Paul Azinger, the United States Ryder Cup captain, has switched the playing format for the opening session of this year’s matches in Louisville, Kentucky, from four-balls to foursomes in an effort to help the US to end a run of three successive defeats by Europe.

The biennial team competition has not started with morning foursomes (or alternate-shot) matches since Brookline in 1999, when the US last tasted victory. “I’ve decided to change that back,” Azinger said last night. “I hope it’s the right decision. We’re switching, we’re going back to alternate shot in the morning and we’ll just see how it plays out.

“I felt like the Americans had an edge in alternate shot and I think it’s partly responsible for why Europe [in recent years] has gotten off to a pretty hot start.”

Azinger, 48, who won the US PGA Championship at Inverness, Colorado, in 1993, had made one other significant change in the US’s approach to the Ryder Cup. After being named captain in November 2006, he announced a revamped selection process aimed at giving him the most inform players for the matches at Valhalla Golf Club from September 19-21. He will get four captain’s picks instead of two for this year’s encounter, with eight automatic berths in his 12-man team tied to money earned in events leading up to the cup.

“We made the change in the selection process and I really believe that’s going to help us,” Azinger said. “I think that Europe has had a better selection process. It’s partly the reason why they’ve played so much better than us in the last few Ryder Cups.

“They’ve won five of the last six Ryder Cups and I’m hoping that the selection process we put in place is going to get the best American players on this team.”

Azinger will face a tough task as US captain after Tom Lehman’s team crashed to a record-equalling 18½-9½ defeat at the K Club in Ireland in 2006.