The Rider Cup

“The Ryder Cup is now one of the most riveting, most exciting, most keenly anticipated and most closely contested events in all sport. It is golf’s Super Bowl, the Royal and Ancient game’s Olympics. It is Big Time in capital letters!”

— Alister Nicol

The most beautiful golf competition

The Ryder Cup is a golf trophy created in 1927, inherited by Samuel Ryder (this is where the name of the competition come from), which rewards every two years the winner of the tournament that opposes Europe and the United States against each other in teams since 1979.

Ryder Cup, France, 2018

The story

The competition began as an exhibition match in 1926 between two professional teams, one American and one British, on the Wenworth Club course in the United Kingdom. However, the first real Ryder Cup was played in 1927 in the United States.

The first editions of the Ryder Cup were very close but after the Second World War, the American team started to over-dominate. It was then decided to integrate to the British team the best European players in order to rebalance the competition. Therefore, today it is a competition between Europe and the United States.

The tournament

The Ryder Cup lasts 3 days, from Friday to Sunday. The goal is simple: the first team to reach a score of 14 and a half points is declared the winner of the trophy.

The two teams are made up of 12 players who compete in different duels. The winner of each duel earns one point and half a point to each player in case of a tie.
Two types of duels take place: the duo (Friday and Saturday) and the solo (Sunday).

In duo, the captains have the freedom to define the teams. A player from a team does not need to play the duo matchs. In solo, all players on a team play one match.

Nearly a billion viewers over three days, players and supporters overexcited in an atmosphere sometimes similar to a soccer stadium… Every two years, the Ryder Cup triggers a unique fever in the golf world. This event took place for the first time in France in 2018. The national golf of Saint-Quentin en Yvelines has welcomed the Ryder Cup and the European team won ! 😀