This weekend is a big weekend for Golf - the 39th Ryder Cup where Team USA will compete against Team Europe. Everyone is hoping for an exciting, close competition from some of the top Golfers in the world.
Here, you will find our everything you need to know about the Ryder Cup, including the amount of players who have reached the top of their game having come from an American College Golf Scholarship background....
The 39th Ryder Cup is being held September 28-30, 2012, at the Medinah County Club in Medinah, Illinois. Europe is the current holder of the Ryder Cup, having defeated USA by 14 1/2 points to 13 1/2 in the 2012 competition at Celtic Manor Resort, Wales.
The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The competition format will be as follows :
- Day 1 (Friday) – 4 foursome (alternate shot) matches in the morning session and 4 fourball (better ball) matches in the afternoon session
- Day 2 (Saturday) – 4 foursome matches in the morning session and 4 fourball matches in the afternoon session
- Day 3 (Sunday) – 12 singles matches
On the first two days there are 4 foursome matches and 4 fourball matches with the home captain choosing which are played in the morning and which in the afternoon.
With a total of 28 points available, 14½ points are required to win the Cup, and 14 points are required for the defending champion to retain the Cup. All matches are played to a maximum of 18 holes.
The team captains are Davis Love III for the USA and José María Olazábal for Europe.
The teams are-
Team USA
Davis Love III Non-playing captain
Attended the
University of North Carolina (1983-85), where he was a three-time all-American and all-Atlantic Coast Conference golfer. He won six titles during his collegiate career, including the ACC tournament championship in 1984.
Tiger Woods (7th appearance)
Woods was recruited very heavily by college golf powers, and chose
Stanford University, the 1994 NCAA Division I champion. He enrolled at Stanford in the fall of 1994 under a
golf scholarship, winning his first collegiate event, the 40th Annual William H. Tucker Invitational, that September. was voted Pac-10 Player of the Year, NCAA First Team All-American, and Stanford's Male Freshman of the Year (an award that encompasses all sports) and won the NCAA individual golf championship.
Bubba Watson (2nd appearance)
Watson played
golf for Faulkner State Community College in nearby Baldwin County, Alabama, where he was a junior college All-American. He transferred to the
University of Georgia, the defending NCAA champions, and played for the Bulldogs in 2000 and 2001. As a junior, Watson helped lead the Bulldogs to the SEC title in 2000.
Jason Dufner (Ryder Cup rookie)
Dufner was a walk-on at
Auburn University, where he won three times in his college career and was an Honorable Mention All-American in 1997.He graduated from Auburn in 2000 with a degree in economics
Keegan Bradley (Ryder Cup rookie)
Bradley attended
St. John's University and won nine collegiate events before graduating in 2008.
Webb Simpson (Ryder Cup rookie)
Simpson played high school golf at Broughton High before his collegiate golf career at
Wake Forest University on an Arnold Palmer Scholarship. He was a three-time All-American and the ACC Player of the Year in 2008.
Zach Johnson 3rd appearance
Johnson enrolled at
Drake University in Des Moines. As the number-two player on the Drake golf team, he led the Bulldogs to three NCAA regional meets and two Missouri Valley championships.
Matt Kuchar (2nd appearance)
He attended
Georgia Tech in Atlanta, where he was a two-time first-team All-American on the golf team.
Phil Mickelson (9th appearance)
Mickelson attended
Arizona State University in Tempe on a golf scholarship and graduated in 1992. While at ASU, he became the face of amateur golf in the United States, capturing three NCAA individual championships and three Haskins Awards (1990, 1991, 1992) as the outstanding collegiate golfer. He was the second collegiate golfer to earn first-team All-American honors all four years
Steve Stricker (Captain's pick, 3rd appearance)
A 1990 graduate of the
University of Illinois, Stricker earned All-American honors as a member of the golf team in 1988 and 1989.
Jim Furyk (Captain's pick, 8th appearance)
He played college golf at the
University of Arizona in Tucson, where he was an All-American twice and led the Wildcats to their first (and only) NCAA title in 1992.
Brandt Snedeker (Captain's pick, Ryder Cup rookie)
Golf Scholarship at
Vanderbilt University
Dustin Johnson (Captain's pick, 2nd appearance)
Played collegiate golf at
Coastal Carolina University.
Team Europe
José María Olazábal (Non-playing captain)
Rory McIlroy (2nd appearance)
In late 2004, at age 15, he signed a letter of intent to play collegiate golf at
East Tennessee State University, but after his wins in 2005, he decided to forgo the golf scholarship and continue to play amateur golf in Europe.
Justin Rose (2nd appearance)
Paul Lawrie (2nd appearance)
Graeme McDowell (3rd appearance)
He studied engineering at Queen's University in Belfast, then transferred to the
University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he played college golf through the spring of 2002
Francesco Molinari (2nd appearance)
Luke Donald (4th appearance)
Donald took a golf scholarship at
Northwestern University in 1997, where he studied art theory and practice, He won the individual NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships men's title in 1999, beating the scoring record formerly held by Tiger Woods
Lee Westwood (8th appearance)
Sergio García (6th appearance)
Peter Hanson (2nd appearance)
Martin Kaymer (2nd appearance)
Nicolas Colsaerts (Captain's pick, Ryder Cup rookie)
Ian Poulter (Captain's pick, 4th appearance)
So, 16 of the 26 players in one of the biggest competitions in Golf are all from American College Golf Scholarship backgrounds...and did you know that over 80% of PGA tour players competed in American college Golf scholarship programs?
It's no coincidence....an American golf scholarship is a fantastic opportunity to pay for your scholarship and provide you with the best route towards professional or amateur golf. You could benefit from world class coaching and competition against some of the best amateur players in the world!
If you would like to find out more, and think you have what it takes to follow in the footsteps of some of the best golfers in the world - register with FirstPoint USA and we can help you on your way to the USA!
Who will be your winner for the 2012 Ryder Cup?
