Laura Davies left out of Solheim Cup opening matches

Davies has slumped to 88 in the world rankings

Laura Davies' bid to become the Solheim Cup's highest points scorer has been put on hold after she was left out of the opening sequence of matches.

The 47-year-old is playing for Europe against the United States for a record 12th time but will not feature in the first set of foursomes matches.

Davies needs only half a point to tie Annika Sorenstam's Solheim Cup record of 23-and-a-half points.

But Davies has slumped to 88 in the world rankings.

Britain's greatest ever woman golfer, the winner of 79 titles worldwide, has enjoyed only one top 10 finish all year.

European captain Alison Nicholas says she hopes to field all of her team on the opening day at Killeen Castle, County Meath, on Friday depending on how her side perform on the first morning.

Along with Davies, the others left out are rookies Caroline Hedwall, Sandra Gal and Christel Boeljon.

In the game of captaincy cat and mouse, Nicholas appears to have scored an early success by putting out in the last match her highest ranked player, world number two Suzann Pettersen.

"I was expecting her to go out first," admitted American skipper Rosie Jones. Pettersen will partner Sophie Gustafson, the pair having won the last two Irish Opens staged at Killeen Castle. They face Brittany Lang and Juli Inkster.

Michelle Wie and Christie Kerr lead off the American defence of the trophy against Maria Hjorth and Anna Nordqvist. In the second match the English combination of rookie Melissa Reid and Karen Stupples face Paula Creamer and Brittany Lincicome.

Scotland's Catriona Matthew partners Spanish debutant Azahara Munoz against Stacey Lewis and Angela Stanford with Jones claiming: "We have put out our strongest team from the beginning."

America has won the last three Solheim Cups but Nicholas is confident her team will make a good start to their bid to upset the form book. "I think the pairings have worked out well. I am happy with them," she said.

"My players are ready and they are not bothered who they are going to play against. They will just focus on what they have to do and that's the most important thing."