Friday and Saturday, but the Americans mounted a comeback on Sunday to get close to the trophy. However, in the end, they fell short and lost the cup on home soil.
Every 2 years the 12 best golfers from the United States and the 12 best golfers from Europe compete in what is known as the Ryder Cup. It was played this past weekend at Bethpage Black in Long Island NY. It is one of the most energetic atmospheres in golf, with rowdy American crowds cheering for the home team and jeering at the European competitors. But the intensity of the crowd isn’t the only irregular thing about this event. Compared to a regular, 4-day, 72-hole, individual golf tournament, the Ryder Cup is a 3-day, match play, team event.
On Friday morning, alternate shot foursome matches are played. This means that there are two players from each team (USA and EU), and they alternate who is hitting for each team. For example, Elmo and Big Bird are on team USA and Elmo hit the first shot on hole number one. For the next shot, Big Bird will hit, and this process will repeat until the end of the hole. Now, Grover and Cookie Monster are on team Europe, and they go through the same process, but they get the ball in the hole in 3 shots compared to USA’s 4. This means that Grover and Cookie Monster are 1 up on Elmo and Big Bird.
shot. Using Sesame Street Characters again, Elmo and Big Bird both tee off on one and for the second shot they both choose to play from where Elmo’s ball ended up because it was a better shot. Grover and Cookie Monster go through the same process and end up with a 5 on the hole – same as team USA. Because both teams got the same score, the match is tied. This morning and afternoon format is repeated the next day on Saturday. Finally, on Sunday, there are the famous Sunday Singles. Singles are regular match play with one player from Team USA and Team Europe facing off in a head-to-head battle. Each player plays their own ball for the hole and whoever has the lowest score wins the hole. For example, Elmo plays number one in 4 strokes and Grover plays it in 5, therefore Elmo wins the hole and goes 1 up on Grover.
On Friday afternoon, fourball matches are played. This means that, again, there are two players on each team, and they play the best ball from each
To win the Ryder Cup, a team needs 14 points to retain the cup (if they’ve won it before) and 14 ½ to win it outright. Points are earned by winning an entire match. So, if Grover and Cookie Monster won their entire match on Friday, they would get a point. This year, Europe destroyed America on
The Ryder cup is an event that is only played by the male golfers of the PGA Tour, but the LPGA tour, or the Ladies tour, has their own version of the match play event; the Solheim Cup. The Solheim is in an identical format but played during even years (the Ryder cup is played during odd years) and by the 12 best women from Europe and America, respectively. This event, having gone to it myself, is insanely electric and it comes back to the US, more specifically Kentucky, in 2028 to be played at Valhalla Golf Club!
