Golf - Ryder Cup 2012

So it only seems a short while ago that the European team won the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor in Wales in a heart stopping final few rounds of golf on a Monday after a rain delay extended the tournament. The Ryder Cup 2010 drew fans of golf into it's exciting format and was one of the best tournaments of the year, if not for a few years. Players were honored to play, golfers wanted to marshal or to go and see it and everyone stopped to watch it on TV.

So, as the tournament alternates between the US and Europe, the Ryder Cup 2012 goes back to the US to be played at Medinah Country Club, Medinah, Illinois between September 25 and 30th 2012.

So if you wanted to get tickets for the Ryder Cup 2012 then unfortunately you are now too late. Ryder cup tickets were available though a random ticket draw that closed on 30th September. Tickets, as for all Ryder cup events, were in great demand. Although only one application was allowed per person and the number of ryder cup tickets you could apply for was limited, the random draw was still oversubscribed. After the end of the application process the draw was made and those who were lucky enough to get tickets were notified, as were those (like myself) who were not lucky.

Daily and weekly ryder cup tickets were available and the prices ranged from $35 for a day ticket to the early days of the Ryder Cup, to $680 for a weekly ticket.

More opportunities may be made available to those who were not successful in the random ticket draw or else there are opportunities to purchase packages to the Ryder Cup which include accommodation and tickets.

It is likely that the application for tickets for the Ryder Cup 2012 will be oversubscribed - in 2010 thousands of people attended each day and it was one of the biggest events in the golfing calendar.

So the qualification criteria for each team, the US and Europe, is decided by each of their own golf associations. Competition is hard fought between the top players and in addition to the players who are guaranteed a place because they meet the criteria that is set out, there are also some places available for golfers who have not qualified but who the Captain of the team wants on his Ryder Cup 2012 team.

Each team is made up of 12 players, one team from the USA and one team picked from the European golfers.

For Europe: The top 5 players from the European Points List and the top five players from the World Points List will be joined by two picks from the Captain, José Maria Olazábal. (this has changed slightly from 2010)

For the US: Criteria is the same as 2010: The top 8 players on the Ryder Cup Points List plus 4 captains picks (captain is Davis Love III).

The Ryder Cup is a matchplay format which essentially means that individual players play against each other in a round of golf and the one who wins the most holes gets the points. That is the simple explanation of the Ryder Cup format - for a more detailed explanation see my article about the Ryder Cup Scoring.

It is played with a few different variations and often goes down to the wire on the last day of play. The team that has the most points over the 4 days play wins the tournament. However, if the teams are equal on score then the Ryder Cup will remain with the team that won it the previous time.