2014 Ryder Cup


The 40th Ryder Cup matches were held 26–28 September 2014 in Scotland on the PGA Centenary Course at the Gleneagles Hotel near Auchterarder in Perth & Kinross. This was the second Ryder Cup held in Scotland; it was previously at Muirfield in 1973. The team captains in 2014 were Paul McGinley for Europe and Tom Watson for the USA.
Europe were the defending cup holders, having won in 2012 at Medinah Country Club near Chicago.
Europe won the 2014 competition to retain the Ryder Cup, defeating the US by 16 points to 11, for their third consecutive win. From 1995 to 2014, Europe won eight out of ten Ryder Cups.

Format

The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The competition format was as follows:
  • Day 1 – 4 fourball matches in the morning, followed by 4 foursome matches in the afternoon
  • Day 2 – 4 fourball matches in the morning, followed by 4 foursome matches in the afternoon
  • Day 3 – 12 singles matches
On the Monday before the competition, European captain Paul McGinley announced that he had chosen to play fourball matches in the mornings, as had been the case for every European home captain since 1997.
With a total of 28 points available, 14 points were required for the US to win the Ryder Cup, and 14 points were required for Europe to retain it. All matches were played to a maximum of 18 holes. If a match was level after 18 holes each side was awarded half a point.

Course

The Gleneagles Hotel, located one hour outside of Edinburgh and set in grounds of, had undergone a major redevelopment programme, partly in preparation for the 2014 Ryder Cup.
The PGA Centenary Course, designed by Jack Nicklaus and one of three at Gleneagles, currently measures off the championship tees. The course was awarded the Ryder Cup in 2001, and it was originally scheduled to host the matches in 2013, however this was delayed a year due to the alteration of the Ryder Cup schedule after the September 11 attacks in 2001. This was the final Ryder Cup to be affected by the rescheduling, as it was the furthest scheduled match at the time of the attacks. Just as the 2012 matches had been, all future matches are regularly scheduled for even-numbered years.
Hole123456789Out101112131415161718InTotal
Yards4265164312394612014684195643,7252083504454813204635431945333,5377,262
Par454343445363444445353672

Television

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Sky Sports provided live coverage, with the BBC showing highlights each evening on free-to-air television.
Coverage in South Africa was provided on the Supersport channels.
In the US, corporate siblings Golf Channel and NBC televised the event live, after NBC had traded for complete rights back from ESPN, who had televised the previous three Ryder Cups on Friday. Golf Channel televised action on Friday and a half-hour on Saturday, from where NBC took over for the rest of the weekend. In the early-morning sessions, Terry Gannon hosted from the 18th tower alongside Frank Nobilo. Curt Byrum and Tom Abbott served as hole announcers and Jerry Foltz was an on-course commentator. Nick Faldo appeared as a guest commentator on Friday, and sparked controversy after critical comments about Sergio García. For the afternoon sessions and the singles matches on Sunday, the regular NBC golf crew provided coverage. Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller hosted from the 18th tower, with Gary Koch and Peter Jacobsen as hole announcers. On course commentators were Mark Rolfing, Roger Maltbie and Notah Begay III. On the weekend, Colin Montgomerie appeared as a guest commentator to lend a European perspective, a role he previously filled for NBC in 2012.

Team qualification and selection

Europe

The European team qualification rules were announced on 21 May 2013. The number of captain's picks was increased from 2 to 3 with the number of players qualifying from the European Points being reduced from 5 to 4. The team consists of:
The leading players in the European Ryder Cup points lists were:
PositionNamePoints
1Rory McIlroy 5,537,075
2Henrik Stenson 2,893,569
3Victor Dubuisson 2,880,183
4Jamie Donaldson 2,676,347
5Sergio García 2,539,593
6Thomas Bjørn 2,489,769
7Justin Rose 2,138,323
8Martin Kaymer 2,006,411
9Ian Poulter 1,962,707
10Joost Luiten1,734,717
11Stephen Gallacher 1,698,110
12Graeme McDowell 1,668,114
13Miguel Ángel Jiménez1,579,637
14Francesco Molinari1,461,394
15Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño1,316,360
16Mikko Ilonen1,254,683
17Shane Lowry1,248,905
18David Howell1,198,954
19Lee Westwood 1,167,563
20Pablo Larrazábal1,112,459

PositionNamePoints
1Rory McIlroy 538.18
2Henrik Stenson 389.60
3Sergio García 368.05
4Justin Rose 287.38
5Martin Kaymer 247.27
6Thomas Bjørn 206.34
7Victor Dubuisson 204.79
8Jamie Donaldson 194.51
9Graeme McDowell 171.82
10Stephen Gallacher 170.21
11Luke Donald167.55
12Ian Poulter 150.62
13Miguel Ángel Jiménez142.85
14Francesco Molinari141.45
15Joost Luiten136.58
16Lee Westwood 120.48
17Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño111.13
18Pablo Larrazábal106.27
19Mikko Ilonen102.89
20Shane Lowry95.55

In the European points list, Donaldson had overtaken García by winning the penultimate qualifying event and since neither García nor Bjørn played in the final event and since no other player could pass Donaldson, he was assured of his place before the Italian Open.
The leading four players in the World points list had qualified before the final event. Stephen Gallacher was then 11.21 points behind Graeme McDowell. The winner of the Italian Open would score 24 points with second place scoring 14.4 and third 9.6. Gallacher therefore needed to either win the Italian Open, finish second alone or finish second jointly with just one other player to overtake McDowell and move into the final automatic qualification spot. In the final round he scored 65 but David Howell had scored 63 to take second place by a single shot, pushing Gallacher down to third place.

United States

The United States qualification rules were announced on 20 March 2013. They remained the same as for 2012 except that the number of captain's picks was reduced from four to three. The team consists of:
  • The leading nine players on the Ryder Cup points list
  • *Points are gained from money earned in majors in 2013 and official 2014 PGA Tour events beginning with the Frys.com Open on 10 October 2013 through the PGA Championship on 10 August 2014. One point is awarded for every $1,000 earned. Money earned in 2014 majors count double and money earned in 2014 alternate events count half.
  • Three captain's picks
  • *The captain's picks were announced on 2 September 2014 following the conclusion of the Italian Open and Deutsche Bank Championship. Watson selected Keegan Bradley, Hunter Mahan, and Webb Simpson.
Players in the qualifying places are shown in green, and captain's picks are shown in yellow. In late July Dustin Johnson announced that he was taking a leave of absence from golf and would miss the Ryder Cup. The qualifying places were therefore extended to the player finishing in 10th place in the points list. Mickelson's second-place finish in the 2014 PGA Championship lifted him from 11th to 5th place in the standings. Zach Johnson made the cut in the PGA Championship and this was sufficient to lift him above Jason Dufner and give him the last automatic place despite a last round of 77 which left him in a tie for 70th place and 35.8 points. Dufner withdrew from the event because of a neck injury.
PositionName2013
Majors		2014
Majors		Regular
events		Alternate
events		Points
1Bubba Watson105.9773277.4003546.66106930.038
2Rickie Fowler293.6974994.4801445.07606733.253
3Jim Furyk921.0402302.1183484.53606707.694
4Jimmy Walker01548.1304563.27506111.405
5Phil Mickelson2172.0002436.928901.41105510.339
Dustin Johnson413.662941.9273778.21705133.806
6Matt Kuchar462.2261044.9393607.50005114.665
7Jordan Spieth24.6411913.0102898.17704835.828
8Patrick Reed0134.4403515.78703650.227
9Zach Johnson496.827166.0242905.84303568.694
10Jason Dufner1883.19950.0591626.46203559.720
11Ryan Moore88.151374.3152890.40503352.871
12Brendon Todd0344.3732999.00903343.382
13Keegan Bradley206.530840.5552277.61203324.697
14Chris Kirk16.300509.4312762.15103287.882
15Webb Simpson125.08161.6562968.83303155.570

Source:
In mid-August Tiger Woods announced that he would not be able to play in the 2014 Ryder Cup because of back problems and would therefore not be one of Watson's three captain's picks. Woods had finished 71st in the Ryder Cup points list.