The 42nd Ryder Cup Matches were held in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

from 28 to 30 September 2018 on the Albatros Course of

Le Golf National The Albatros course at Le Golf National is an 18-hole golf course in France, southwest of central Paris. Designed by architects Hubert Chesneau and Robert von Hagge, in collaboration with Pierre Thevenin, it is located in Guyancourt. Facilitie ...

Guyancourt Guyancourt () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in north-central France. It is located in the south-western suburbs of Paris, from the Kilometre Zero ...

, a suburb southwest of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. It was the second

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States, with hosting duties alternating between venues in Europe and the United States for each edition. The cup is named after the English businessman S ...

to be held in

Continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by som ...

(rather than

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

), after the 1997 contest, which was held in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. The United States were the defending champions, but had lost the last five matches in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, having last won there in

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

. Europe regained the Ryder Cup, winning by 17 points to 10. This was the last Ryder Cup to take place in even-numbered years, as the next Ryder Cup was played in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Format

The

is a

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

event, with each match worth one point. The competition format was 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 were four fourball matches in the morning and four foursome matches in the afternoon. With a total of 28 points available, 14 points were required to win the Cup, and 14 points were required for the defending champion, the United States, to retain the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 18 holes.

Bidding for the 2018 Ryder Cup

Ryder Cup Europe confirmed originally six countries—France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden—to be interested in bidding for the 2018 Ryder Cup. The deadline for the submission of bids was set for 30 April 2010; Sweden withdrew from the bidding early that month, while the Spanish bidding host city of

Tres Cantos Tres Cantos () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain located in Community of Madrid. Originally belonging to Colmenar Viejo, it seceded from the latter municipality in 1991, becoming the youngest municipality in the region. The urban ...

showed poor popular support. There were five bids to host the event: *France: Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines *Germany: Neuburg/Rohrenfeld *Portugal: Lisbon/Comporta, Alentejo Coast *Spain: Madrid/Guadarrama *Netherlands: Rotterdam/Lingewaal France was announced as host on 17 May 2011, despite calls for the Cup to be held in Spain as a tribute to the late Seve Ballesteros.

Course

Team qualification and selection

Europe

The European team qualification rules were announced on 18 January 2017. There were a number of changes compared to 2016 with an increase in the number of captain's picks from three to four, based on recommendations from the analytics team behind Team Europe. The team consisted of: * The leading four players on the Race to Dubai Points List **Points earned in all Race to Dubai tournaments starting with the 2017 D+D Real Czech Masters and ending with the 2018 Made in Denmark that finished on 2 September 2018. Points earned from the 2018

BMW PGA Championship The BMW PGA Championship is an annual men's professional golf tournament on the European Tour. It was founded in 1955 by the Professional Golfers' Association (Great Britain & Ireland), Professional Golfers' Association, and originally called the ...

onwards, were multiplied by 1.5. * The leading four players, not qualified above, on the World Points List **Total World Points earned in

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolling ...

events starting on 31 August 2017 (the start date of the D+D Real Czech Masters) and ending on 26 August 2018 and thereafter only at the Made in Denmark tournament. Points earned from the date of the 2018

onwards, were multiplied by 1.5. No World points were earned from tournaments staged opposite Rolex Series tournaments in both

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

and 2018. * Four captain's picks Membership criteria for the European Tour were reduced from five tournaments to four (outside the majors and WGCs) for the 2018 season. As in previous Ryder Cups, all players had to be members of the European Tour to be eligible to play for Europe. Changes were also made to the eligibility of future captains and vice-captains.

Paul Casey Paul Alexander Casey (born 21 July 1977) is an English golfer who is a member of LIV Golf. He has also played on the US-based PGA Tour and the European Tour. In 2009, he achieved his highest position, third, in the Official World Golf Rankin ...

became a member of the European Tour at the start of 2018. Since he was not a member during 2017 he did not earn points until the start of 2018. The leading players in the European Ryder Cup points lists were: :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. The remaining three players selected as captain's picks,

Ian Poulter Ian James Poulter (born 10 January 1976) is an English professional golfer who plays in the LIV Golf League. He has previously been ranked as high as number 5 in the world rankings. The highlights of Poulter's career to date have been his two ...

, Sergio García and

, finished in 22nd, 24th and 35th place respectively on the European points list.

United States

The United States qualification rules were announced on 8 February 2017. The majority of the team were 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: * The leading eight players on the Ryder Cup points list, gained in the following events **2017 major championships **2017 World Golf Championship events and

The Players Championship The Players Championship (commonly known as simply The Players, stylized by the PGA Tour as THE PLAYERS Championship) is an annual golf tournament on the PGA Tour. Originally known as the Tournament Players Championship, it began in 1974. The ...

(half points) **2018 major championships (double points for the winner, 50% extra for those who make the cut) **2018

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

events. Qualifying events in this category were those played between 1 January and 12 August 2018, the date of the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. The PGA is one of the four men's major golf champi ...

, and including the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event. "Alternate" events (those played opposite a major or WGC event) did not earn points * Four captain's picks **Three announced after the 2018 Dell Technologies Championship, which concluded on 3 September. **One announced after the 2018 BMW Championship, which concluded on 9 September. The qualification rules were similar to those used for the 2016 Ryder Cup. The points given for the 2018 season major championships were reduced from double to 50% extra (except for the winner who still received double points). The dates on which the captain's picks were made were brought forward by one or two weeks. The leading 15 players in the final points list after the final qualifying event, the 2018 PGA Championship were: Players in qualifying places are shown in green. Captain's picks are shown in yellow.

Teams

Captains

Thomas Bjørn Thomas Bjørn (born 18 February 1971) is a Danish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. He is the most successful Danish golfer to have played the game having won fifteen tournaments worldwide on the European Tour. In 1997 he also b ...

was named as the European captain on 6 December 2016. He was chosen by a five-man panel made up of the three most recent European Ryder Cup captains ( Darren Clarke,

Paul McGinley Paul Noel McGinley (born 16 December 1966) is an Irish professional golfer who has won four events on the European Tour. At the 2002 Ryder Cup, he famously holed a ten-foot putt on the 18th hole in his match against Jim Furyk at The Belfry which ...

and

José María Olazábal José María Olazábal Manterola (, ; born 5 February 1966) is a Spanish Basques, Basque professional golfer from the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country, who has enjoyed success on both the European Tour and the PGA Tour, and has wo ...

), the Chief Executive of the European Tour, Keith Pelley, and European Tour Tournament Committee member Henrik Stenson. Jim Furyk was named as the USA captain on 11 January 2017.

Vice-captains

Each captain selected a number of vice-captains to assist him during the tournament. Bjørn selected Robert Karlsson as his first vice-captain in May 2017. In May 2018 he selected four more vice-captains:

Luke Donald Luke Campbell Donald Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 7 December 1977) is an English professional golfer and former List of World Number One male golfers, world number one. He plays mainly on the U.S.-based PGA Tour but is also a member of ...

Pádraig Harrington Pádraig Peter Harrington (born 31 August 1971) is an Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour, PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. He has won three men's major golf championships, major championships: The Open Championship in 2 ...

, Graeme McDowell and

Lee Westwood Lee John Westwood (born 24 April 1973) is an English professional golfer. He is one of the few golfers who has won tournaments on five continents – Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Oceania – including victories on the European Tour an ...

. Raphaël Jacquelin was also on hand for the Europeans, as an assistant. Furyk named Davis Love III as a vice-captain, soon after his appointment in January 2017. He later added Steve Stricker and

Tiger Woods Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods (born December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer. He is tied for first in List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins, PGA Tour wins, ranks second in List of men's major championships winning golfers, men's m ...

in February 2018. On 4 September 2018, Furyk named David Duval, Zach Johnson, and

Matt Kuchar Matthew Gregory Kuchar (born June 21, 1978) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and formerly the Nationwide Tour. He has won nine times on the PGA Tour. Kuchar briefly enjoyed success in the early 2000s before suffering a ...

as additional vice-captains. Tiger Woods, who had previously been named a vice-captain, would no longer serve in this position as he was chosen to be one of Furyk's captain's picks.

Players

announced the four captain's picks at 2 pm BST on 5 September. Captain's picks are shown in yellow. The world rankings and records were at the start of the 2018 Ryder Cup. Captain's picks are shown in yellow. Jim Furyk announced three captain's picks at 5 pm EDT on 4 September. The final captain's pick was announced on 10 September after the conclusion of the BMW Championship. The world rankings and records were at the start of the 2018 Ryder Cup.

Friday's matches

Morning fourballs

The opening round of four fourball matches started at 8:10 am local time. Pairings were announced after the Opening Ceremony on Thursday. The first point of the 2018 Ryder Cup was won by Team USA, with

Dustin Johnson Dustin Hunter Johnson (born June 22, 1984) is an American professional golfer. He has won two Men's major golf championships, major championships, the 2016 U.S. Open (golf), 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club with a 4-under-par score of 276 ...

and

Rickie Fowler Rick Yutaka Fowler (born December 13, 1988) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He was the number one World Amateur Golf Ranking, ranked amateur golfer in the world for 36 weeks in 2007 and 2008. On January 24, 2016, he ...

winning 4 & 2 against Rory McIlroy and Thorbjørn Olesen. Despite being two up with six holes to play,

Jon Rahm Jon Rahm Rodríguez (born 10 November 1994) is a Spanish professional golfer. He was number one in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for a then record 60 weeks and later became world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, first achiev ...

and Justin Rose lost out to Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau on the 18th hole, while Jordan Spieth and

Justin Thomas Justin Louis Thomas (born April 29, 1993) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and is a former List of World Number One male golfers, world number one. In 2017, Thomas experienced a breakout year, winning five PGA Tour e ...

also won by one against

and Tyrrell Hatton, putting Team USA 3–0 ahead. A spectator struck by Koepka's drive on the 6th hole lost the sight in one eye. Coming back from two down, Tommy Fleetwood and

Francesco Molinari Francesco Molinari (born 8 November 1982) is an Italian professional golfer. He won the 2018 Open Championship, his first and only major victory, and the first major won by an Italian professional golfer. The Open Championship win capped a suc ...

defeated

and Patrick Reed 3 & 1 to secure Team Europe's first point of the tournament, and to end the first morning 3–1 in favour of Team USA.

Afternoon foursomes

Europe's first clean sweep of the afternoon foursomes in the history of the Ryder Cup saw Team Europe end the day 5–3 ahead of Team USA. Sergio García and

Alex Norén Alexander Norén (born 12 July 1982) is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and the European Tour. He has won ten tournaments on the European Tour, including the 2017 BMW PGA Championship, BMW PGA Championship, the Aberdeen Ass ...

won 5 & 4 over

Phil Mickelson Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970) is an American professional golfer who currently plays in the LIV Golf League. He has won 45 events on the PGA Tour, including six Men's major golf championships, major championships: three Masters ...

and

Bryson DeChambeau Bryson James Aldrich DeChambeau (born September 16, 1993) is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the LIV Golf League. He formerly played on the PGA Tour, and has won two major championships, the 2020 and 2024 U.S. Open. A ...

, Rory McIlroy and

came from two down after the first three holes to beat Bubba Watson and

Webb Simpson James Frederick Webb Simpson (born August 8, 1985) is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour who won the 2012 U.S. Open and the 2018 Players Championship. As an amateur, he was a member of the United States' victorious 2007 Walker C ...

4 & 2, Fleetwood and Molinari repeated their morning success with a 4 & 3 win over Spieth and Thomas, while Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson beat

and

3 & 2.

Saturday's matches

Morning fourballs

The Saturday fourballs saw Europe continue to dominate with wins for García/McIlroy (2 & 1) against Koepka and Finau, Casey/Hatton (3 & 2) against Fowler/Johnson and Molinari/Fleetwood (4 & 3) against Reed/Woods. Team USA secured their only point of the morning session with Thomas and Spieth defeating Poulter and Rahm 2 & 1, to leave the overall tournament at 8–4 in Team Europe's favour. Despite the strong performance, Team Europe captain Thomas Bjørn reiterated: "Nothing's won, we're just over the halfway stage. There's no bit happiness yet, there's still a determination and work to be done".

Afternoon foursomes

The afternoon session was drawn 2–2. It saw Team Europe's Molinari and Fleetwood win for the fourth time, a European record in the Ryder Cup, this time 5 & 4 over Woods and DeChambeau. Team USA's Spieth and Thomas defeated Poulter and McIlroy 4 & 3, while Simpson and Watson's green play saw them defeat Europe's García and Norén 3 & 2. The fourth pairing saw Rose and Stenson narrowly beat Johnson and Koepka 2 & 1 as a result of some good putting late in the round.

Sunday's singles matches

The United States put their best players at the top of the card on Sunday, and despite the four point deficit threatened a comeback in the singles, as they won 3 points from the first four matches. Justin Thomas beat Rory McIlroy on the final hole as the latter's approach found the water, and Tony Finau defeated the previously unbeaten Tommy Fleetwood 6 & 4. However, from then on Europe dominated, winning the next six matches to lead 16–9. Guarantees of at least a half-point each for García and Stenson (both of whom later got full points) meant that victory was already assured before the 14-point winning post was officially reached when Phil Mickelson, already three holes down, found the water on the 16th hole and conceded the hole and match to Molinari, who became the first player for Europe to score what is now the maximum possible five points in a single Ryder Cup. Of the remaining two matches, one was won by the U.S. team and one by Europe, the last match decided with a long putt on the 18th green by Alex Norén for Europe, leaving the final score 17–10 to Europe. Sergio García's singles win made him the all-time Ryder Cup points leader, with 25 points in nine appearances, overtaking Nick Faldo's 25 points in 11 appearances.

Individual player records

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

Europe

United States

Footnotes

References

External links

Ryder Cup 2018 website

Ryder Cup 2018 website French
{{Golf on NBC Ryder Cup Golf tournaments in France Sport in Yvelines Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines