by Chris Fox

Created on: October 05, 2010

The Ryder Cup is a bi-annual competition held between Europe and The United States of America. The competition is a team based putting the best golfers in Europe against the best Golfers in the USA. The location of the competition rotates each year between a location in the USA and in Europe, and is considered one of Golf’s major events, along with the PGA Championship, the US Open, the UK Open and The Masters.

The competition was first held in 1927, and was originally a competition between American and Great British Golfers, but after continued dominance by the United States, the Great Britain team was first turned into the team of Great Britain and Ireland for the 1973 competition, and then finally into the European team for the 1979 competition in order for the best players in Europe to be used, so that the competition would become more competitive. The competition is still played between Team Europe and Team USA.

The players for the competition qualify in two different ways; the majority of the team are selected by the points system, while the remaining spaces are selected by the captain, a non-playing member who fronts each team, as the Captain’s picks. For the 2010 competition the European team consisted of the top four players on the Ryder Cup World Points List, the top 5 players on the European Ryder Cup Points List, providing they hadn’t already qualified through the World Points list, and three Captain’s picks. The United States side consisted of the top eight players in the Ryder Cup Points list, and four Captain’s picks.

The competition is traditionally held over three days, starting on the Friday and finishing on the Sunday, although the 2010 saw the competition overrun for the first time in its History, having to finish on the Monday due to rain delaying play on the Friday. While the layout for the competition has varied, the current Ryder cup is based around Foursome, Fourball and Singles play.

Foursome play consisted of two teams of two players. Each team uses one ball and takes alternate shots; the team with the best score wins the hole. Fourball competition is similar to Foursome play, except each player uses their own ball, with the lowest scoring player on each hole winning the hole for his team. Singles play is contested in between one player from each team, the player with the lowest score winning the hole.

The Ryder cup uses the Match play scoring system as opposed to stroke play. Match play means the lowest scorer on each hole wins the hole. At the end of the game the team or player that has won the most holes wins the match and gets a point for their team. If the number of holes is tied at the end of the game, the game is declared all square and each team receives half a point.

The Ryder cup is contested over 28 matches, each worth a point. If both teams are on level points at the end of the competition, the team who last won the Ryder Cup retains, meaning the holders only have to win 14 points in order to retain the Ryder Cup, while the challenging team must win a minimum of 14 and a half points in order to win the Ryder Cup.

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