We take a look at the Ryder Cup format, where Europe go up against America at Hazeltine National Golf Club in the most exciting contest on the golfing calendar
The Ryder Cup takes place at Hazeltine National Golf Club from Friday 30th September for three days. This year marks the 41st edition of the biennial contest between team USA and team Europe, who each take turns to host the tournament.
While the actual golf will begin on the Friday morning, the opening ceremony takes place on the Thursday evening, during which the two captains, Davis Love III for the USA and Darren Clarke for Europe, will announce their pairings for the first set of foursomes matches to take place the next day.
Five potential European Ryder Cup pairings
In total, 28 matches are contested at the Ryder Cup with each worth one point. 14.5 points are enough for an outright win, but if you’re the defending champions, a tie at 14 points means you retain the Ryder Cup. There are 12 players on each team and only eight players can play in each foursomes or fourball session.
The format of the matches
Friday’s play consists of four foursomes matches in the morning followed by four fourball matches in the afternoon. This is repeated on Saturday and then on Sunday, there are 12 singles matches during which everyone in each team plays an opponent drawn at random based on the order each captain puts their team out.
Foursomes is an alternate shot format where teams in pairs take turns to hit the shot on each hole. So if player 1 hits the tee shot, player 2 will play the next shot from where the ball finishes and so on. This continues until the ball is holed out. It is a matchplay competition against the other team, so whoever holes out with the lowest score wins the hole. Players on each team will take turns to tee off, so one player will tee off from the even-numbered holes, the other player from the odd-numbered holes.
In Fourballs, both players from each team play their own ball, so there are four balls in play on each hole. The best score from each team go against eachother in a matchplay competition.
The Ryder Cup schedule of play (Times BST)
Friday
Foursomes (4 points to be won)
1st Match 12.35pm
2nd Match 12.50pm
3rd Match 1.05pm
4th Match 1.20pm
Fourballs (4 points to be won)
1st Match 5.30pm
2nd Match 5.45pm
3rd Match 6.00pm
4th Match 6.15pm
Saturday
Foursomes (4 points to be won)
1st Match 12.35pm
2nd Match 12.50pm
3rd Match 1.05pm
4th Match 1.20pm
Fourballs (4 points to be won)
1st Match 5.30pm
2nd Match 5.45pm
3rd Match 6.00pm
4th Match 6.15pm
Sunday
Singles (12 points in total to be won)
1st Match 4.04pm
2nd Match 4.15pm
3rd Match 4.26pm
4th Match 4.37pm
5th Match 4.48pm
6th Match 4.59pm
7th Match 5.10pm
8th Match 5.21pm
9th Match 5.32pm
10th Match 5.43pm
11th Match 5.54pm
12th Match 6.05pm
Singles Matches due to finish at approximately 9.55pm
All of the play will be shown live on Sky Sports – check out our guide to watching the Ryder Cup action without having to sign up to Sky Sports
This article What is the format of the Ryder Cup? appeared first on Golf Monthly.