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The Ryder Cup is a golf competition between men’s teams from the United States and Europe. It is held every two years in alternating venues from the United States and Europe. The event is jointly organized by the PGA of America and Ryder Cup Europe, the latter being a joint venture of PGA European Tour, PGA of Great Britain and Ireland, and PGA of Europe. It is named after Samuel Ryder, an English businessman who donated the first winner’s trophy for the competition.
Ryder Cup History
The first-ever Ryder Cup was held in 1927 at the Worcester Country Club in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was originally competed by the United States and Great Britain. The Americans dominated the first Ryder Cup tournaments, causing a decision to expand the “Great Britain and Ireland” representation to include European players beginning 1979.
The Ryder Cup format involves several match play competitions golfers picked from two teams of 12. The competition begins on a Friday and culminates on a Sunday with the team having the most number of points declared the winner. Currently, a total of 28 points from 28 matches are being competed for.
Format Explained
On the Friday and Saturday, four fourball matches and four foursome matches are scheduled. Not all players per team are required to play on Saturday and Sunday with the team captain choosing any eight players for each of the matches played in the first two days of competition. On Sunday, there are 12 singles matches where all 12 team members play.
A foursome match is one between two teams of two golfers per team with the golfers from the same team taking alternate shots on the same ball. A fourball is a match between two teams of two golfers per team but in this competition, each player plays his own ball throughout the round. The better score between players from the same team becomes the team’s score in a particular round and the score of the other team member is not recorded. Each hole is won by the team whose individual golfer has the lowest score.
What Happened In 2018
Overall, The United States leads the Ryder Cup series at 26-14. England won just thrice against the United States from 1927 to 1978. But since 1979, Europe has won the Ryder Cup 12 times while the United States has only eight victories during that period. Europe has won seven out of the last nine Ryder Cup tournaments, including the most recent one in 2018.
The 2018 Ryder Cup was held at the Le Golf National, Albatros Course in France from September 28-30, 2018. The United States was the defending champions but entering the competition, they had lost five in a row in Europe. That proved to be prophetic again as Europe defeated the Americans with a score of 17 ½ to 10 ½.
The 2020 Ryder Cup
The next Ryder Cup will be in 2020 and it will be held from September 25-27, 2020 at the Straits Course in Whistling Straits, in Haven, Wisconsin in the United States. As early as now, the oddsmakers have already come up with the betting lines for the 2020 event. Here are the odds to win the 2020 Ryder Cup. Odds were taken from MyBookie.ag as of 7/2/19:
- USA -140
- Europe +140
- Tie +1100
Both teams have already made known their team captain for the February 20, 2019, the United States announced that Steve Stricker will be their captain for the 2020 Ryder Cup. A month earlier, on January 8, 2019, Europe picked Padraig Harrington as their captain.
The United States selection process will be the same procedure they used in 2018. The first 8 players are picked from the Top 8 American golfers based on prize money won in important events. The remaining four players will be personally chosen by the team captain.
As for team Europe, the first four players will be picked from the Race To Dubai points list while the next five members will come from the leading five players in the world points list ( if not included in the first four ). Lastly, the three remaining roster spots are the captain’s choice of players.
Who Wins?
The Americans were also the golf betting favorites in 2018 but they got handily beaten by a European team that had five Ryder Cup rookies but were playing with home advantage. When you take a look at the top golfers in the world, the majority of them come from the United States. In fact, when you take a look at the Top 10 golfers in the world, only Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Francesco Molinari, and John Rahm aren’t Americans. That means 6 out of the world’s top 10 golfers are Americans.
The problem with the Americans is which of their players do they include in their 12-man team. But really, that’s a good problem to have as compared to having only a few options to pick from. I’m not saying that Europe doesn’t have enough talent on their side. The European side is equally good. I’m just saying the U.S. is better.
Imagine Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau, Tony Finau and Rickie Fowler on the same team. That’s a very impressive roster. Man for man, I think the Americans have a better team. For them, it’s just a matter of getting things together which I think they can, and they’re back in business. Prediction: United States
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