback going, generating hope for your side and panic and pressure on the frontrunner’s players at the end. For Tom Watson, his best players this week have been his rookies, particularly the two-man team of Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed. Those two will get the honor right out of the gate. It should be fairly obvious that their matches are critical to any longshot hopes of the Americans winning. If they lose, or even halve their matches, this will be over in a the first few hours on Sunday.

The one singles clash that will get all the hype is the third match, Rickie Fowler vs. Rory McIlroy at 7 a.m. ET. Fowler was generally regarded as the USA’s best overall player coming into the competition. He just had the best summer of his career and was in form. McIlroy, of course, is the No. 1 player in the world thanks mostly to the back-to-back major championships where he beat out Fowler on Sunday. Rickie should be one the contemporaries that challenge McIlroy at the majors for the next two decades, and Sunday’s one-on-one will be hyped as such.

Sunday is the only session where a captain doesn’t have to worry about who to play or bench -- there’s no hiding anyone. Here’s the full lineup for both sides: