This year, Sept. 29 through Oct. 1 marked the dates of the 2023 Ryder Cup officially. The Marco Simone Golf and Country Club hosted this historic event, with the course featuring thick roughs, large and smooth greens, and a tough walk with many elevation changes. Vice Captain of Team U.S., Stewart Cink, described it as “probably the most physically demanding of any (Ryder) Cup course I’ve ever seen.”
The Ryder Cup, created by Samuel Ryder in 1927, is a 96 year old golf tournament that brings the best golfers from the United States and Europe together every two years. The two teams feature twelve players from each region that participate in three different formats of match play: eight matches of four ball, eight matches of foursomes, and twelve matches of singles. Each match won is worth a point and each tie is worth half of a point for each team. The first team to attain 14.5 points in the three days wins the Ryder cup title and trophy. Uniquely, however, the United States only needed 14 points to retain the title due to their previous victory in 2021.
This year, big names such as Scottie Scheffler, Rickie Fowler, and Patrick Cantlay represented team U.S. led by captain Zach Johnson and various vice-captains. Opposing this was team Europe, represented by recognizable names such as Rory McIlroy, Victor Hovland, and Matt Fitzpatrick, captained by Luke Donald and various vice-captains. On the first day of the tournament, September 29, four matches of foursomes were played in the morning and four matches of four-ball were played in the afternoon. This resulted in Europe winning every morning foursome match, and winning one out of the four afternoon four-ball matches, and tying the rest with the United States. These results granted Europe 6.5 points and the U.S. 1.5 points on the first day. The next day, the same types of matches were played in the same order, resulting in Europe winning three out of four morning foursome matches and the United States winning three out of four afternoon four-ball matches. This granted each team four points, totalling their scores to 10.5 Europe to 5.5 United States. On the last day, October 1, twelve singles matches were played between the two teams, resulting in five Europeans winning, five American’s winning, and two tied matches. This allowed both teams to gain six points, resulting in the final scores of 16.5 Europe to 11.5 U.S. This unfortunate American loss granted Europe the Ryder Cup title, held until contested again in 2025.
