Ryder Cup Explained

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.

Transcript

00:00Team Europe and Team USA is one of golf's most entertaining and hotly

00:04contested events. It's also an event that differs significantly from the events

00:09you would have watched week in week out on the various tours so let's find out

00:12all about how it works. In total 28 matches are contested with each match

00:20being worth one point. For the outright win the magic number is 14.5. Should both

00:26sides accumulate 14 points the defending champions will retain the Ryder Cup so

00:31if a 14-4 draw happens this year Team USA will retain the trophy after winning at

00:36Whistling Straits in 2021. Winning a match gets a team one point while halving a

00:42match gets each team half a point. So there are 12 players on each team with

00:46eight taking part in each foursomes and four balls session while all 12 will

00:51battle it out on the final day in singles matches. The event takes place over three

00:56days Friday Saturday and Sunday with the first two days being split up into two

01:01sessions. Right let's take a deeper look at how each day works during the Ryder

01:05Cup. So Friday's action consists of four foursomes and four four ball matches. We'll

01:11come on to how these formats work shortly and the home captain gets to decide in

01:15which order these matches are played. For example in 2021 Team USA captain Steve

01:21Stricker decides to have the foursomes in the morning and the four balls in the

01:25afternoon. So then Saturday's action is exactly the same as Friday with four

01:29foursomes matches and four four ball matches played across two sessions. Finally

01:34Sunday sees all 12 players from each team play singles matches against one

01:38another with 12 points up for grabs on the final day. So let's take a look at those

01:43formats. Foursomes is an alternate shot format where teams in pairs take turns on

01:49each hole. So one player hits the tee shot the other will play the next shot from

01:53where that ball finishes and so on. This continues until the ball is holed out.

01:58It's a match play competition against the other team so whichever duo takes the

02:02fewest shots wins the hole. Players on each team will take turns to tee off so

02:07one will always tee off from the even-numbered holes and the other will

02:10always tee off from the odd-numbered holes and this is regardless of whoever

02:13hit the shot on the last hole. In four ball matches both players from each team

02:18play their own ball so there are four balls in play on every hole. The best score from

02:22each team counts in the match with the lowest score resulting on a win of the

02:26hole. And then finally Sunday singles matches are a straight shootout between

02:30two players with the best score winning the hole. It's worth noting that there are

02:35no playoffs in Ryder Cup golf and if a match is still all square or tied on the

02:40the 18th hole both teams receive half a point.