Jim Furyk and Lee Westwood will face each other in the final foursomes match Friday morning, their nerves already tested from having played in every Ryder Cup since 1997.

The difference is whom they have at their side.

Westwood will be joined by Sergio Garcia, one of only four partners he has had in 20 team matches. Furyk will be playing with Kenny Perry, his 11th partner in his 16th match.

Among its many advantages in its recent dominance, Europe clearly has a sense of familiarity at the Ryder Cup.

“When you have something that works, you tend to stick with it,” Padraig Harrington said.

It sure has worked for Europe.

Even as far back as 1997 at Valderrama, Europe put together three teams that played at least three times together in building a 10 1/2-5 1/2 lead on its way to victory. Two years later, three teams played all four matches as Europe built a 10-6 lead, losing only to an astonishing comeback by the Americans at Brookline.

Westwood and Garcia first played together in 2002, and they were an instant hit. They won their first three matches at The Belfry, losing only to Tiger Woods and Davis Love III. Since then, they are 4-1-1.

“Me and Westy again. That’s great, fabulous,” Garcia said Thursday. “We get along beautifully and we have done well in the past. We can’t wait to get started and get a point for the team.”

Furyk played all four matches at The K Club two years ago with Tiger Woods, a pairing both of them wanted. They went 2-2. But since 1997, Furyk has been paired with only one other player more than once _ Stewart Cink in 2002.

“You find guys that kind of make good partners and you stick with it,” Furyk said earlier this week. “Maybe that’s a testament to my team record (3-11-1) being so damn bad, I don’t know. I’m still trying to find that guy.”

Perhaps the different between Europe’s predictable pairings and the mix-and-match style of Americans is reflected in the scores. Europe has not trailed after any session over the last three years, winning by a combined score of 52 1/2-21 1/2.

It’s easy for the Europeans to stick with who they have because it keeps working.

And maybe that’s why the United States changes its partners so often, looking for the right combination.

“I believe the team that loses always makes the necessary adjustments to fix the problem,” U.S. captain Paul Azinger said. “So clearly, if you’re behind every day for six straight Ryder Cups, which we have been, you’re going to make some changes. And if you’re the team that’s getting ahead, then you’re going to stick with what’s been working.

“It’s not different than the NFL teams that play each other twice in a season,” he said. “You lose the first game, the team that wins does everything the same and the team that loses makes the necessary adjustments to try to get it right.”

But it doesn’t always work that way.

Arnold Palmer first played with Dave Marr in 1965 and they got clobbered, 6 and 5, by Dave Thomas and George Hill. U.S. captain Byron Nelson approached Palmer to tell him his afternoon partner, and the King told him he was sticking with Marr.

They won their next two matches without setting foot on the 15th tee.

With six rookies on the U.S. team, there inevitably will be more new partnerships this week. But turnover cannot be blamed for the Americans having so many partners. In the last three Ryder Cups, there have been 22 players from the United States and 21 from Europe.

Cink has played in all three of those U.S. losses. He already has had seven partners in nine matches, and he’s about to get No. 8 on Friday when he plays with Chad Campbell.

“It’s more indicative that we’ve been scrambling a lot more to find the right mix,” Cink said. “We get down in the first session, we might want to scrap everything and start over.”

The first time Phil Mickelson played all four team matches in a Ryder Cup was in 2002, and it was the first time he had the same partner. He and David Toms were 2-1-1. Lefty will be first off Friday with Anthony Kim, his 10th partner in 19 matches.

Azinger said he already has his Friday afternoon lineup written down. What happens Friday morning will go a long way toward deciding whether he needs an eraser.