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Ryder Cup Explained
Golf Monthly
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01/07/2025
The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from the United States and Europe.
Golf Monthly's Dan Parker explains how it works.
Category
🥇
Sports
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
Team Europe and Team USA is one of golf's most entertaining and hotly
00:04
contested events. It's also an event that differs significantly from the events
00:09
you would have watched week in week out on the various tours so let's find out
00:12
all about how it works. In total 28 matches are contested with each match
00:20
being worth one point. For the outright win the magic number is 14.5. Should both
00:26
sides accumulate 14 points the defending champions will retain the Ryder Cup so
00:31
if a 14-4 draw happens this year Team USA will retain the trophy after winning at
00:36
Whistling Straits in 2021. Winning a match gets a team one point while halving a
00:42
match gets each team half a point. So there are 12 players on each team with
00:46
eight taking part in each foursomes and four balls session while all 12 will
00:51
battle it out on the final day in singles matches. The event takes place over three
00:56
days Friday Saturday and Sunday with the first two days being split up into two
01:01
sessions. Right let's take a deeper look at how each day works during the Ryder Cup.
01:05
So Friday's action consists of four foursomes and four four ball matches. We'll
01:11
come on to how these formats work shortly and the home captain gets to decide in
01:15
which order these matches are played. For example in 2021 Team USA captain Steve
01:21
Stricker decides to have the foursomes in the morning and the four balls in the
01:25
afternoon. So then Saturday's action is exactly the same as Friday with four
01:29
foursomes matches and four four ball matches played across two sessions. Finally
01:34
Sunday sees all 12 players from each team play singles matches against one
01:38
another with 12 points up for grabs on the final day. So let's take a look at those
01:43
formats. Foursomes is an alternate shot format where teams in pairs take turns on
01:49
each hole. So one player hits the tee shot the other will play the next shot from
01:53
where that ball finishes and so on. This continues until the ball is holed out.
01:58
It's a match play competition against the other team so whichever duo takes the
02:02
fewest shots wins the hole. Players on each team will take turns to tee off so
02:07
one will always tee off from the even numbered holes and the other will always
02:10
tee off from the odd numbered holes and this is regardless of whoever hit the
02:14
shot on the last hole. In four ball matches both players from each team play
02:18
their own ball so there are four balls in play on every hole. The best score from each
02:23
team counts in the match with the lowest score resulting on a win of the hole.
02:27
And then finally Sunday singles matches are a straight shootout between two
02:31
players with the best score winning the hole. It's worth noting that there are no
02:35
playoffs in Ryder Cup golf and if a match is still all square or tied on the
02:40
the 18th hole both teams receive half a point.
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