The 41st Ryder Cup Matches were held in the United States from September 30 to October 2, 2016, at the Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, a suburb southwest of Minneapolis. Europe entered the competition as the cup holders, having won in 2014 in Scotland for their third consecutive win.

41st Ryder Cup Matches
Logo
DatesSeptember 30 – October 2, 2016
VenueHazeltine National Golf Club
LocationChaska, Minnesota
Captains
United States 17 11 Europe
United States wins the Ryder Cup
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2018 →
Hazeltine National Golf Club is located in the United States
Hazeltine National Golf Club
Hazeltine National
Golf Club
Hazeltine National Golf Club is located in Minnesota
Hazeltine National Golf Club
Hazeltine National
Golf Club

The United States won for the first time since 2008 at Valhalla, and featured the most lopsided American victory since a 9-point win in 1981 at Walton Heath. As in 2008, the U.S. never trailed during the tournament. Ryan Moore defeated Lee Westwood by 1 hole to reclaim the Cup with three matches still in progress. Captain Davis Love III dedicated the win to Arnold Palmer, who had died five days before the competition at the age of 87 while awaiting heart surgery. A bag from Palmer's captaincy in 1975 at Laurel Valley was placed on the first tee during Friday's opening foursomes to honor "The King", and Team USA also swept the opening foursomes on Friday morning for the first time since 1975. Two days after the matches, the majority of Team USA attended Palmer's public memorial at Saint Vincent College in his hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and brought the trophy at the request of Palmer's daughter Amy.[1] Palmer had also had a video tribute at the opening ceremony and tributes in remarks from both captains (Love and Darren Clarke) and both honorary captains (Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin).

Format

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The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The competition format is as follows:

  • Day 1 (Friday) – 4 foursome (alternate shot) matches and 4 fourball (better ball) matches
  • Day 2 (Saturday) – 4 foursome matches and 4 fourball matches
  • Day 3 (Sunday) – 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, 1412 points are required to win the Cup, and 14 points are required for the defending champion, Europe, to retain the Cup. All matches are played to a maximum of 18 holes according to the current format.

Course

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Crowds gather around the 17th hole at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota during the 2016 Ryder Cup

The announcement that the PGA of America had selected Hazeltine as the venue for the 2016 Ryder Cup was made on April 22, 2002.[2]

The order of holes is different from that normally used for the course. The front nine are current holes 1–4 and 14–18 while the back nine are current holes 10–13 and 5–9.[3]

Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Out 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 In Total
Yards 442 429 633 210 352 642 402 186 475 3,771 452 606 518 248 448 405 572 176 432 3,857 7,628
Par 4 4 5 3 4 5 4 3 4 36 4 5 4 3 4 4 5 3 4 36 72

Television

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The 2016 Ryder Cup was televised in the United States by Golf Channel and NBC, which planned to provide 170 hours of coverage. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the event was broadcast by Sky Sports; the broadcaster re-branded its Sky Sports 4 channel as Sky Sports Ryder Cup for the week of the event, and planned to broadcast 240 hours of coverage.[4]

Task Force

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Following the European victory in the 2014 Ryder Cup, the PGA of America created a "Ryder Cup Task Force". The Task Force consisted of three PGA officials and eight players with Ryder Cup experience. There were three previous Ryder Cup captains: Raymond Floyd, Tom Lehman and Davis Love III together with Rickie Fowler, Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods. The Task Force considered a number of issues including the selection of the Ryder Cup captain and vice-captains and the team selection process.[5]

The conclusions of the Task Force were announced on February 24, 2015, with the announcement of a number of changes for the 2016 contest. Davis Love III was selected as the captain, while new criteria were specified for the selection of vice-captains. In addition a number of changes were made to the team selection process for 2016. The 11-man Task Force was disbanded after the announcement and replaced with a smaller 6-man "Ryder Cup Committee" which included Love, Mickelson and Woods.[6]

Team qualification and selection

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United States

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The United States qualification rules were announced by the Task Force on February 24, 2015. The majority of the team was 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:[6]

There were a number of changes from 2014. The number of captain's picks was increased from three to four with the selections being made later than previously, especially moving the fourth and last pick to less than a week before the Ryder Cup, right after the completion of the Tour Championship. The qualifying events included both the 2015 World Golf Championships events and The Players Championship, on top of the four 2015 major championships as in previous years, but only included 2016 PGA Tour events actually played in 2016, thus excluded any other event played in 2015. The qualifying period was also extended because the Olympic Games had moved the timeslot for the 2016 PGA Championship which took place already at the end of July.

The leading 15 players (and including the last captain's pick who was in 20th place) in the final points list[7] were:

Position Name Points
1 Dustin Johnson 11975.111
2 Jordan Spieth 11400.143
3 Phil Mickelson 5919.636
4 Patrick Reed 5710.371
5 Jimmy Walker 5337.662
6 Brooks Koepka 4890.375
7 Brandt Snedeker 4432.539
8 Zach Johnson 4359.597
9 Bubba Watson 4210.011
10 J. B. Holmes 4179.466
11 Rickie Fowler 4079.528
12 Matt Kuchar 4035.220
13 Scott Piercy 3356.841
14 Bill Haas 3239.755
15 Jim Furyk 3032.852
...
20 Ryan Moore 2877.193

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

Europe

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The European team qualification rules were announced on May 26, 2015. The basic qualification rules were unchanged from those for the 2014 event. The team consisted of:[8][9]

  • The leading four players on the Ryder Cup European Points List
  • The leading five players, not qualified above, on the Ryder Cup World Points List
    • Total World Rankings Points earned in Official World Golf Ranking events starting on September 3, 2015 (the start date of the M2M Russian Open), and ending with the Made in Denmark tournament that finished on August 28, 2016, except that (i) all events in the week finishing on August 14, 2016 (the week of the men's Olympic tournament), were excluded and (ii) only the Made in Denmark tournament ending on August 28, 2016, was counted for that week. The Open de France was allocated Ryder Cup points based on the OWGR points scale for a tournament whose winner earns 64 OWGR points, though the winner actually only earned 42 OWGR points.
  • Three captain's picks
    • Announced in the week starting August 29, 2016.

Only European members of the European Tour were eligible for the team and players could only earn points in the above two lists while they were a member of the European Tour. Paul Casey was not a member of the European Tour and was ineligible to earn points or be selected to the team.[10] Russell Knox was not yet a member of the European Tour when he won the 2015 WGC-HSBC Champions. Two weeks after that win, he took up membership in order to try to qualify for the Ryder Cup,[11] but the money and the approximately 90 OWGR points he had earned since the start of the qualification period[12] did not count toward his Ryder Cup point totals. If these OWGR points had counted, he would have qualified easily by finishing fourth on the world ranking list; instead, he finished in tenth place, 12.36 OWGR points from automatic qualification, and was not selected as a captain's pick.[13]

The leading players in the European Ryder Cup points lists were:[14]

Players in qualifying places (Q) are shown in green; captain's picks (P) are shown in yellow; those in italics (q) qualified through the other points list.

Sergio García and Justin Rose, who qualified through the World points list, finished in 17th and 26th place respectively on the European points list.[14]

Teams

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Captains

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Darren Clarke was named as the European captain on February 18, 2015.[15] He was selected by a five-man selection panel consisting of the last three Ryder Cup captains: Paul McGinley, José María Olazábal, Colin Montgomerie, another ex-Ryder Cup player David Howell and the European Tour chief executive George O'Grady.[16]

Davis Love III was named the United States captain on February 24, 2015.[17] He had previously captained the 2012 team.

Vice-captains

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Each captain selects a number of vice-captains to assist him during the tournament.

Clarke selected Thomas Bjørn, Pádraig Harrington, and Paul Lawrie as European team vice-captains in May 2016.[18] He added Ian Poulter in June[19] and Sam Torrance in July.[20]

Tom Lehman was named as a United States vice-captain at the same press conference that Love was named as captain.[17] In November 2015 three more vice-captains were named: Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods. All three had been members of the American Task Force.[21] On September 27, 2016, Love selected Bubba Watson as the fifth vice-captain.[22]

Players

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  Team USA
Name Age Points
rank
World
ranking
Previous
Ryder Cups
Matches W–L–H Winning
percentage
Dustin Johnson 32 1 2 2 7 4–3–0 57.14
Jordan Spieth 23 2 4 1 4 2–1–1 62.50
Phil Mickelson 46 3 15 10 41 16–19–6 46.34
Patrick Reed 26 4 8 1 4 3–0–1 87.50
Jimmy Walker 37 5 16 1 5 1–1–3 50.00
Brooks Koepka 26 6 22 0 Rookie
Brandt Snedeker 35 7 23 1 3 1–2–0 33.33
Zach Johnson 40 8 28 4 14 6–6–2 50.00
J. B. Holmes 34 10 21 1 3 2–0–1 83.33
Rickie Fowler 27 11 9 2 8 0–3–5 31.25
Matt Kuchar 38 12 17 3 11 4–5–2 45.45
Ryan Moore 33 20 31 0 Rookie

Captain's picks are shown in yellow. Davis Love III announced three captain's picks at 11:00 EDT on September 12. Ryan Moore was announced as the final captain's pick during halftime of the Sunday night NFL game on September 25. The world rankings and records are at the start of the 2016 Ryder Cup.[23]

  Team Europe
Name Country Age Points rank
(European)
Points rank
(World)
World
ranking
Previous
Ryder Cups
Matches W–L–H Winning
percentage
Rory McIlroy   Northern Ireland 27 1 2 3 3 14 6–4–4 57.14
Danny Willett   England 28 2 3 10 0 Rookie
Henrik Stenson   Sweden 40 3 1 5 3 11 5–4–2 54.55
Chris Wood   England 28 4 7 32 0 Rookie
Sergio García   Spain 36 17 4 12 7 32 18–9–5 64.06
Rafa Cabrera-Bello   Spain 32 7 5 30 0 Rookie
Justin Rose   England 36 26 6 11 3 14 9–3–2 71.43
Andy Sullivan   England 29 5 8 50 0 Rookie
Matt Fitzpatrick   England 22 6 9 44 0 Rookie
Lee Westwood   England 43 15 14 46 9 41 20–15–6 56.10
Martin Kaymer   Germany 31 11 13 48 3 10 4–3–3 55.00
Thomas Pieters   Belgium 24 9 11 42 0 Rookie

Darren Clarke announced the three captain's picks at 12.30 BST on August 30. Captain's picks are shown in yellow. The world rankings and records are at the start of the 2016 Ryder Cup.[24]

Friday's matches

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The tournament began with the alternate shot foursomes in the morning followed by four fourball matches in the afternoon.[25] The pairings for the foursomes were announced on Thursday September 29.[26]

Morning foursomes

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Team USA swept the morning foursomes. It was the first time since 1975 that they had swept the opening session and the first time since 1981 that they had swept any session.[27][28][29]

  Results  
Stenson/Rose   3 & 2 Spieth/Reed
McIlroy/Sullivan   1 up Mickelson/Fowler
García/Kaymer   4 & 2 Walker/Z. Johnson
Westwood/Pieters   5 & 4 D. Johnson/Kuchar
0 Session 4
0 Overall 4

Afternoon fourballs

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  Results  
Rose/Stenson   5 & 4 Spieth/Reed
García/Cabrera-Bello   3 & 2 Holmes/Moore
Kaymer/Willett   5 & 4 Snedeker/Koepka
McIlroy/Pieters   3 & 2 D. Johnson/Kuchar
3 Session 1
3 Overall 5

Saturday's matches

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Morning foursomes

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  Results  
McIlroy/Pieters   4 & 2 Fowler/Mickelson
Stenson/Fitzpatrick   3 & 2 Snedeker/Koepka
Rose/Wood   1 up Walker/Z. Johnson
García/Cabrera-Bello halved Reed/Spieth
212 Session 112
512 Overall 612

Afternoon fourballs

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Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth played together for the fourth time in the 2016 Ryder Cup and, having been paired together three times in 2014, became the first American pairing to play seven matches. By winning their match they also equaled the American record of 5 points set by Gardner Dickinson and Arnold Palmer in 1967 and 1971.[30][31]

  Results  
McIlroy/Pieters   3 & 1 Koepka/D. Johnson
Willett/Westwood   1 up Holmes/Moore
Kaymer/García   2 & 1 Mickelson/Kuchar
Rose/Stenson   2 & 1 Reed/Spieth
1 Session 3
612 Overall 912

Sunday's singles matches

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The deciding moment for the USA with reaching 1412 points to clinch victory belonged to Ryan Moore who defeated Lee Westwood on the 18th green.[32] Thomas Pieters became the first European rookie to score 4 points, beating the previous record of 312 set by Paul Way in 1983 and by Sergio García and Paul Lawrie in 1999.[33][34]

  Results   Timetable
Rory McIlroy   1 up Patrick Reed 2nd: 7121012
Henrik Stenson   3 & 2 Jordan Spieth 1st: 712–912
Thomas Pieters   3 & 2 J. B. Holmes 3rd: 812–1012
Justin Rose   1 up Rickie Fowler 5th: 9121112
Rafa Cabrera-Bello   3 & 2 Jimmy Walker 4th: 912–1012
Sergio García halved Phil Mickelson 7th: 10–13
Lee Westwood   1 up Ryan Moore 9th: 10–15
Andy Sullivan   3 & 1 Brandt Snedeker 8th: 10–14
Chris Wood   1 up Dustin Johnson 11th: 10–17
Danny Willett   5 & 4 Brooks Koepka 6th: 9121212
Martin Kaymer   1 up Matt Kuchar 12th: 11–17
Matt Fitzpatrick   4 & 3 Zach Johnson 10th: 10–16
412 Session 712
11 Overall 17

Individual player records

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Each entry refers to the win–loss–half record of the player.

United States

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Player Points Matches Overall Singles Foursomes Fourballs
Rickie Fowler 2 3 2–1–0 1–0–0 1–1–0 0–0–0
J. B. Holmes 1 3 1–2–0 0–1–0 0–0–0 1–1–0
Dustin Johnson 2 4 2–2–0 1–0–0 1–0–0 0–2–0
Zach Johnson 2 3 2–1–0 1–0–0 1–1–0 0–0–0
Brooks Koepka 3 4 3–1–0 1–0–0 1–0–0 1–1–0
Matt Kuchar 2 4 2–2–0 0–1–0 1–0–0 1–1–0
Phil Mickelson 2.5 4 2–1–1 0–0–1 1–1–0 1–0–0
Ryan Moore 2 3 2–1–0 1–0–0 0–0–0 1–1–0
Patrick Reed 3.5 5 3–1–1 1–0–0 1–0–1 1–1–0
Brandt Snedeker 3 3 3–0–0 1–0–0 1–0–0 1–0–0
Jordan Spieth 2.5 5 2–2–1 0–1–0 1–0–1 1–1–0
Jimmy Walker 1 3 1–2–0 0–1–0 1–1–0 0–0–0

Europe

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Player Points Matches Overall Singles Foursomes Fourballs
Rafa Cabrera-Bello 2.5 3 2–0–1 1–0–0 0–0–1 1–0–0
Matt Fitzpatrick 0 2 0–2–0 0–1–0 0–1–0 0–0–0
Sergio García 2 5 1–2–2 0–0–1 0–1–1 1–1–0
Martin Kaymer 1 4 1–3–0 1–0–0 0–1–0 0–2–0
Rory McIlroy 3 5 3–2–0 0–1–0 1–1–0 2–0–0
Thomas Pieters 4 5 4–1–0 1–0–0 1–1–0 2–0–0
Justin Rose 2 5 2–3–0 0–1–0 1–1–0 1–1–0
Henrik Stenson 2 5 2–3–0 1–0–0 0–2–0 1–1–0
Andy Sullivan 0 2 0–2–0 0–1–0 0–1–0 0–0–0
Lee Westwood 0 3 0–3–0 0–1–0 0–1–0 0–1–0
Danny Willett 0 3 0–3–0 0–1–0 0–0–0 0–2–0
Chris Wood 1 2 1–1–0 0–1–0 1–0–0 0–0–0

References

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  1. ^ Porter, Kyle (October 4, 2016). "Rickie Fowler takes Ryder Cup trophy to Arnold Palmer's memorial". CBS Sports.
  2. ^ "2016 Ryder Cup headed to Hazeltine". Ryder Cup. March 12, 2014. Archived from the original on October 24, 2014. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  3. ^ "Hazeltine National gets rerouted for Ryder Cup". Ryder Cup. October 17, 2014. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  4. ^ Justin, Neil (September 27, 2016). "TV viewers worldwide will have their eyes on Minnesota as Ryder Cup tees off". Minneapolis Star Tribune. Retrieved October 2, 2016.
  5. ^ "PGA of America creates Ryder Cup task force to chart course for future U.S. teams". Ryder Cup. October 13, 2014. Archived from the original on February 26, 2015. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  6. ^ a b "Davis Love III named U.S. Ryder Cup Captain". Ryder Cup. February 24, 2015. Archived from the original on February 26, 2015. Retrieved February 26, 2015.
  7. ^ "Ryder Cup Points | PGA TOUR Stats".
  8. ^ "Ryder Cup: Darren Clarke keeps European qualifying unchanged". BBC Sport. May 26, 2015.
  9. ^ "European Ryder Cup points race to start in Russia". Ryder Cup. May 26, 2015. Archived from the original on May 26, 2015. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  10. ^ "Paul Casey 'would love' European Tour return". BBC Sport. October 7, 2015.
  11. ^ Crawford, Kenny (November 21, 2015). "Russell Knox: Florida-based Scot takes European Tour membership". BBC Sport.
  12. ^ "Russell Knox 2015 OWGR summary". Official World Golf Ranking. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  13. ^ "Clarke adds Kaymer, Pieters and Westwood to Team Europe". Ryder Cup. August 30, 2016.
  14. ^ a b "European Ryder Cup Rankings". European Tour. August 28, 2016. Archived from the original on December 4, 2016.
  15. ^ "Darren Clarke named 2016 European Ryder Cup Captain". Ryder Cup. February 18, 2015. Archived from the original on February 18, 2015. Retrieved February 18, 2015.
  16. ^ "David Howell added to five-man panel selecting next Team Europe Captain". Ryder Cup. October 12, 2014. Archived from the original on October 24, 2014. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  17. ^ a b Harig, Bob (February 24, 2015). "Davis Love III named Ryder captain". ESPN.
  18. ^ Perry, Alex (May 27, 2016). "Clarke names Harrington, Bjorn, Lawrie as Ryder Cup vice-captains". ESPN.
  19. ^ "Ian Poulter named European Ryder Cup vice-captain following injury". ESPN. PA Sport. June 6, 2016.
  20. ^ "Ryder Cup: Darren Clarke names Sam Torrance as Europe's fifth vice-captain". ESPN. PA Sport. July 28, 2016.
  21. ^ "Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods named vice captains for 2016". Ryder Cup. November 18, 2015. Archived from the original on November 20, 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
  22. ^ "Ryder Cup 2016: Bubba Watson named as fifth United States vice-captain". BBC Sport. September 27, 2016.
  23. ^ Glendenning, Barry; Echegaray, Luis; Hill, Tim (September 29, 2016). "Ryder Cup 2016: player-by-player guide to Europe and USA teams". The Guardian. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  24. ^ "Ryder Cup 2016 format and schedule: How the action will unfurl at Hazeltine". Daily Telegraph. September 29, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  25. ^ "Ryder Cup 2016: Danny Willett left out of Europe's opening foursomes". The Guardian. Press Association. September 29, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  26. ^ "Ryder Cup 2016: Europe & United States pairings announced". BBC Sport. September 29, 2016. Retrieved September 30, 2016.
  27. ^ DiMeglio, Steve (September 30, 2016). "U.S. sweeps to surprising 4-0 lead in Ryder Cup". USA Today.
  28. ^ Harig, Bob (September 30, 2016). "United States sweeps alternate-shot matches for 4-0 lead in Ryder Cup". ESPN.
  29. ^ Murray, Scott (September 30, 2016). "Ryder Cup 2016: USA 5-3 Europe after day one – as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved October 5, 2016.
  30. ^ "Ryder Cup notes: Official facts and stats headed to Sunday's singles round". Ryder Cup. October 1, 2016.
  31. ^ Murray, Scott (October 2, 2016). "Ryder Cup: USA lead Europe 9½-6½ after day two fourballs – as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved October 5, 2016.
  32. ^ Murray, Scott (October 3, 2016). "USA regain Ryder Cup trophy from Europe – as it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  33. ^ "Ryder Cup: Notable facts and statistics from Sunday singles". Ryder Cup. October 2, 2016.
  34. ^ Murray, Ewan (October 3, 2016). "Ryder Cup Review". The Guardian. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
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44°50′02″N 93°35′28″W / 44.834°N 93.591°W / 44.834; -93.591