This year’s Ryder Cup, staged at Le Golf National near Paris, is the 42nd time that golf’s oldest and most famous team event is being staged.
Since the format switched from USA v Great Britain & Ireland back in 1979 (it was beginning to become embarrassingly one-sided), there have been 19 Ryder Cup clashes between USA and Europe.
Ryder Cup 2018 – The Key Facts
- For only the second time in history and the first time in more than 20 years, the Ryder Cup is being staged on mainland Europe. The course playing host to the three days of Ryder Cup competition this year is the Albatros Course at Le Golf National near Paris.
- Totalling 7,183 yards, the par 71 golf course is located at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, south-west of the French capital. It was the venue of the French Open in July so most of the European team will be familiar with its idiosyncraises. None of the American team earn their living on the European PGA Tour so they will only have had a few days’ practice to find the best line to greens and learn where not to take risks.
- The last time Team Europe lost on home soil was 25 years ago at The Belfry. Since that defeat, the Americans have suffered defeat at Valderrama in 1997, The Belfry in 2002, the K Club in 2006, Celtic Manor in 2010 and Gleneagles in 2014.
- There are five Ryder Cup rookies in the European team this year with Thorbjørn Olesen joining Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Alex Noren and Jon Rahm. Team USA has just three rookies with Justin Thomas playing alongside Bryson DeChambeau and the final wildcard pick, Tony Finau.
- The combined world ranking US team is only 142 compared to Europe’s 220. Jim Furyk’s squad features six of the world’s current top 10 golfers but Europe do have the current world number one, England’s Justin Rose, though also the lowest-ranked golfer taking part in Denmark’s Olesen.
- America’s have won three of this season’s Majors – Brooks Koepka two and Patrick Reed one. Francesco Molinari breaking the monopoly at the Open.
- Sergio Garcia is the leading points scorer in Ryder Cup on either side having amassed 19 wins and seven halves. Phil Mickelson is the USA’s leading points scorer having scored 18 wins and halved seven.
- Tiger Woods is playing Ryder Cup for the time since 2012 when he lost all four of his matches at Medinah. However, having finally ended his long wait for a PGA Tour victory in last week’s Tour Championship (advised at 14/1 in this column) he arrives in peak form and a in a better state of mind than last time.
Team USA are the holders having won 17-11 at Hazeltine in 2016. But Europe’s record on home soil makes what would appear a mis-match on paper be anything but a foregone conclusion.
Since 1979, Europe have won more Ryder Cup matches than they’ve lost against the USA and the 11/8 available with several bookmakers, including Unibet, for Thomas Bjorn’s team looks better value than the general 10/11 for the Americans. This is a match that could go right down the wire so it may even be worth looking at the draw odds (a general 12/1) if you are thinking of investing in the outright result.
