The 43rd Ryder Cup gets under way on Friday, September 24th, and will see Europe take on the USA at Whistling Straits for the first time, a year later than originally planned due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The visitors, led by Ireland’s Pádraig Harrington, are looking to retain the trophy they won at Le Golf National in Paris three years ago while the US hope to make it back-to-back wins on home soil.
Here is all you need to know about this year’s Ryder Cup.
When is it on?
The match will be played over the three days of Friday, September 24th, Saturday, September 25th, and Sunday, September 26th.
And what format does it take?
This year US captain Steve Stricker has opted to start with foursomes on Friday morning, followed by fourballs in the afternoon. Saturday will take the same form before Sunday will see 12 singles matches take place to decide the winner.
The winner of each match gets a point, with half points for drawn games and a total of 28 points up for grabs. As the defending champions Europe need just 14 points to retain the trophy, while the US need 14 and a half to win it back.
What time will the matches take place?
With two sessions on each of the first two days and daylight dwindling as we move further into autumn, play always gets underway early at the Ryder Cup, allowing for those unique scenes of fans congregating around the first tee while it’s still in darkness. Each of the first two days’ play should be finished by around 12.30am Irish time and earlier on Sunday.
There’s a six-hour time difference between Ireland and Kohler, Wisconsin so tee times will be as follows:
All times Irish (local time in brackets)
Friday morning foursomes
1.05pm (7.05am): Justin Thomas/Jordan Spieth v Jon Rahm/Sergio Garcia
1.21pm (7.21am): Dustin Johnson/Collin Morikawa v Paul Casey/Viktor Hovland
1.37pm (7.37am): Brooks Koepka/Daniel Berger v Lee Westwood/Matt Fitzpatrick
1.53pm (7.53am): Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele v Rory McIlroy/Ian Poulter
Friday afternoon fourballs
Match 1: 6.10pm (12.10pm)
Match 2: 6.26pm (12.26pm)
Match 3: 6.42pm (12.42pm)
Match 4: 6.58pm (12.58pm)
Saturday morning foursomes
Match 1: 1.05pm (7.05am)
Match 2: 1.21pm (7.21am)
Match 3: 1.37pm (7.37am)
Match 4: 1.53pm (7.53am)
Saturday afternoon fourballs
Match 1: 6.10pm (12.10pm)
Match 2: 6.26pm (12.26pm)
Match 3: 6.42pm (12.42pm)
Match 4: 6.58pm (12.58pm)
Sunday singles
Match 1: 5.04pm (11.04am)
Match 2: 5.15pm (11.15am)
Match 3: 5.26pm (11.26am)
Match 4: 5.37pm (11.37am)
Match 5: 5.48pm (11.48am)
Match 6: 5.59pm (11.59am)
Match 7: 6.10pm (12.10pm)
Match 8: 6.21pm (12.21pm)
Match 9: 6.32pm (12.32pm)
Match 10: 6.43pm (12.43pm)
Match 11: 6.54pm (12.54pm)
Match 12: 7.05pm (1.05pm)
So where can I follow it all?
Sky Sports have exclusive television rights to the Ryder Cup in the UK and Ireland, with coverage starting on Sky Sports Golf at 1pm on Friday and Saturday and 5pm on Sunday.
Alternatively, you can follow every point, every thrill and every spill on our liveblog on www.irishtimes.com/sport which will kick off at 12.30pm on Friday and Saturday and 4.30pm on Sunday.
What are the teams?
There’s no doubt that the US boast a significantly stronger team on paper than their visiting opponents but, as we all know, that’s often the case in the Ryder Cup and, more often than not, isn’t how it’s played out.
Steve Stricker’s 12-man lineup is made up of 11 players inside the world’s top 16 with only Scottie Scheffler (ranked 21st) the outlier. It’s a seriously formidable lineup and could well be one of the strongest Ryder Cup teams ever. However, whether they can gel as a team is always the question and one that doesn’t seem to affect Europe as much.
Last week Brooks Koepka spoke about his feelings towards the Ryder Cup and possibly offered one of the best windows into why US teams regularly appear to underperform.
You go from an individual sport all the time to a team sport one week a year,” he added. “It’s so far from my normal routine. I can barely see my (personal) team. It’s hard to even go to the gym.
“It’s more demanding than I’m used to, and there’s a lot of emotion there, so by Sunday, you’re just dead.”
Koepka added that while he would love to represent his country at the Olympics, it was “just maybe not in my DNA, the team sports thing.” Not the sort of comments that would fill US fans with confidence heading into this year’s match.
For Europe, the top end of the team looks just as strong as the US with world number one Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy among them. However, the strength doesn’t run quite as deep in Harrington’s lineup although he does have just three rookies as opposed to six on the US side.
One of those rookies is Ireland’s Shane Lowry who narrowly missed out on automatic qualification for the team and was selected by Harrington as a wildcard while Bernd Wiesberger and Viktor Hovland will both also make their debuts.
There is some Irish interest as well in the vice-captains as Graeme McDowell takes on the role again along with Luke Donald, Martin Kaymer, Robert Karlsson and Henrik Stenson.
European Ryder Cup team
Jon Rahm
Tommy Fleetwood
Tyrrell Hatton
Bernd Wiesberger
Rory McIlroy
Viktor Hovland
Paul Casey
Matt Fitzpatrick
Lee Westwood
Sergio Garcia
Shane Lowry
Ian Poulter
US Ryder Cup team
Dustin Johnson
Collin Morikawa
Brooks Koepka
Bryson DeChambeau
Patrick Cantlay
Justin Thomas
Daniel Berger
Harris English
Tony Finau
Xander Schauffele
Scottie Scheffler
Jordan Spieth
When will pairings be announced?
As is tradition the pairings for the opening foursomes session will be announced at the opening ceremony on Thursday evening. That will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Golf at 10pm.
