Who do you want standing next to you on the first tee when you’re playing for pride, your bank account or your country? Some golfers start apologizing after the teams are picked.

“Play hard today, pards,” they say.

Not exactly confidence-inspiring. Give me the player who says “double the bet” every time.

After Day 1 of the Solheim Cup, the score is tied at four. U.S. team member Auston Kim joined Any Given Monday this week. She said a mix of statistical analysis, chemistry with teammates and vibes would determine her ideal partner. Ultimately, she’ll play wherever captain Angela Stanford asks her to play.

“Sometimes the statistically perfect pairing could end up being a bust,” Kim says. “Sometimes a pairing that you don’t feel like will work could completely work. So you just never know.”

Kim joined Allisen Corpuz on Friday afternoon after Corpuz and Korda drummed Charley Hull and Lottie Woad 4 & 3 in foursomes. Korda and Corpuz’s win streak became historic: They reached 5-0-0, becoming the winningest partnership in Solheim Cup history. They also matched Arnold Palmer and Gardner Dickinson, who went 5-0-0 together at the Ryder Cup, as the only undefeated American partnerships to win five matches in either event. They didn’t get the chance Friday afternoon to surpass “The King” and “The Slim Man,” though.

Why undefeated partners would be broken up for the afternoon round is beyond me. I’m sure it was part of the plan. Probably looked good on paper, too. But like Kim said, you just never know.

While it doesn’t ensure success, having a close friend to back you up is a solid starting point for an on-course partnership.

When Nick Hardy and Davis Riley won the 2023 Zurich Classic together, Hardy entered the tournament having missed six of his last eight cuts. “With these tour courses and how hard the setups are, it’s hard to get momentum going sometimes,” Hardy says. “All it takes is a little spark.”

Hardy found that spark early when Riley’s putter caught fire. They shot six- and seven-under in the alternate-shot format. While winning the event was career-changing, they never discussed feeling pressure during the tournament. “Let’s go win this thing,” they kept saying. A shared experience. A shared goal. They were in it together.

At this year’s LPGA Dow Championship, Yana Wilson and Gina Kim’s success rose from shared experience. Kim missed three straight cuts leading into the event, and Wilson helped her turn it around. The two played together in so many final rounds on the Epson Tour last season that becoming teammates was a natural fit. They pushed each other the entire year as competitors. At Dow, they did the same as teammates and took the title together.

The formats of the first two days of the Solheim Cup — foursomes and four-ball— require different dynamics. Rarely, if ever, do you practice the alternate-shot format of foursomes. Alternate shot requires dependability, steadiness and patience from partners. In four-ball, there’s more emphasis on aggressiveness, strategy and momentum.

“It’s an interesting format,” Ben Griffin said about alternate shot. Griffin and Andrew Novak won the Zurich Classic in 2025. “It’s almost more pressure on a Sunday. Going into the round, not only are you trying to win for yourself but you’ve got a teammate; you don’t want to let them down. You’ve got to stay super positive.”

Because you’re only hitting half the shots of a normal round, each shot feels more important. Griffin says the key is staying positive and having fun in the face of high stakes. When the pressure mounted, Griffin and Novak knew just what to say to each other.

When Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose defeated Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau in the Saturday afternoon four-ball match at last year’s Ryder Cup, they embraced as brothers: foreheads and noses touching, holding one another’s heads in loving support. They were athletic warriors who protected one another and shared an intimacy only they fully knew—a connection that made them unbeatable.

Seve Ballesteros and José María Olazábal turned that kind of on-course bond into an art form. The sensational Spaniards’ Ryder Cup record is ridiculous: In 15 matches together, they earned 12 points, losing only twice, once in four-ball and once in foursomes.

The two played similar styles of golf and their dynamic was nearly unbeatable. There was a nine-year age gap between them. Seve made all the decisions when they started playing together.

“That made things much easier for me to start with,” Olazábal said. “He took all the pressure off me. When we stood on that first tee, he said, ‘Don’t worry about anything. You just hit the ball and try to do your best, and that’s it. Forget about the people and everything.’”

Olazábal holed a five-foot comeback putt in their first foursomes match to clinch a point against Larry Nelson and Payne Stewart. From that point forward, Olazábal was Seve’s protégé. He knew they’d miss plenty of fairways, but Olazábal said they made up for it with “a lot of guts and heart.”

Until Friday, the nearest equivalent of that duo in Solheim Cup history was Christie Kerr and Lexi Thompson. The age gap between the pair is 17 years, yet they racked up five points in six matches and never lost. Thompson was one of the best players in the world then. Kerr’s intensity and support focused Thompson, bringing out her best.

In their 2017 foursomes match against Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Caroline Masson, Kerr was walking putts in from four feet out at Des Moines Golf and Country Club. Kerr was 39, Thompson 22. They won 5 & 3. Captain Juli Inkster said afterward, “You can’t teach heart. You can’t teach guts.”

Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz extended their record to a perfect 5-0-0 on Friday morning, taking down Hull and Woad.

Korda wasn’t playing her best golf leading into the Solheim Cup. She didn’t break par in her last LPGA start at TPC Boston, finishing T50. Her player-of-the-year-caliber season had slowed through the summer. Teaming up with Corpuz reignited her Friday morning. The team was four-under and bogey-free when they closed the match on 15.

Stanford Cardinals Rose Zhang and Andrea Lee also went undefeated in 2024 and seemed an obvious pairing this time around, but they were not teamed up in Friday morning foursomes. How do you replicate the feeling of the first tee of a Solheim Cup? As if to say, “I’m not afraid of anything,” Zhang went skydiving. You’d think sticking a wedge from 100 yards is easy compared to a landing from 10,000 feet. How could you not have high hopes for her?

But Zhang and Jennifer Kupcho fell 3 & 2 to Maja Stark and Linn Grant. Andrea Lee teamed up with Lindy Duncan and lost as well. Both Zhang and Lee sat for afternoon four-ball. Maybe pairing them together wouldn’t have changed a thing. Like Kim said, you just never know.

The best partners ease the pressure. They convey “we’re in this together” after a lost hole and inspire free-swinging confidence when the pressure grips like a vise.

For all the analysis and preparation, no one knows if a partnership will work when it counts most. In those moments, you hope you have a partner like Seve, who says, “Just hit the ball and try to do your best...forget about everything.”