Ryder Cup 2018: Jim Furyk and Thomas Bjorn staying guarded over their pairings

Ryder Cup captains Jim Furyk and Thomas Bjorn may be rivals for this week but they remained a friendly double act at their opening press conference, and were united in keeping their cards close to their chest ahead of golf's great intercontinental contest.

Both Furyk, 48, and Bjorn, 47, spoke freely and openly about logistics, jet lag, the form of various players, about Tiger Woods' resurgence and its importance to golf, as well as what effect the European crowd could have on proceedings.

But as soon as the talk turned to what pairings the captains were considering, the drawbridge came up and both skippers were equally guarded.

"What's your strategy on that, Thomas?" laughed Furyk after the captains were asked if they would be trying to break in all 12 players on the tournament's first day this Friday.

"You know, that's -- you'll have to wait and see, won't you..." joked Bjorn in response.

But while the chuckling pair weren't in the mood to disclose which foursomes and fourballs we were likely to see, they were happy to give an insight into their process and what they're looking for ahead of the competition.

"I think from our perspective, and I'm sure the same with Thomas, we have a pretty good idea of who we believe is compatible and who can play together," said Furyk. "There's some options."

"For us, these practice rounds, right now - and Thomas has a few guys running on a bit of jet-lag - these next three days are very key for us and very important in practice to get to know this golf course, to understand as best we can the ins and outs.

"I think six of my players have played the golf course before and six haven't. Maybe pairing some of those guys up that have and have not to help them around the golf course the first day.

"Our preparation over the next three days for me is key and I was always a guy I felt broke down golf courses in a major trying to learn, like at a major championship, trying to learn a golf course in 36 holes and be very prepared for that round on Thursday. That's what we're going to have to do, and the European side is going to know the golf course a lot better.

"They have played The French Open here. They have had a lot of success here with the past two champions and a number of Top 10s.

"That's one of the things we have to overcome in that preparation, and learning this golf course first is most important; and the compatibility and how that will work and foursomes and fourballs will also help, as well."

Bjorn echoed many of his rival's comments, stating that he wants to see how his team hold up on Tuesday and Wednesday around Le Golf National but that a lot of planning had gone into coming up with, at the very least, a good idea of what Europe would be doing.

"I think we both have a good idea in our minds where these teams and pairings are going, and as I said before, it doesn't mean that they can't change over the next three days.

"But I think I'm pretty clear where I want to go and where we start, and then we go from there. And I think as a captain, that's where you want to be. You want to be in a situation where this is my plan and then you have all sorts of different plans coming after that."