Every two years, 12 of the best golfers from the United States and 12 from Europe face each other for a three-day team golf competition called the Ryder Cup, which is also the name of the gold chalice the winning team receives. The cup is named after Samuel Ryder, an English businessman who commissioned its design in 1926, according to the event's website. The first official match was held a year later. The current Ryder Cup format and rules have been in place since 1979.
Match Play
The Ryder Cup uses a match play, rather than a stroke play, format. For match play, two opposing players or teams are grouped together and try to win each hole by shooting a lower score. The player or team who wins the most holes out of 18 wins the match. For example, if Player 1 scores a four on the first hole and Player 2 scores a five, Player 1 wins the hole and is considered "one up" in the match, meaning one hole ahead. If Player 2 wins the next hole, the match is "all square," which means that both players have won the same number of holes. If both players shoot the same score on any hole, then that hole is "halved" and the state of the match stays the same. The match ends when one player is ahead by more holes than are left to play. For example, if Player 1 is "four up" with only three holes left, play stops, and Player 1 is said to have won the match "4 and 3."
Three Days of Competition
On the first two days of the Ryder Cup competition, the players play foursome matches in the morning and fourball matches in the afternoon. The captain for each team selects four pairs of players to play these matches. For both formats, two players from each team play against each other, creating groups of four.
For the foursomes matches, one player from each pair tees off on the odd-numbered holes and the other on the even-numbered holes. Thereafter, the players alternate shots until the ball is holed.
For the fourball matches, each player plays his own ball on each hole. The player who shoots the lowest score on each hole wins that hole for his pair.
All 12 players from each team play singles matches on the third and final day of the event. One player from each team is paired with a player from the opposing team and they play against each other in a match play format.
Team Scoring
The Ryder Cup consists of 28 total matches -- eight foursomes matches, eight fourball matches and 12 singles matches. Each match is worth one point. If any match finishes all-square, each team is awarded half a point for that match. The team with more points after all the matches wins the Ryder Cup.
Member Comments