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All You Need to Know About This Year’s Ryder Cup

All You Need To Know About This Year’s Ryder Cup

Following the conclusion of this year’s PGA Tour Championship, focus now turns to The Ryder Cup, as it returns this year following the postponement of the biennial competition between the United States and Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The anticipation is building over this high-profile team golfing tournament, so here is all you need to know about this year’s edition of the competition.

When is the 2021 Ryder Cup?

The 2021 Ryder Cup will tee off on Friday 24th September and run until Sunday 26th September, but there will also be an opening ceremony taking place on Thursday 23rd September.

Where will the Ryder Cup take place?

The 43rd edition of the competition will take place at Whistling Straits in Haven, Wisconsin. The course has previously hosted the PGA Tour Championship in 2004, 2010 and most recently in 2015 which saw Australian Jason Day take the crown.

The area that hosts the Ryder Cup alternates between courses in the United State and Europe. The last Ryder Cup, in 2018, was held at Le Golf National in Paris, France. The course that hosted the last Ryder Cup that took place in the Unites States was Hazeltime National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota in 2016.

The following edition of the Ryder Cup, in 2023, has already been confirmed to take place at Marco Simeone Golf and Country Club in Rome, Italy.

How will the Ryder Cup work?

The Ryder Cup will consist of 28 matches with all matches being 18 holes. The opening day of the competition will consist of four foursome matches occurring in the morning and four fourball matches occurring during the afternoon. On the following day, this will be reversed with the fourball matches taking place in the morning and foursome matches in the afternoon. On the final day, the whole day will comprise of singles matches where every team member will take part.

The team captains will be able to choose any eight players to take part in the rounds on Friday and Saturday, with two teams of two golfers battling it out another each other. The victor of each match will earn one point for his team while half points can be awarded if matches are tied following the 18 holes.

The winner of the Ryder Cup will be the first team to reach 14½ points. If there is a tie, with both teams accumulating a score of 14 points, then the title will be awarded to the reigning champions.

The winner of the 2018 Ryder Cup was Team Europe, which has also been very dominant in the competition in recent times, winning nine of the past twelve Ryder Cups.

Who are the Ryder Cup Captains?

Leading Team Europe is Ireland’s Padraig Harrington. Despite that fact that he will not be playing, he has a vast amount of experience within the competition having represented the European team six times, winning four times in 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2010.

While for the American team, Steve Stricker will be captaining the side.

Who is in the teams?

For Team USA, six golfers automatically qualify on the grounds of their performances during the 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons, while the other six golfers will be chosen by team captain Stricker. For Team Europe, nine golfers will automatically qualify with the other three places chosen by team captain Harrington.

For Team USA, the automatic qualifiers are:

  • Colin Morikawa
  • Dustin Johnson
  • Bryson DeChambeau
  • Brooks Koepka
  • Justin Thomas
  • Patrick Cantlay

While the captain’s picks are:

  • Daniel Berger
  • Harris English
  • Tony Finau
  • Xander Schauffele
  • Scottie Scheffler
  • Jordan Spieth

When asked about his six picks, Stricker expressed his confidence in them believing that they will help the United States “bring the cup back where it belongs.”

“All are a great fit for Whistling Straits. We are super excited about these six individuals,” he said. “I talked to each and every one of them a couple of days ago and they are extremely excited, happy and fired up to be part of this team.”

For Team Europe, automatic qualifying has not yet concluded but the likes of Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm have already secured their qualification. The other four automatic spots will be announced following the conclusion of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. Captain Harrington will then need to finish off assembling his team, choosing who gets the three remaining spots.

When discussing what the key aspects will be when finalising his team, Harrington stated: “The picks are not about picking the 10th, 11th and 12th-best players. The picks are about picking three players who complement the nine who qualify, and who match up well with those guys and bring balance to the team where it’s needed.”

It promises to be another iconic Ryder Cup, but with Team Europe strong favourites to win yet again, will Team USA be able to pull something out of the hat?

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