2018 Ryder Cup


The 42nd Ryder Cup Matches were held in France from 28 to 30 September 2018 on the Albatros Course of Le Golf National in Guyancourt, a suburb southwest of Paris. It was the second Ryder Cup to be held in Continental Europe, after the 1997 contest, which was held in Spain. The United States were the defending champions, but had lost the last five matches in Europe, having last won there in 1993. Europe regained the Ryder Cup, winning by 17 points to 10.
This was the last Ryder Cup to take place in even-numbered years, as the next Ryder Cup was played in 2021.

Format

The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The competition format was as follows:
  • Day 1 – 4 foursome matches and 4 fourball matches
  • Day 2 – 4 foursome matches and 4 fourball matches
  • Day 3 – 12 singles matches
On the first two days there were four fourball matches in the morning and four foursome matches in the afternoon.
With a total of 28 points available, 14 points were required to win the Cup, and 14 points were required for the defending champion, the United States, to retain the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 18 holes.

Bidding for the 2018 Ryder Cup

Ryder Cup Europe confirmed originally six countries—France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden—to be interested in bidding for the 2018 Ryder Cup. The deadline for the submission of bids was set for 30 April 2010; Sweden withdrew from the bidding early that month, while the Spanish bidding host city of Tres Cantos showed poor popular support.
There were five bids to host the event:
  • France: Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
  • Germany: Neuburg/Rohrenfeld
  • Portugal: Lisbon/Comporta, Alentejo Coast
  • Spain: Madrid/Guadarrama
  • Netherlands: Rotterdam/Lingewaal
France was announced as host on 17 May 2011, despite calls for the Cup to be held in Spain as a tribute to the late Seve Ballesteros.

Course

Hole123456789Out101112131415161718InTotal
Metre3801955154453703504401905453,4303501754053905553651604434303,2736,703
Yards4162135634874053834812085963,7523831914434276073991754844703,5797,331
Par435444435364344543443571

Team qualification and selection

Europe

The European team qualification rules were announced on 18 January 2017. There were a number of changes compared to 2016 with an increase in the number of captain's picks from three to four, based on recommendations from the analytics team behind Team Europe. The team consisted of:
  • The leading four players on the Race to Dubai Points List
  • *Points earned in all Race to Dubai tournaments starting with the 2017 D+D Real Czech Masters and ending with the 2018 Made in Denmark that finished on 2 September 2018. Points earned from the 2018 BMW PGA Championship onwards, were multiplied by 1.5.
  • The leading four players, not qualified above, on the World Points List
  • *Total World Points earned in Official World Golf Ranking events starting on 31 August 2017 and ending on 26 August 2018 and thereafter only at the Made in Denmark tournament. Points earned from the date of the 2018 BMW PGA Championship onwards, were multiplied by 1.5. No World points were earned from tournaments staged opposite Rolex Series tournaments in both 2017 and 2018.
  • Four captain's picks
Membership criteria for the European Tour were reduced from five tournaments to four for the 2018 season. As in previous Ryder Cups, all players had to be members of the European Tour to be eligible to play for Europe. Changes were also made to the eligibility of future captains and vice-captains.
Paul Casey became a member of the European Tour at the start of 2018. Since he was not a member during 2017 he did not earn points until the start of 2018.
The leading players in the European Ryder Cup points lists were:
PositionNamePoints
1Francesco Molinari 6,182,450.35
2Justin Rose 4,518,651.42
3Tyrrell Hatton 4,326,297.77
4Tommy Fleetwood 3,668,310.57
5Thorbjørn Olesen 3,634,765.46
6Jon Rahm 3,617,769.82
7Rory McIlroy 3,482,791.06
8Alex Norén 3,444,442.21
9Russell Knox2,659,683.33
10Eddie Pepperell2,509,997.42
11Matt Fitzpatrick2,390,681.42
12Rafa Cabrera-Bello2,256,340.05
13Matt Wallace2,081,455.61
14Ross Fisher2,003,759.99
15Jorge Campillo1,782,949.97
16Henrik Stenson 1,666,022.41
17Paul Dunne1,628,405.68

PositionNamePoints
1Francesco Molinari 373.12
2Justin Rose 366.69
3Jon Rahm 327.18
4Rory McIlroy 309.29
5Tommy Fleetwood 308.71
6Tyrrell Hatton 252.68
7Alex Norén 252.62
8Thorbjørn Olesen 179.14
9Ian Poulter 170.87
10Rafa Cabrera-Bello168.75
11Paul Casey 167.05
12Matt Fitzpatrick159.05
13Sergio García 146.93
14Eddie Pepperell145.24
15Russell Knox144.71
16Matt Wallace143.22
17Henrik Stenson 140.62

The remaining three players selected as captain's picks, Ian Poulter, Sergio García and Paul Casey, finished in 22nd, 24th and 35th place respectively on the European points list.

United States

The United States qualification rules were announced on 8 February 2017. The majority of the team were selected from the Ryder Cup points list which was based on prize money won in important tournaments. Generally one point was awarded for every $1,000 earned. The team consisted of:
The qualification rules were similar to those used for the 2016 Ryder Cup. The points given for the 2018 season major championships were reduced from double to 50% extra. The dates on which the captain's picks were made were brought forward by one or two weeks.
The leading 15 players in the final points list after the final qualifying event, the 2018 PGA Championship were:
PositionNamePoints
1Brooks Koepka13,298.472
2Dustin Johnson9,549.287
3Justin Thomas8,929.122
4Patrick Reed7,821.880
5Bubba Watson5,584.137
6Jordan Spieth5,481.427
7Rickie Fowler5,006.112
8Webb Simpson4,534.745
9Bryson DeChambeau4,316.108
10Phil Mickelson4,207.953
11Tiger Woods4,196.794
12Xander Schauffele3,924.096
13Matt Kuchar3,843.696
14Kevin Kisner3,680.121
15Tony Finau3,512.021

Players in qualifying places are shown in green. Captain's picks are shown in yellow.

Teams

Captains

was named as the European captain on 6 December 2016. He was chosen by a five-man panel made up of the three most recent European Ryder Cup captains, the Chief Executive of the European Tour, Keith Pelley, and European Tour Tournament Committee member Henrik Stenson.
Jim Furyk was named as the USA captain on 11 January 2017.