Golf Compendium

The 2029 Ryder Cup will be the 47th time this competition is played. The Ryder Cup is an every-other-year match-play spectacle contested by two teams of male professional golfers, Team Europe and Team United States.

Fourball is one of the three formats (in addition to foursomes and singles) played at the Ryder Cup. Below is the list of golfers who won the most fourball matches in Ryder Cup play.

Which golfers in Ryder Cup history have the most wins in foursomes matches? The four biggest winners in foursomes were all Team Europe players, and a Spanish golfer is the one on top.

When a Ryder Cup team takes a lead into the final day — especially a lead of more than one point — it usually goes on to victory. But not every time! A handful of times, the Ryder Cup team that trailed by multiple points going into the final-day singles session wound up winning. And in two of those instances, the trailing team overcame a 4-point deficit to win.

Has any father-and-son duo of golfers both played in the Ryder Cup? Yes, there have been a very small number of father-and-son Ryder Cuppers — all of them (so far) on the GB&I/Europe side.

How many pairs (or sets, even) of brothers have both played in the Ryder Cup? Not many, which is not surprising. Being good enough to earn a Ryder Cup berth is uncommon, after all, in the golf world. Having two (or more) golfers in the same family who are that good is much rarer. But, in fact, five families so far have sent two or more brothers into the Ryder Cup.

The Ryder Cup is the trophy — the "cup" in the event's title refers to the trophy itself. And the Ryder Cup trophy is one of the most-famous in golf. How big is it? What is made of? Who created it? Who is the figure of a golfer that tops the cup? Let's dive into the cup.

The 2027 Ryder Cup will be the 46th time this biennial event is played, and the 100th anniversary of the 1927 Ryder Cup that inaugurated this competition. The Ryder Cup is contested by two teams of male professional golfers, one team representing Europe, the other representing the United States.

How many "playing captains" (also known as "player-captains") have there been in the history of the Ryder Cup? And who was the last playing captain?

Which golfer has played in the most Ryder Cups? And which golfer has played the most matches in his Ryder Cup appearances? Phil Mickelson holds one of those records and shares the other.

Which golfer has won the most points for his team in the Ryder Cup? The all-time Ryder Cup points leader is Sergio Garcia, who earned nearly 30 points for Team Europe over his Ryder Cup career.

The history of the Ryder Cup dates to 1927, and in that time there have only been six holes-in-one made during the match-play competition. The first Ryder Cup ace was in 1973, the most-recent in 2006. And only one of the six was by a golfer from Team USA.

The Ryder Cup is one of the highest-profile events in professional golf. Every other year, 24 golfers (12 per team) plus two team captains and several more assistant captains per side gather for three days of intense, gritty golf. Do any of them get paid? Is there prize money at the Ryder Cup? The answer is yes. And no. It depends on which team you're talking about:

Who is the oldest golfer to play in the Ryder Cup? In the event's history, which dates to 1927, there have been three golfers aged 50 or over who've played. The oldest of them all was 51-year-old Raymond Floyd.

Who is the youngest golfer ever named to a Ryder Cup team? That golfer is Sergio Garcia, and he is also the only teenager to play in the prestigious biennial competition. But there have been a handful of other players younger than 21 in the tournament.

The 2025 Ryder Cup was the 45th time this competition was played. Team Europe barely survived a furious Team USA rally in the final singles session to claim a 2-point victory. After that European win, the all-time Ryder Cup standings were 27 wins for Team USA, 16 wins for Team GB&I/Europe, and two ties.

Which teams (USA, Europe, Great Britain/Ireland) have posted the biggest blowout wins and suffered the worst losses in the history of the Ryder Cup? In the current era, the biggest blowout is by 10 points: a 10-point margin of victory for the winning side. But earlier in Ryder Cup history, when different formats were used, even bigger blowouts occurred.

Which golfers have pulled off the largest margins of victories (and suffered the biggest losing margins) in Ryder Cup matches? Asked another way, which golfers have had the biggest blowout wins and the worst losses in singles, foursomes and fourballs at the Ryder Cup?

Who put the "Ryder" in the Ryder Cup? Why is this every-other-year competition, one of the biggest events in golf, named the Ryder Cup? The namesake who seeded the idea of the Ryder Cup happens to have been a man who made his fortune selling ... seeds.

Let's say Team Europe and Team USA are playing a hard-fought, very closely contested Ryder Cup. It comes down to the final match, and when that match ends, both teams have the same number of points. It's a tie score. What happens?