Montana Pritchard/PGA of America via Getty Images. Pictured: USA captain Steve Stricker (left) and Europe captain Padraig Harrington.
The Ryder Cup has been delayed one year, but it’s back in 2021 and set to be a thriller.
The Europeans will look to continue their dominance of the competition, having won seven of the last nine cups this century. Despite that, the United States is a -200 favor at DraftKings to retain the cup it last won back in 2016.
The Americans no doubt have the edge in terms of talent, but the Europeans have proved they can thrive in a team environment and under the most pressure-filled circumstances — even without a home-field advantage.
Schedule
The Ryder Cup begins on Friday, Sept. 24, with four foursome matches and another four of fourball, also known as best ball.
There will be two sets of four matches for each format on Friday and Saturday, in the morning and afternoon. Then on Sunday, there will be a definitive 12 singles matches.
How to Watch
TABLE/BULLETS
Friday’s Ryder Cup coverage will exclusively be on GOLF Channel, starting at 8:30 a.m. ET and going until 7 p.m.
Over the weekend, things move over to NBC. Saturday’s coverage begins on GOLF Channel from 8:30-9 a.m. ET before moving to NBC until 7 p.m. ET.
On Sunday, the 12 singles matches can be seen live on NBC from noon ET until 6 p.m.
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Format
The Ryder Cup is a race to 14.5 points.
There will be 28 matches played under differing formats, with the winner of each being awarded one point. If any match ends in a draw, each team will get one-half point.
There have only been two ties in the Ryder Cup’s history — back in 1969 when it was just the United States vs. Great Britain, and the other was in 1989 when the U.S. and Europe tied at The Belfry in England.
The aforementioned foursome matches are alternate shot, and the fourball matches will involve each team taking the better shot between the two players. Those are the two events that will take place on Friday and Saturday.
The order of the two competitions on each day is still unknown. The home captain will choose which sets of matches are played in the morning on each day on the day before.
On Sunday, the real drama begins. There will be 12 singles matches played under match-play format.
Rosters
By looking at the Official World Golf Rankings and results over the past year on the PGA TOUR, there’s a clear favorite in this tournament in terms of talent.
Nine of the top 11 players in the world will be playing for the Americans, while just one will be in action for Europe.
Over the last five years, Americans on Stricker’s roster have combined to win 10 of golf’s 20 majors. The Europeans have claimed three in that span.
Here are the rosters, with each players world ranking in parenthesis:
| Team USA | Europe |
|---|---|
| Dustin Johnson (2) | Jon Rahm (1) |
| Collin Morikawa (3) | Viktor Hovland (13) |
| Patrick Cantlay (4) | Rory McIlroy (15) |
| Xander Schauffele (5) | Tyrrell Hatton (19) |
| Justin Thomas (6) | Paul Casey (23) |
| Bryson DeChambeau (7) | Matt Fitzpatrick (27) |
| Tony Finau (9) | Lee Westwood (34) |
| Brooks Koepka (10) | Tommy Fleetwood (36) |
| Harris English (11) | Shane Lowry (40) |
| Jordan Spieth (14) | Sergio Garcia (43) |
| Daniel Berger (16) | Ian Poulter (49) |
| Scott Scheffler (21) | Bernd Wiesberger (61) |