From Friday 29 September to Sunday 1 October, the Ryder Cup will go on in Italy. At the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, 12 European and 12 American players will play against each other as a team.
Match format
The American and European players will each represent their continent. The captain chooses the participating players from each team based on their performance during the past season. He also has three wildcards, allowing him to supplement the team with the strongest players of the moment at the time of the match.
On Friday mornings, four fourballs are played. These are matches in which two against two is played, everyone finishing their holes individually and the best score of the team counts. That afternoon, four foursomes will be played, matches in which, however, two against two is played but where one has to take turns with the same ball.
Saturday the same method is used; four four-ball games in the morning, followed by four foursomes. Sunday then sees the concluding 12 singles matches. All matches are over 18 holes, the game type is matchplay.
A total of 28 matches will be played, with the winning team getting a point. In case of a draw, both teams will get half a point. The team that scores 14.5 points first wins the Ryder Cup.
Who is selected?
In each team, six players are automatically selected: first the three leaders in the national lists are selected, then the next three in the world rankings. The captains choose the remaining six players.
Luke Donald, Englishman and leader of the European team, has himself participated in and won the Ryder Cup four times. The six European leaders are (from the European list) Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Robert MacIntyre and (from the world list) Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick. In addition, Luke Donald selected as his wildcards Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry, Nicolai Hojgaard and Ludvig Aberg.
At team USA, Zach Johnson is the captain. He is winner of the 2007 Champions. For America, the six automatic qualifiers are: Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Max Homa, Xander Schauffele and patrick Cantlay. Johnson chose Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Sam Burns and Rickie Fowler for his wildcards.
Opportunities
Europe traditionally does well on home soil, with the Americans struggling to hit or stay on top. If this edition follows the same pattern as the average Ryder Cup tournament, the following trends will be noticeable:
- The US will get off to a fast start
- Europe will catch up and perhaps even lead by the second day
- Europe will likely win the singles and thus also put the trophy in the air
- The top scorer will be European, playing in every session and finishing with four points
Of course, these trends are not fixed, nor are they certain to happen. America can pull off a stunt by beating the Europeans on home soil, something that hasn’t happened for years. But it will be difficult since, as mentioned earlier, Europe has a big home advantage.
