Ryder Cup captains Thomas Bjorn and Jim Furyk offered further hints about their potential pairings on the second day of official practice at Le Golf National.
The sight of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the same group on Tuesday had raised the possibility of a surprising renewal of their disastrous partnership in 2004, when they lost both of their matches together on the opening day in a record nine-point defeat at Oakland Hills.
However, the pair were in separate groups on Wednesday, with Woods alongside Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, while Mickelson was with Bryson DeChambeau again as well as Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson.
Watson and Simpson won two of their three matches together at Medinah in 2012 and lost their sole game at Gleneagles two years later. Both players have overall losing records in the Ryder Cup.
The final American group contained Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, with friends Koepka and Johnson a likely pairing even though Le Golf National is not set up to suit long hitters.
For Europe, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm were together for the second day running in a group also containing Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose, with the other two groups each containing two rookies and two veterans.
Henrik Stenson and Paul Casey were alongside Tommy Fleetwood and Thorbjorn Olesen, while Ian Poulter and Francesco Molinari had Tyrrell Hatton and Alex Noren for company.
