1997 Ryder Cup

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox team golf tournament The 32nd Ryder Cup Matches were held at the Valderrama Golf Club in Sotogrande, Spain, marking the first time the event was contested in continental Europe. The European team won the competition by a margin of 14Template:1/2 to 13Template:1/2 and retained the Ryder Cup.

The Europeans held a 10Template:1/2–5Template:1/2 lead heading into the final day, but the Americans mounted a comeback by winning the singles matches 8–4 but fell just short. Colin Montgomerie halved the final match with Scott Hoch (conceding a par putt on the final hole) to seal the outright victory for the Europeans.

This was the first of six consecutive victories at home by Europe, a streak that remains intact through 2023.

Format

The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The competition format used in 1997 was as follows:

• Day 1 (Friday) – 4 fourball (better ball) matches in a morning session and 4 foursome (alternate shot) matches in an afternoon session
• Day 2 (Saturday) – 4 fourball matches in a morning session and 4 foursome matches in an afternoon session
• Day 3 (Sunday) – 12 singles matches

With a total of 28 points, 14Template:1/2 points were required to win the Cup, and 14 points were required for the defending champion to retain the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 18 holes.

Teams

The selection process for the European team remained largely unchanged from that used in 1995 with two captain's picks. If captain Ballesteros qualified automatically, he had the choice of standing down and selecting a third player. The qualifying period remained the same, starting with the Canon European Masters in Switzerland at the beginning of September 1996 and ending with the BMW International Open on 31 August, the remaining two team members being chosen soon afterwards by the team captain. Prior to the final event Miguel Ángel Martín was in 10th place in the points list. He had, however, not played since The Open Championship because of a wrist injury. In the final event both José María Olazábal and Pádraig Harrington had chances to overtake Martin but neither succeeded. Olazábal finished 11th in the final points list with Harrington 12th. Because of uncertainty about Martin's fitness, the announcement of the two captain's picks, which was to have been immediately after the BMW International Open, was cancelled. On the Tuesday Martin was given an ultimatum that he was required to play 18 holes the following day to demonstrate that he would be fit to play in the Ryder Cup. Martin refused and was replaced by Olazábal, who had finished in the next qualifying place. Ballesteros announced his wildcards on the Thursday, choosing Nick Faldo and Jesper Parnevik. Miguel Ángel Martín had a world ranking of 79 at the time of the Ryder Cup.

Template:Flagicon Team Europe
Name	Age	Points rank	World ranking	Previous Ryder Cups	Matches	W–L–H	Winning percentage
Template:Flagicon Seve Ballesteros	40	Non-playing captain
Template:Flagicon Colin Montgomerie	34	1	5	3	13	6–5–2	53.85
Template:Flagicon Darren Clarke	29	2	33	0	Rookie
Template:Flagicon Bernhard Langer	40	3	20	8	34	15–14–5	51.47
Template:Flagicon Ian Woosnam	39	4	25	7	29	13–11–5	53.45
Template:Flagicon Per-Ulrik Johansson	30	5	42	1	3	1–2–0	33.33
Template:Flagicon Lee Westwood	24	6	32	0	Rookie
Template:Flagicon Ignacio Garrido	25	7	78	0	Rookie
Template:Flagicon Thomas Bjørn	26	8	73	0	Rookie
Template:Flagicon Costantino Rocca	40	9	43	2	7	3–4–0	42.86
Template:Flagicon José María Olazábal	31	11	57	4	20	12–6–2	65.00
Template:Flagicon Nick Faldo	40	27	15	10	41	21–16–4	56.10
Template:Flagicon Jesper Parnevik	32	–	18	0	Rookie

Captains picks are shown in yellow; the world rankings and records are at the start of the 1997 Ryder Cup.

Template:Flagicon Team USA
Name	Age	Points rank	World ranking	Previous Ryder Cups	Matches	W–L–H	Winning percentage
Tom Kite	47	Non-playing captain
Tiger Woods	21	1	2	0	Rookie
Justin Leonard	25	2	11	0	Rookie
Tom Lehman	38	3	6	1	3	2–1–0	66.67
Davis Love III	33	4	10	2	9	5–4–0	55.56
Jim Furyk	27	5	21	0	Rookie
Phil Mickelson	27	6	8	1	3	3–0–0	100.00
Jeff Maggert	33	7	28	1	4	2–2–0	50.00
Mark O'Meara	40	8	9	3	8	2–5–1	31.25
Scott Hoch	41	9	13	0	Rookie
Brad Faxon	36	10	16	1	3	1–2–0	33.33
Lee Janzen	33	15	39	1	2	0–2–0	0.00
Fred Couples	37	17	12	4	16	5–7–4	43.75

Captains picks are shown in yellow; the world rankings and records are at the start of the 1997 Ryder Cup.

Friday's matches

Morning four-ball

Template:Flagicon	Results	Template:Flagicon
Olazábal/Rocca	Template:Flagicon 1 up	Love III/Mickelson
Faldo/Westwood	Template:Flagicon 1 up	Couples/Faxon
Parnevik/Johansson	Template:Flagicon 1 up	Lehman/Furyk
Montgomerie/Langer	Template:Flagicon 3 & 2	Woods/O'Meara
2	Session	2
2	Overall	2

Afternoon foursomes

Template:Flagicon	Results	Template:Flagicon
Rocca/Olazábal	Template:Flagicon 1 up	Hoch/Janzen
Langer/Montgomerie	Template:Flagicon 5 & 3	O'Meara/Woods
Faldo/Westwood	Template:Flagicon 3 & 2	Leonard/Maggert
Parnevik/Garrido	halved	Lehman/Mickelson
2Template:1/2	Session	1Template:1/2
4Template:1/2	Overall	3Template:1/2

Saturday's matches

Morning four-ball

Template:Flagicon	Results	Template:Flagicon
Montgomerie/Clarke	Template:Flagicon 1 up	Couples/Love III
Woosnam/Bjørn	Template:Flagicon 2 & 1	Leonard/Faxon
Faldo/Westwood	Template:Flagicon 2 & 1	Woods/O'Meara
Olazábal/Garrido	halved	Mickelson/Lehman
3Template:1/2	Session	Template:1/2
8	Overall	4

Afternoon foursomes

Template:Flagicon	Results	Template:Flagicon
Montgomerie/Langer	Template:Flagicon 1 up	Janzen/Furyk
Faldo/Westwood	Template:Flagicon 2 & 1	Hoch/Maggert
Parnevik/Garrido	halved	Leonard/Woods
Olazábal/Rocca	Template:Flagicon 5 & 4	Love III/Couples
2Template:1/2	Session	1Template:1/2
10Template:1/2	Overall	5Template:1/2

Sunday's singles matches

Template:Flagicon	Results	Template:Flagicon
Ian Woosnam	Template:Flagicon 8 & 7	Fred Couples
Per-Ulrik Johansson	Template:Flagicon 3 & 2	Davis Love III
Jesper Parnevik	Template:Flagicon 5 & 4	Mark O'Meara
Darren Clarke	Template:Flagicon 2 & 1	Phil Mickelson
Costantino Rocca	Template:Flagicon 4 & 2	Tiger Woods
Thomas Bjørn	halved	Justin Leonard
Ignacio Garrido	Template:Flagicon 7 & 6	Tom Lehman
Bernhard Langer	Template:Flagicon 2 & 1	Brad Faxon
Lee Westwood	Template:Flagicon 3 & 2	Jeff Maggert
José María Olazábal	Template:Flagicon 1 up	Lee Janzen
Nick Faldo	Template:Flagicon 3 & 2	Jim Furyk
Colin Montgomerie	halved	Scott Hoch
4	Session	8
14Template:1/2	Overall	13Template:1/2

Individual player records

Each entry refers to the win–loss–half record of the player.

Source:

Europe

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
Thomas Bjørn	1.5	1–0–1	0–0–1	0–0–0	1–0–0
Darren Clarke	1	1–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–0	1–0–0
Nick Faldo	2	2–3–0	0–1–0	1–1–0	1–1–0
Ignacio Garrido	1.5	0–1–3	0–1–0	0–0–2	0–0–1
Per-Ulrik Johansson	2	2–0–0	1–0–0	0–0–0	1–0–0
Bernhard Langer	3	3–1–0	1–0–0	2–0–0	0–1–0
Colin Montgomerie	3.5	3–1–1	0–0–1	2–0–0	1–1–0
José María Olazábal	2.5	2–2–1	0–1–0	1–1–0	1–0–1
Jesper Parnevik	2	1–1–2	0–1–0	0–0–2	1–0–0
Costantino Rocca	3	3–1–0	1–0–0	1–1–0	1–0–0
Lee Westwood	2	2–3–0	0–1–0	1–1–0	1–1–0
Ian Woosnam	1	1–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–0	1–0–0

United States

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
Fred Couples	2	2–2–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	1–1–0
Brad Faxon	1	1–2–0	0–1–0	0–0–0	1–1–0
Jim Furyk	1	1–2–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–1–0
Scott Hoch	2.5	2–0–1	0–0–1	2–0–0	0–0–0
Lee Janzen	2	2–1–0	1–0–0	1–1–0	0–0–0
Tom Lehman	2	1–1–2	1–0–0	0–0–1	0–1–1
Justin Leonard	1	0–2–2	0–0–1	0–1–1	0–1–0
Davis Love III	0	0–4–0	0–1–0	0–1–0	0–2–0
Jeff Maggert	2	2–1–0	1–0–0	1–1–0	0–0–0
Phil Mickelson	2	1–1–2	1–0–0	0–0–1	0–1–1
Mark O'Meara	2	2–2–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	1–1–0
Tiger Woods	1.5	1–3–1	0–1–0	0–1–1	1–1–0