A Brief History of The Ryder Cup.

The Ryder Cup is a contest that is held every 2 years between the PGA tours of Europe and the United States. Samuel Ryder was an English entrepreneur and also a keen golfer who funded an international golf competition in 1926.

While watching this competition he thought it would be a good idea to make the match a regular event. So he donated a gold trophy, and in 1927, after the trophy was named after him, the first official Ryder Cup competition was played in Massachusetts between teams from the USA and the UK.

After a long period of US domination in the Ryder Cup, in 1979 the UK team was extended to include Europe and since then the competition has been a lot closer.

Both Ryder Cup teams are made up of 12 players and are captained by an experienced golfer from their respective countries. The majority of both teams are made up from the top players on each tour's order of merit, the exception being that the captain's are allowed a number of picks. At present, the US captain has 4 picks while his European counterpart has 2.

Currently, the format of the Ryder Cup is played over 3 days. On days 1 and 2 there are 4 foursome matches and 4 fourball matches. The team playing at home gets to choose whether they play foursomes or fourballs in the morning or afternoon. A foursome match has 2 players from each team and the players play alternate shots. Player 1 on each team tees off, and player 2 takes the second shot and continues like this until the hole is completed. In the fourballs, there are still 2 players on each team but they play their own balls this time until the hole is completed.

On day 3 there are 12 singles matches. With 1 point available for a win and ½ point available if the match is drawn the magic number to reach is 14 ½ points to win the trophy outright. The present holders of the trophy will retain it with 14 points. All matches are played as matchplay as opposed to stroke play

A lot of changes have been made to the Ryder Cup over the years, but it is still one of the most exciting and hard fought competitions in the golfing world. The USA team are the current holders of the trophy, but the European team will be bidding to win it back when the next event takes place at Celtic Manor golf club in Wales in 2010.