THE RYDER CUP
THE PINNACLE OF TEAM GOLF
The 44th edition of the Ryder Cup begins on Friday in beautiful Italy. The US lead the series 27 - 14 and arrive in Italy as the holders. Team Europe will be in confident mood tho with team USA not winning on European soil since 1993.
Each team features 12 players with a mix of automatic qualifiers and captain’s picks.
Team USA’s automatic qualifiers included Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman, Max Homa and Xander Schauffele. Sam Burns, Rickie Fowler, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas were selected as Zach Johnson’s captain’s picks.
For Luke Donald’s Team Europe, the automatic qualifiers were Matt Fitzpatrick, Tyrrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland, Robert MacIntyre, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm. They are joined by Donald’s six captain’s picks: Ludvig Aberg, Tommy Fleetwood, Nicolai Højgaard, Shane Lowry, Justin Rose and Sepp Straka.
An exciting week awaits and legends will be made.
LISTENER LEAGUES
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RYDER CUP FORMAT
Four-ball and Foursomes are played over Friday and Saturday during the AM and PM. 5 rounds of golf will be played in total.
FOUR-BALL
In four-ball, each member of a two-man team plays his own ball, so four balls are in play on every hole. Each team counts the lowest of its two scores on each hole, and the team whose player has the lowest score wins the hole. If the low scores are tied, the hole is halved.
FOURSOMES
In foursomes, each two-man team plays one ball per hole with the players taking turns until each hole is complete. Players alternate hitting tee shots, with one leading off on odd-numbered holes, and the other hitting first on even-numbered holes. The team with the lowest score on each hole wins that hole. If their scores are tied, the hole is halved.
SINGLES
In singles, each match features one player from each team. The player with the lower score on each hole wins that hole. If their scores are tied, the hole is halved. Single matchplay is played on Sunday only
THE COURSE
Course: Marco Simone
Location: Guidonia, Italy
Designer: Jim Fazio (1991) Tom Fazio II re-design (2018)
Length: Par 72; 7,255 yards
Hazards: Water comes into play on 6 holes
Fairways: Paspalum
Rough: Fescue
Greens: Bentgrass
Set on the outskirts of Rome Marco Simone Golf Club is no stranger to hosting big events, having hosted the Italian Open for the last 3 years.
The course features 3 par 5’s, including the 597 yard 18th which is guarded by water which should provide a dramatic finish should matches come down to that. There’s also three par 4’s that are all driveable creating the ultimate risk/reward holes.
The course has 76 bunkers on the property with many guarding the undulated bent-grass greens.
The rough is extremely thick in places, you’ve seen the videos.
Overall this course hilly with significant elevation changes that could make playing 5 rounds brutal.
KEY STATS
Match play is extremely volatile and stats can vary, so I will be looking at the overall game of my golfers this week with Strokes Gained Tee To Green being key.
OTHERS TO CONSIDER - Birdies, Opportunities gained, SG Approach, SG Putting, Putting inside 10ft, Proximity 175-200, and SG Total.
TEE TIMES
JACKS CORE & SLATE PLAN
For Ryder Cup DFS you want to try and target golfers that potentially could play 5 rounds. You just have to start lineups with a majority of those 16 golfers going out in the first morning foursomes. This is because these guys are the only ones who could potentially play all 4 rounds.
PATRICK CANTLAY
Going to be popular but I don’t really care. Him and Schauffele are my favourite pairing on Team USA to play all 5 sessions. Proven Ryder Cup record going 3-1 last time out. Cantlays game is solid all round and his slow pace of play is enough to give team Euro nightmares this week. He is a brilliant putter on bent grass greens and an extremely accurate driver.
XANDER SCHAUFFELE (CAPTAIN)
Going to be popular but I don’t really care. Him and Cantlay are my favourite pairing on Team USA to play all 5 sessions. I prefer Xander in the captain position as he offers us some salary relief off Cantlay. Game should suit this course as Xander excels with his long irons and bent-grass being his favourite putting surface. Proven Ryder Cup record going 3-1 last time out, only losing to Rory in the singles.
SEPP STRAKA
Euro rookie who is the second cheapest golfer on this slate. I’m not a fan of the pairing for tomorrow with Lowry if I’m honest, but I could see Straka playing at least 3 sessions here this week. I actually think we could see him paired up with Rahm at some point this week. Straka is an extremely accurate driver and The Open Championship runner-up could be a diamond in the rough this week.
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