GUYANCOURT, France – This week, by his own admission, is Phil Mickelson’s last shot to win a Ryder Cup on enemy turf.

Mickelson has played for the U.S. team in every Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup since 1994. He’s 3-1-1 against the International Team on the road but is 0-5-0 in road games against the Europeans.

At age 48, Mickelson is not yet ready to declare this week as his last team appearance. But he doesn’t expect to be a playing member at age 52 when the Ryder Cup is held in Italy in 2022.

“I am aware this is most likely the last one on European soil and my last opportunity to be part of a team that would be victorious here,” Mickelson said. “That would mean a lot to me personally. I think it would mean a lot to our team and to the United States Ryder Cup to have a victory on foreign soil. It’s been 25 years. But it’s a very difficult task.”

Mickelson comes into this week with a cold putter – he finished last in the 30-man TOUR Championship last week and was T-58 in the 70-man BMW Championship. He plans to devote most of his prep work at Le Golf National to solving his putting issues.

“The last two weeks have been the two worst putting weeks of the year for me,” Mickelson said. “So I’m going to spend more time with the putter.”

PRACTICE PARTNERS: U.S. practice foursomes included: Tiger Woods, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson and Patrick Reed in the first group; Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas in the second group; and Brooks Koepka, Tony Finau, Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson in the third group.

Captain Jim Furyk said he wanted at least one player in every group who had previous experience playing Le Golf National. Just six of his 12 players have seen the course prior to this week.

As for the European Team, the foursomes included: FedExCup champ Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia and Alex Noren; Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Paul Casey and Thorbjorn Olesen in the second group; and Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Francesco Molinari and Ian Poulter in the last group.

“I don’t feel like I’ve given anything away in what’s happening on the golf course today,” Captain Thomas Bjorn said.

PULSE OF POULTER: Ian Poulter’s trademark crazy eyes almost made an early appearance in Paris.

The heartbeat and spiritual leader of the European Team returns to the lineup for his sixth Ryder Cup after missing the 2016 edition through injury.

Now 42, it was put to the Englishman who boasts an incredible 12-4-2 record and is unbeaten in singles play that he might be trying to soak up the atmosphere a little more as it could be his last.

Although he insists it won’t be.

“I would like to think I've got more in me; I'll say that. I mean, I really do,” Poulter said. “I think how I've played this year is hopefully the start of me kicking forward again to play in some more. I don't want to think that this is my last hurrah.”

Being part of this team in Paris seemed very unlikely a few years ago. The foot injury that meant he missed out on the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine in 2016, short of a place as a vice-captain, saw his form suffer.

Before the injury he’d had just one top-10 on the PGA TOUR that season and was under threat of losing his TOUR card in 2017 after returning only to get a late reprieve on his medical thanks to a points adjustment.

Poulter then started his rebirth with a runner up result at the 2017 PLAYERS Championship but cemented his comeback with a win earlier this year at the Houston Open.

The driving force for him was always this week.

“I guess when you are at the low of lows, and that wasn't that long ago, there's a little voice in the back of your head that says: You might not get back to as good as you were,” Poulter said.

“But I was at a dinner in December 2016, and I was asked a question… What's left for me in golf? I answered the question, "I feel I've got more wins in me." And I said then, "I'm going to make the team in Paris.

“That's been a goal for the last 20 months. It's been something which has kept me going from a motivational standpoint.

ON THE FLIP SIDE: Masters champ Patrick Reed is generally considered the American equivalent of Poulter, the emotional leader who sets the tone with his temperament.

He’s not backing away when referred to as Captain America.

“It's a good problem to have to have people either saying Captain America or Masters champion,” Reed said. “Before, I only had one of them and now to have both of them, it feels great.

“But this week, I'm definitely Captain America.”

Reed said the key is to channel the emotions of the crowd – whether they’re cheering for him or against him.

“It's just something fun to be able to come over and relish being -- especially overseas,” Reed said. “Coming overseas, Captain America, I was supposed to be the villain, just like when Ian Poulter comes to the States, he's the villain. So you expect to hear the fans kind of go back and forth with you. If it's not happening, it probably means you're not playing very well, and they are just like, all right, we've got him in check.

“I love it when we can interact with the fans and get going, because there's no other event that you can do that at.”

IMPRESSIONABLE EUROS: Team spirit has always been a high priority for European teams at the Ryder Cup and Monday night in the team room was a first chance for Thomas Bjorn to get everyone on message.

The European captain pulled his squad together and implored them to pay close attention to a special video that had been compiled that would be critical to their chances in Paris this week.

But instead of a motivational montage it was none other than comedian Conor Moore, doing his infamous impressions of all members of the European team.

It had the rooms in stitches.

“When you get into what's a week of high pressure, you've also got to have a bit of fun,” Bjorn explained. “I very much always start in a place with stuff like that; that if you're going to make fun of people, you've got to start making fun of yourself, as well, so that's kind of where we went with it.

“That set a nice tone. It was a good atmosphere in that room yesterday.”

Bjorn himself was not immune with Moore playing up his balding head and “some extremely big eyebrows.”

Tommy Fleetwood said he got off lightly with his long hair the main focus. Instead he was still giggling away at the funny man’s take on Open Championship winner Francesco Molinari.

“Fran's was just hilarious. I think Fran's has made me giggle for about 10 hours now,” the Englishman said.

“Just how deadpan he was and just trying to make how excited he was with his deadpan tone. It was perfect, really.”

In fact the video had Molinari trying to smile more in his Tuesday press conference.

So was he or anyone else unhappy with their depiction?

“I think that there might be one or two that found out a few truths about themselves about how people look at them, but they took that all in great spirits,” Bjorn laughed. “I'm not sure Justin (Rose) will be showing his Gold Medal too much the next few days.”

GERMAN, NOT FRENCH: Considering his last name, Bryson DeChambeau was asked if he knew the French language. DeChambeau explained that his last name is actually Aldrich DeChambeau – which explains the B.A.D. initials on his yardage book cover.

“I didn’t even know I had two last names until I was in high school,” explained DeChambeau, who said that’s when his mother finally told him when he tried to register under his shorter name.

“Thanks, Mom and Dad, for giving me the longest name in the world,” DeChambeau joked. “Appreciate that.”

RIBBON TRIBUTE: The European Team will sport yellow ribbons this week with the name of Celia Barquín written upon them in red, in tribute to the young Spanish golfer who tragically died last week.

Bjorn and his team debuted the ribbons in their team photo and practice on Tuesday --using the colors of the Spanish flag - as a mark of respect for the loss of the talented young golfer.

“Obviously, the golfing family extends way beyond what we are trying to do this week,” Bjorn said.

“Those events in America, with Celia being killed while playing golf, is something that's hit everybody in the golf family, and obviously our two Spanish players very much.

“We felt that, after a conversation between Ryder Cup Europe with Celia's mother, we would honor her this week. That's what we are doing, and it's nothing about us, but it's just more about the fact that the golfing family gets touched by these things all over the world. It's terrible when things like this happen.

“Such a great prospect for the game of golf, she was, but also a wonderful person.”

The yellow ribbons will be available to wear for the players of both sides throughout the week in Paris, while the wives and partners of the players will wear yellow roses during the Opening Ceremony on Thursday afternoon.