A total of 21 out of the 24 players who will participate in two weeks at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage are competing this week on both sides of the Atlantic. Only Bryson DeChambeau and Xander Schauffele are missing for the American side, and Sepp Straka for the European side. Keegan Bradley‘s team is at the Procore Championship, in Napa Valley, Silverado Resort. Luke Donald‘s team is at the BMW PGA Championship, Wentworth, London. They are separated by a total of 8,543 kilometres in a straight line, according to Artificial Intelligence. However, at Ten Golf, we wanted to bring them together in a kind of fun game with no value other than pure entertainment. It’s about warming up for Bethpage with a virtual Ryder as an appetizer for the big battle.
Specifically, we are going to pit the two teams against each other in simulated individual duels. The format will consist of ten matches each day. On Thursday, they will face off in strict order of the world ranking. That is, the best from the United States against the best from Europe, the second against the second, and so on. As Europe has one more player, one player will rest in each session. Jon Rahm will be on the bench this Thursday due to having a lower world ranking. Thus, the duels of the first round of this particular four-day Ryder Cup will be as follows:
– Scheffler Vs. McIlroy
– Henley Vs. Fleetwood
– Thomas Vs. MacIntyre
– Spaun Vs. Rose
– Morikawa Vs. Aberg
– English Vs. Hovland
– Griffin Vs. Lowry
– Young Vs. Hatton
– Cantlay Vs. Fitzpatrick
– Burns Vs. Rasmus Hojgaard
From the second day onwards, the matches will be held in strict order of classification in their respective tournaments. That is, the best-ranked in the Procore against the best-ranked in Wentworth, the second with the second, and so on until completing the 10 matches. In case of a tie in positions, where there are two Americans and two Europeans sharing the same position and they cross, the pairings will be made alphabetically.
Practical case: Scheffler is first in the Procore and Lowry is first in Wentworth after the first day. On Friday, they would face each other. Then, in the second position in the Procore, Thomas and Henley are tied, while in the second position in Wentworth, Rahm and Hovland are tied. In this specific case, alphabetically, Henley would face Hovland and Thomas would face Rahm.
From the second day onwards, when the cut is established, the same format will be followed to pair the players. Obviously, if there is one or more matches between golfers who have not made the cut, they will each receive half a point. If the distribution of players who have made the cut in one team and the other is odd, the team with the most players making the cut will have an advantage, as they will continue to face off until the end in order of classification.
The way to resolve the matches is very simple. By their position in the tournament at the end of each day. Practical example: if Scheffler is first in the Procore after the first day and has made 65 strokes and McIlroy is second in the BMW PGA Championship and has made 64 strokes, the point will go to Scheffler. And so with all the matches. If they tie in position, they will each receive half a point. Being a game in any case, this system seems fairer to us than by the number of strokes, as more factors would come into play there, such as the difficulty of the course or the weather conditions.
Thus, at the end of the week, a total of 40 points will be distributed, and it will be determined who is the winner of this virtual Ryder Cup appetizer. In case of a tie, which could happen, of course, Europe would retain the title won in Rome two years ago.
