While the PGA Tour’s 2020-21 season is officially over, the “super season” has one more event: the rescheduled 2020 Ryder Cup.
The best event in golf will be contested for the first time since the 2018 matches in Paris France, where the Europeans dominated once again, winning the for the fourth time in the last five tries.
But an impressive American squad, highlighted by eight of the world’s top-10 ranked golfers, including six of the top 7, will look to win for the second consecutive time on home soil as the biennial matches will take place at famed Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.
The Ryder Cup Skinny
Official Name: 43rd Ryder Cup
Established: 1927
Managed By: PGA of America
Format: Match Play (Singles, Team)
Venue: Whistling Straits
Course: Straits Course
Where: Haven, WI
Distance: 7,628 yards
Par: 72
Architect: Robert Trent Jones
Purse: $None
Winner’s Share: Ryder Cup Immortality
Defending: Europe
How to Follow the Ryder Cup
TELEVISION: Fri: 7 a.m.-6 p.m. (GOLF); Sat: 7-8 a.m. (GOLF), 8 a.m.-6 p.m. (NBC); Sun: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (NBC)
RYDER CUP APP: Fri-Sat: 7 a.m.-6 p.m. (Featured Matches); Sun: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (Featured Matches)
LINKS: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Ryder Cup Schedule
Practice Days
PRACTICE: Tue-Wed: 9 a.m.; Thu: 10 a.m.
SPECIAL EVENTS: Wed: 1-5 p.m. (U.S. Junior Ryder Cup Team); Thu: 8:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m. (Celebrity Matches), 3-4 p.m. (Opening Ceremony)
Match Days
MORNING FOURSOMES: Fri-Sat: 7:05 a.m., 7:21 a.m., 7:37 a.m., 7:53 a.m. (Four Matches)
AFTERNOON FOURBALL: Fri-Sat: 12:10 p.m., 12:26 p.m., 12:42 p.m., 12:58 p.m. (Four Matches)
SINGLES: Sun: 11:04 a.m., 11:15 a.m., 11:26 a.m., 11:37 a.m., 11:48 a.m., 11:59 a.m., 12:10 p.m., 12:21 p.m., 12:32 p.m., 12:43 p.m., 12:54 p.m., 1:05 p.m. (12 Matches)
TROPHY PRESENTATION: Sun 5 p.m.
Ryder Cup History
The Ryder Cup is a biennial competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe.
The Ryder Cup is named after the English businessman Samuel Ryder who donated the trophy. The event is jointly administered by the PGA of America and Ryder Cup Europe, the latter a joint venture of the PGA European Tour (60%), the PGA of Great Britain and Ireland (20%), and the PGAs of Europe (20%).
Originally contested between Great Britain and the United States, the first official Ryder Cup took place in the United States in 1927 at Worcester Country Club in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The home team won the first five contests, but with the competition’s resumption after World War II, repeated American dominance eventually led to a decision to extend the representation of
“Great Britain and Ireland” to include continental Europe from 1979.
The inclusion of continental European golfers was partly prompted by the success of a new generation golfers, including Spain’s Seve Ballesteros and Germany’s Berhard Langer.
Since 1979, Europe has won eleven times outright and retained the Cup once in a tied match, with eight American wins over this period. In addition to players from Great Britain and Ireland, the European team has included players from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden.
The Ryder Cup, and its counterpart the Presidents Cup, remain exceptions within the world of professional sports because the players receive no prize money despite the contests being high-profile events that bring in large amounts of money in television and sponsorship revenue.
The current holders are Europe who won in 2018 at Le Golf National in Guyancourt, south-west of Paris, by a score of 17.5 to 10.5.
The Ryder Cup was held in odd-numbered years until 1999, and then moved to even years in 2002 after being cancelled in 2001 due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. With the reschedule of last year’s matches due to COVID, the matches will now return to odd-numbered years.
Recent Ryder Cup Winners
- 2018: Europe (17.5-10.5) (Le Golf National, France)
- 2016: USA (17-11) (Hazeltine National, Minn.)
- 2014: Europe (16.5-11.5) (Gleneagles, Scotland)
- 2012: Europe (14.5-13.5) (Medinah, Ill.)
- 2010: Europe (14.5-13.5) (Celtic Manor, Wales)
- 2008: USA (16.5-11.5) (Valhalla, Ky.)
- 2006: Europe (18.5-9.5) (K CLub, Ireland)
- 2004: Europe (18.5-9.5) (Oakland Hills, Mich.)
- 2002: Europe (15.5-12.5) (The Belfry, England)
- 1999: USA (14.5-13.5) (The Country Club, Mass.)
Ryder Cup Records
- Most Appearances: 12 – Phil Mickelson (USA)
- Youngest: 19 – Sergio Garcia (EUR), 1999
- Oldest: 51 – Ray Floyd (USA), 1993
- Most Points: 25.5 – Sergio Garcia (EUR)
- Most Foursomes Points: 11.5 – Bernhard Langer (EUR), Sergio Garcia (EUR)
- Most Fourball Points: 10.5 – Ian Woosnam (EUR), Jose Maria Olazabal (EUR)
- Most Points By Pairing: 12 – Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal (EUR)
- Most Singles Points: 7 – Colin Montgomerie (EUR), Billy Casper (USA), Lee Trevino (USA), Arnold Palmer (USA), Neil Coles (GB, GB&I)
The Course: Whistling Straits
The Straits Course is the flagship course at Whistling Straits. It will stretch to 7,790 yards and play to a par of 72.
The Straits Course replicates the ancient seaside links courses of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Nestled along a two-mile stretch of Lake Michigan, the course has eight holes hugging the lake, a flock of Scottish Blackface sheep, elevation changes of approximately 80 feet, and three stone bridges.
It has vast rolling greens, deep pot bunkers, grass-topped dunes and winds that sweep in off the lake. Being a coastal links-style course, there are few large trees or woods on the course. The course is open and exposed to the wind and elements.
Before the course was built, the property was an abandoned airfield called Camp Haven (1949–1959), with a stream running through the middle. Wisconsin Electric purchased the property in the 1970s and attempted to build the Haven Nuclear Power Plant on the property, but its construction was opposed by local residents, and the company never built the plant. It then sold the property in Kohler Company in the early 1990s.
Kohler Company CEO Herbert Kohler hired Pete Dye to be the course architect. During construction, the original landscape of the Straits Course was covered with about 800,000 cubic yards of dirt and sand.
43rd Ryder Cup Teams
The 24 players who will tee it up at Whistling Straits for the 43rd edition of the biennial Ryder Cup matches – arguably the most anticipated golf event on the calendar – will include 12 of the best from the U.S against a dozen of their counterparts from Europe.
The U.S. team is absolutely loaded with eight of its players ranked inside the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings, while three others are inside the top 16. Only Scottie Scheffler is outside the top 20, and he’s at 21.
The European squad, on the other hand, has only world No. 1 Jon Rahm ranked in the top 10 with Viktor Hovland (13), Rory McIlroy (15) and Tyrrell Hatton (19) the only other Euros in the top 20.
On paper it may look like a rout, but the Ryder Cup is not contested using data analytics. It’s played on the course. And as Sergio Garcia said earlier this week, stats don’t measure intangibles such as team chemistry.
European Ryder Cup Team
Name (World Rank)
Jon Rahm (1)
Viktor Hovland (13)
Rory McIlroy (15)
Tyrrell Hatton (19)
Paul Casey (23)
Matt Fitzpatrick (27)
Lee Westwood (34)
Tommy Fleetwood (36)
Shane Lowry* (40)
Sergio Garcia* (43)
Ian Poulter* (49)
Bernd Wiesberger (61)
* Captain’s Picks
U.S. Ryder Cup Team
Name (World Rank)
Dustin Johnson (2)
Collin Morikawa (3)
Patrick Cantlay* (4)
Xander Schauffele* (5)
Justin Thomas (6)
Bryson DeChambeau (7)
Brooks Koepka (8)
Tony Finau* (10)
Harris English (11)
Jordan Spieth* (14)
Daniel Berger* (16)
Scottie Scheffler* (21)
* Captain’s Picks
Credits: Wikipedia, ASAP Scripts, Getty Images, Ryder Cup
