2023 Ryder Cup


The 44th Ryder Cup was a series of golf matches between teams representing the DP World Tour and the PGA of America for the Ryder Cup, that was held in Italy from 29 September to 1 October 2023 at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Guidonia Montecelio, northeast of Rome. The biennial event was originally scheduled for 2022, before the 43rd matches were postponed into 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The team captains were Luke Donald for Europe and Zach Johnson for the United States; Donald replaced Henrik Stenson, who was removed from the role by the European Tour after joining LIV Golf. Each team of twelve players was made up of six automatic qualifiers and six captain's picks. The top thirteen players in the Official World Golf Ranking played in the event, the first time the entire top ten had done so since the inauguration of the rankings in 1986. The matches were contested with four foursomes and four fourball matches on each of the first two days, with twelve singles matches on Sunday. Europe went into the matches undefeated in Europe since 1993; they required 14 to regain the trophy they last won in 2018; as holder of the trophy, having won in 2021, the USA needed 14 points to retain it.
In the opening foursomes matches on Friday morning, Europe secured a clean sweep to jump into a 4–0 lead. In the fourballs in the afternoon, the USA were unable to hold onto leads in several of the matches and fell further behind as Europe went into day two ahead, 6–1. On Saturday morning, Max Homa and Brian Harman won the USA their first match of the event, but with Europe winning the remaining three foursomes, including a record 9 and 7 victory for Viktor Hovland and rookie Ludvig Åberg over world number one Scottie Scheffler and PGA champion Brooks Koepka, the lead was extended to 9–2. In the afternoon fourballs, the USA won their first session to cut the deficit to 5 points, at 10–5.
On Sunday, Europe secured the first point as Hovland defeated Collin Morikawa; another half point came when Jon Rahm tied his match with Scheffler by winning the 18th hole. When Rory McIlroy and Tyrrell Hatton won their matches, Europe required just half a point from the remaining seven matches out on the course. The next four matches to finish all went to Team USA. Europe's victory was ensured when Tommy Fleetwood won the 16th hole to go dormie two up against Rickie Fowler; Fleetwood won the 17th hole to confirm the win for Team Europe. A win for Robert MacIntyre over U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark in match twelve, and a tie for Shane Lowry against Jordan Spieth brought the final score to 16–11.

Host selection

The bidding process for the 44th edition of Ryder Cup opened on 23 June 2014. Countries had until 31 August to formally express an interest. These expressions had to come either from a central government or a national golf governing body. On 14 December 2015, Rome was announced as the host of 44th Ryder Cup. Italy beat Germany, Austria and Spain to win the bid.
Bidding locations
CountryNearest cityGolf courseRef
AustriaViennaGolf Club Fontana
GermanyBerlinGolf Club Bad Saarow
ItalyRomeMarco Simone Golf and Country Club
SpainGironaPGA Catalunya Resort

Declared an interest but did not enter an official bid
CountryReason of withdrawalRef
DenmarkUnspecified
PortugalThe "prevailing economic environment"
TurkeyRequired up to 15,000 trees to be cut down to accommodate grandstands at its chosen course

Format

The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The competition format will be 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 are 4 foursome matches and 4 fourball matches with the home captain choosing which are played in the morning and which in the afternoon.
With a total of 28 points available, 14 points are required to win the Cup, and 14 points are required for the defending champion to retain the Cup. All matches are played to a maximum of 18 holes.

Team selection

Europe

The European team qualification rules were announced on 30 August 2022. There were several changes from the previous Ryder Cup, with three qualifiers from each of the European and World points lists and the number of captain's picks increased from three to six; the weighting of points was also changed, with highest ranked events now worth 4 times the lowest, having been six times the value previously.
On 9 August 2023, Masters Champion Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy were confirmed after securing their spots via the European points list. On 15 August 2023, Viktor Hovland qualified via the World points list. On 27 August 2023, Tyrrell Hatton qualified via the World points list. The final automatic qualifiers were confirmed on 3 September 2023, at the conclusion of Omega European Masters, as Robert MacIntyre, via the European points list, and Matt Fitzpatrick via the World points list. Luke Donald announced his six captain's picks the following day; they were Tommy Fleetwood, Sepp Straka, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, Nicolai Højgaard, and Ludvig Åberg, who won the final qualifying event and had been a professional for less than three months.
The leading players in the final points lists were:
PositionNamePoints
1Rory McIlroy 4033.5
2Jon Rahm 3417.2
3Robert MacIntyre 1838.2
4Yannik Paul1731.8
5Adrian Meronk1656.0
6Victor Perez1571.0
7Tommy Fleetwood 1534.4
8Rasmus Højgaard1531.9
9Adrián Otaegui1444.8
10Alexander Björk1401.4
11Shane Lowry 1290.2
12Joost Luiten1274.0
13Jordan Smith1258.9
14Jorge Campillo1253.6
15Tyrrell Hatton 1253.0
...-
18Viktor Hovland 1176.3
...-
23Matt Fitzpatrick 972.9
...-
25Nicolai Højgaard 942.1
...
45Sepp Straka 613.2
...
60Ludvig Åberg 500.4
...
94Justin Rose 304.0

PositionNamePoints
1Rory McIlroy 404.8
2Jon Rahm 395.4
3Viktor Hovland 357.0
4Tyrrell Hatton 205.6
5Matt Fitzpatrick 191.1
6Tommy Fleetwood 186.9
7Sepp Straka 152.4
8Shane Lowry 105.2
9Justin Rose 100.3
10Robert MacIntyre 96.4
11Adrian Meronk76.4
12Alex Norén72.6
13Séamus Power71.3
14Thomas Detry69.6
15Victor Perez69.1
16Nicolai Højgaard 62.1
...
58Ludvig Åberg 23.9

United States

The United States qualification rules were confirmed along with the announcement of Johnson as captain on 28 February 2022. There was no change from the amended selection process used for the previous Ryder Cup, with six players qualifying from the Ryder Cup points list and six captain's picks.
Points were awarded as follows:
World number one Scottie Scheffler and U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark secured their qualification in advance of the BMW Championship. Open Champion Brian Harman, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele were the remaining four qualifiers. The six captain's picks were announced on 29 August 2023, two days after the conclusion of the Tour Championship; they were PGA champion Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa, Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas. The leading 15 players in the final points list after the final qualifying event, the BMW Championship, were as follows:
PositionNamePoints
1Scottie Scheffler 27,617.74
2Wyndham Clark 13,738.92
3Brian Harman 11,100.54
4Patrick Cantlay 10,946.75
5Max Homa 9,638.76
6Xander Schauffele 9,450.27
7Brooks Koepka 9,421.15
8Jordan Spieth 8,188.33
9Cameron Young8,127.31
10Collin Morikawa 7,638.23
11Keegan Bradley7,642.97
12Sam Burns 7,334.70
13Rickie Fowler 7,116.24
14Denny McCarthy6,761.27
15Justin Thomas 6,539.20