The Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup is a biennial match-play golf competition between teams from the United States and Europe. It began in 1926 and since has taken place every two years, with the venues alternating between courses in the United States and Europe (usually the U.S. or Britain).

The Ryder Cup is administered by the PGA of America and the PGA European Tour, who choose the American and European teams, respectively. The Cup once was contested by teams from the U.S. and Britain, but the field was expanded in the 1970s to include other European countries in the team.

The matches were fairly even in the first few decades of existence, but the Americans dominated for years after World War II. It was only after the European team was created and expanded that the event has once again experienced more competitive play.

Qualification

The qualification for the Ryder Cup is done in two parts, separately for Team Europe and Team USA. Team Europe uses a fairly simple points system to select its first nine competitors, based off the European Tour list and the Official World Golf Rankings points list. To fill out the 12, the European captain selects three other players.

Team USA uses a points system developed by The PGA of America, which selects the top eight qualifiers based on prize money earned in events in the two years prior to the Cup -- more points being awarded for more recent majors, fewer points awarded for older major wins or non-major wins. The captain selects four other players to participate on the team.

Tournament Format

The Ryder Cup takes place over three days and includes several forms of play: foursomes, four-ball and singles match play. There currently are eight foursome matches, eight four-ball matches and 12 singles matches. Each match earns the winner one point for his team (ties are rewarded by one half-point each).

On Friday, the first day of competition, the golfers play four four-ball matches in the morning and four foursomes in the afternoon, meaning only eight players compete. The format is the same on the second day. On the final day of competition, all 12 golfers compete in match play. The team with the most points at the end of the competition is declared the winner. (A defending champion can win with half the possible points, 14, while a challenger must earn at least 14.5 to win it outright.)

Event Formats

Four-ball: Players compete in foursomes, with two players from each team in each group. Each player plays his own ball, and the player with the lowest score on a hole wins the hole for his team. If two or more players from opposing teams are tied for the lowest score, then the hole is halved.

Foursomes: Two players from each team compete against two players from the opposing team, with the teammates playing one ball. The teammates alternate shots on each hole, and alternate tee shots, with one player teeing off on all odd-numbered holes and the other teeing off on all even-numbered holes. The alternate shots are combined into one score for each team, and the team with the lowest score on the hole wins the hole. If the two teams are tied for the low score, then the hole is halved.

Singles: Individual players from each team are matched up against each other in traditional head-to-head match play.

Changes in Format

From its birth, the Ryder Cup was contested by using four foursomes matches on the first day and eight singles matches on the second day, each on 36 holes. The competition lasted only two days and was played by only eight golfers (two alternates also were named).

That was changed in 1961, when the total points were doubled to 24 by adding four more foresomes and eight more singles matches. In the second format, four foursomes each were played in the morning and afternoon of the first day, then eight singles each played in the morning and afternoon of the second day. Four-ball matches then were added two years later, creating a total of 32 possible points.

The 1977 competition brought another round of changes, expanding the tournament to three days. Five foursomes were played on the opening day, five four-ball matches on the second day and 10 singles matches on the third day. In 1979 -- the same year the Great Britain team was expanded -- the format was revised again to the schedule that exists today.

Until 2001, the Ryder Cup was played during odd years -- the Cup was postponed in 2001 because it had been scheduled close to the Sept. 11 attacks, and it was decided that the Cup would be played in even years from then on.

The origin of the idea of the Ryder Cup is a topic of much debate -- several people seem to have claims on the competition. Past PGA president George Sargent credits Sylvanus P. Jermain for coming up with the idea in 1921, when an unofficial match was played and won by the British.

Years later, though, it surfaced that the idea had been proposed a year prior by James Harnett, a circulation representative for Golf Illustrated. He had proposed the idea as a way to raise circulation by paying for a professional match between the USA and Great Britain. The idea failed to take off, though, until the PGA of America donated some funds to Harnett's cause in December of 1920.

Either way, the first unofficial match happened with help from both Jermain and Harnett in 1921, followed by another unofficial competition in 1926 -- both won handily by the British.

In that second matchup, an English seed merchant and entrepreneur named Samuel Ryder was in the gallery. His admiration of the event was so high that he provided a trophy for the event and became a key figure in planning the inaugural official Ryder Cup the following year.

The inaugural Ryder Cup matches were played at Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts back in 1927. The American team, which included Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagen, beat Great Britain 9½-2½. In 1929, Britain got revenge with a 7-5 win in Leeds, England.

The home course advantage was a factor the first four meetings. The USA won 9-3 in Columbus, Ohio in 1931, while the foreign side prevailed 6½-5½ in 1933 in England.

The Americans won 9-3 in 1935 in Ridgewood, N.J., followed by a road win in 1937 in England 8-4. Sarazen, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson were among the victorious USA team in '37.

World War II caused the suspension of The Ryder Cup, with the U.S. retaining the trophy from its 1937 victory. American dominance remained almost complete until 1979, when European professionals were invited to join the Great Britain team to form a more competitive squad (athletes from Northern Ireland were included from 1973 on).

Since then, the field has been much more evenly matched. After 19 American wins in the 20 matches between 1937 and 1977, the European squad has proven a more formidable opponent. Since the expansion, Team Europe has won eight matches and Team USA seven.

1969 Ryder Cup

In 1969, the two teams tied 16-16. It still is remembered as one of the most competitive editions of the tournament, with almost every match coming down to the final green.

In one of golf's most memorable moments of sportsmanship, Tony Jacklin and Jack Nicklaus were tied going into the final hole. Nicklaus, in his first Ryder Cup matches, conceded a 2-footer to Jacklin after making a 4-footer for par on the last green, resulting in the first tie in the matches' history. The U.S. recorded the win because the team was the defending champion. In '89, there was another tie at 14-14.

1985 Ryder Cup

In 1985, Team Europe won the competition for the first time, taking a 16½ to 11½ victory. It was the first time since 1957 that the U.S. had lost. Europe took the victory mostly by dominating the singles matches, winning 7½-4½, though the team also took wins in Saturday's pairs events. Eventually, Scotland's Sam Torrance's 18-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole secured a 1-up victory over Andy North to seal Europe's first Ryder Cup victory in 28 years.

1991 Ryder Cup

In 1991, the Americans won 14½-13½ in Kiawah Island, S.C. Hale Irwin and Bernhard Langer halved a match that Langer had a chance to win. On the final hole, Langer missed a putt that would have been a difference-maker. This tournament became known as the "War on the Shore" since it was held at Kiawah's Ocean Course.

The 1991 tournament also was notable because of the four-ball matchup between Europeans Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal and Americans Paul Azinger and Chip Beck. Ballesteros and Azinger had accused each other of cheating in the previous Ryder Cup, and those accusations were furthered in this tournament two years later. But when paired against each other, their desires to defeat the other provided one of the best pairs matches in Ryder Cup history. The Spaniards won the pairing, 2 and 1.

1999 Ryder Cup

The 1999 Ryder Cup provided one of the most controversial moments in the tournament's history. The U.S. team had entered the final day trailing 10-6 but completely dominated the singles play and eventually won the Americans' first tournament since 1993 by a score of 14½-13½.

The win came down to the final match between American Justin Leonard and Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal, which would decide the final outcome. At the 17th hole, the match was all square, so Leonard needed to win at least one of the last two holes or finish the match evenly to secure an American win. When he took his second putt on the 17th -- a difficult 45-foot shot -- he holed it, setting off a wild celebration by U.S. players, wives and even fans running onto the green. The problem, though, came in that Olazabal had not even finished his putt on the 17th at that point. He couldn't sink his putt after that disruption, and the U.S. celebrated again after sealing its half-point and the tournament win.

No official rules were broken by the U.S. when its players celebrated (no one crossed Olazabal's putting line or disrupted his shot). But many critics -- and especially the European players -- criticized the Americans heavily for their behavior. Even after the match, the criticisms continued, with the European players complaining about the behavior of the American galleries and the Americans branding the European players hypocrites after some excessive celebrations of their own.

After the Cup, several U.S. team members apologized for the celebration and their general behavior during the final match. After numerous efforts by both teams, they eventually were able to settle their differences and there have been few controversial behaviors since.

The 2010 Ryder Cup was held at Celtic Manor's Twenty Ten Course in Wales. It took place Oct. 1-4, 2010, with play extending to Monday due to weather issues. Europe won the cup 14.5-13.5, taking a commanding lead on the modified Sunday session, and holding off a U.S. comeback on the final day of singles play. Because of the rain, which caused delays on both Friday and Sunday, the four-ball and foursomes sessions were modified into three six-match sessions, rather than the traditional four four-match sessions. Sunday's singles play was delayed until Monday, but otherwise the format for singles was unchanged. The single-point margin was the closest since the U.S. won by the same margin in 1999. The result was undecided until the final match, when Hunter Mahan fell to Graeme McDowell, 3 and 1. Had Mahan been able to even the match, he would have earned half a point for the U.S. and the U.S. would have retained the cup as the defending champions.

Rosters

USA -- Captain Corey Pavin. Qualifiers: Phil Mickelson, Hunter Mahan, Bubba Watson, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Dustin Johnson, Jeff Overton, Matt Kuchar. Captain's picks: Tiger Woods, Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink, Rickie Fowler.

Europe -- Captain Colin Montgomerie. Qualifiers: Lee Westwood, Rory Mc Ilroy, Martin Kaymer, Graeme Mc Dowell, Ian Poulter, Ross Fisher, Francesco Molinari, Miguel Angel Jiminez, Peter Hanson. Captain's picks: Padraig Harrington, Luke Donald, Edoardo Molinari.