Thursday 25 September 2014 14:15, UK
Lee Westwood believes the European team are happy to be favourites for the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles this week.
Europe have won seven of the last nine Ryder Cups and are the holders after coming from behind to beat the United States at Medinah two years ago.
And Westwood believes that Europe deserve to be odds-on shots to emerge victorious in Scotland.
He said: “I think we’re happy being favourites. We’ve earned the right to be favourites over the years as we’ve been so successful, winning seven of the last nine Ryder Cups.
“With playing at home and with the strength of the team we have we probably should be slight favourites.”
The Englishman also added that the team have already discussed who they would like to be partnered with in the opening fourballs on Friday.
He said: “We’ve sat down and spoken about who we’d like to be partnered with already.
“I’ve been lucky over the years, I’ve had nine different partners and they’ve all been great players.
“I think that Paul (McGinley) obviously thinks he can pair me with most people and it looks like the kind of team when you look at it on paper that has a lot of natural partnerships.”
Welshman Jamie Donaldson appears a likely partner for Westwood after playing alongside him in practice on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
