I didn’t want to hijack the other thread, but as a non-golfer, I’m baffled by what I watched today. How does the scoring work?
It’s basically match play in a variety of formats. Match play means that total scores don’t matter, just which player/team does better on each hole. If your team scores better on hole 1, you get 1 point. If the other team does, they get 1 point. In a tie, neither team gets any points (during the match). It does not matter if one team gets a hole in one and the other scores an eight, team A still only gets one point.
The match continues until one team has an insurmountable lead. The scoring (e.g. 3 and 2) means that team A is ahead by three holes but only two are left to play, so they cannot lose and the match ends there.
The above applies to each individual match only. For the Ryder Cup, the scoring is only slightly modified. A team gets one point for winning a match, and a half-point for a tie. If the first teams out tie, their match score is 0 (actually, “even”) but they each earn a half-pont for their team. The team scores after the above example would be Europe 1/2, USA 1/2. After three days, the team with the most points wins. A team can clinch the title with 14.5 points.
Now, how are the matches played? Differently than any others you see during the year. On Friday and Saturday, they play team matches, using the formats “foursomes” and “fourball”.
Foursomes means that each team plays with one ball, alternating shots. One player hits the tee shot, and his partner hits the next one until the ball is in the hole.
Fourball means that each player on a team plays his own ball until the hole is finished and only the best score of the two counts against the best score of their opponents.
Foursomes and Fourball put a lot of pressure on the Captains to pick teammates that will get along even if one player cough Kenny Perry, Ben Curtis cough completely gags it.
On Sunday, all 12 players play singles matches (Match Play again) againt the 12 from the other team.
Excellent explanation. I’m less ignorant tonight. Thanks!
Here’s a link to the Ryder cup site.
http://www.rydercup.com/2008/usa/event/index.html
To add to the previous poster … the European team holds the Ryder Cup and need only win 14 points. The USA team needs 14.5 to take away the cup.
Current score USA 5.5 and EU 2.5
Tomorrow there are 8 points up for grab and Sunday another 12.
Only one point to add to Lamar’s clear explanation - the captains have to decide what order their players go in for the 12 singles matches.
You might hold your toughest players back, hoping they will cope better with the pressure as the event comes to a finish (there is a huge amount of tension).
Or put them in early to try to win it before the last few matches…
Than ks everyone. It’s more complicated than I thought, but now I want to watch it more.