One hundred points: the great desire of American golf

– American golf, by weight, in raw terms, taking all rankings as a reference, is by far the most powerful in the world by country. There is no doubt about this, there can be no discussion, aside from the fact that each year, a team from the stars and stripes also measures its strength against a European squad (Ryder Cup) or an international one (Presidents Cup), which after all are great teams of very diverse nationalities.

– In any case, in the Presidents, this undeniable superiority is absolutely reflected in the results, as fifteen editions have been played and the overall score is devastating: thirteen victories for the USA team, one draw, and only one win for the international team.

– In the Ryder, however, things are quite different, as is well known. Not only are the forces more balanced, but Europe also has a clear advantage: since Europe has been playing as such (since the 1979 edition), 22 editions have been contested, with twelve European victories, nine American, and one draw.

– Faced with the frustration, and even disbelief, caused by the European ‘miracle’, from time to time a curious debate arises, especially on that side of the Atlantic: what would happen if the teams, instead of being twelve, were made up of many more players? It seems more than reasonable to think that the more players there were, the more the power of the stars and stripes would weigh, although fortunately or unfortunately, such a prediction can only be made from a theoretical point of view.

– It would be fantastic if, indeed, a great mega American squad could face a European one, allowing the competition to be settled not only at the highest level, as happens in the Ryder, but also in the middle class. Let’s say a great duel with fifty players per squad and a total of one hundred points at stake, a challenge of One Hundred Points, if we want to give this challenge a nice name, which could well be a desire of American golf…

– How would it be? The world ranking, on a determined closing date, would establish in a clean and simple way who the fifty best Americans and the fifty best Europeans are. Right now, for example, as of 25 September 2025, the two squads would be established as follows:

Now, let’s invent a suitable format. In a three-day competition, on the first day, 25 pairs would face each other in fourballs; on the second, 25 points would again be at stake in foursomes; and on the third and final day, the fifty singles in two morning and afternoon sessions, for a total of one hundred points and the goal of reaching 50.5 points to win.

– Let’s get into the details. The fifty singles matches would already be set from the moment the two teams were closed through the world ranking, so that a list of fifty would face the other in parallel, position by position. Thus, according to the two lists with both teams that we have just edited, the matches would be exactly those: Ayora, number 50 of Europe would face William Mouw (50), Sullivan (49) against Hubbard (49) and so on until reaching the last matches with the grand finale, with the duel between the two number ones, which in this case would be a McIlroy-Scheffler, no less. It is very interesting to go match by match, theorising about favourites, outsiders, or evenly matched duels a priori…

– In the fourballs format, even, all pairings could be established in advance to simplify things. Two ways occur to us.

The first: Scheffler, USA number one, would pair with USA number 50, in this case William Mouw; and they would play against McIlroy, who is the European number one, and Ayora, who is number 50. USA number 2, Henley, would pair with USA 49, Hubbard, and they would play against their twins on the European list, numbers 2 and 49, which in this case would be Fleetwood and Sullivan. And so on until completing the 25 pairs of each squad.

The second: directly USA numbers 1 and 2 would face European numbers 1 and 2 (Scheffler and Henley against McIlroy and Fleetwood); USA numbers 3 and 4 (Schauffele and Thomas), against European numbers 3 and 4 (MacIntyre and Hovland) and so on until completing the 25 pairs.

– In the foursomes format, however, the pairings could be established by a captain or technical team, paying more attention to affinities between players, playing styles, and the type of ball each plays.

– It’s fun to set up the duels, according to the two edited lists. In the European team, for example, there would currently be five Spanish players (Rahm, Chacarra, Campillo, Puig, and Ayora). Jon would face Bhatia in the singles, Chacarra against Theegala, Campillo against Knapp, Puig against Highsmith, and Ayora against Mouw.

– Right now, Mouw, who closes the list of the fifty best Americans, is Number 98 in the world, while Ayora, who is the fiftieth European, is Number 177 in the world. So, from a very general first analysis, the USA must be given the favouritism, but if some time is spent analysing one by one the different duels that could arise, both in pairs play and in singles, an American victory does not seem absolutely obvious either… Try it.

David Durán’s Blog