ISM 2018 Ryder Cup Rankings

25/09/2018

The Ryder Cup is all about the points, so we went through and did some number crunching! While the American team has a historically stronger record, 26 wins to Europe’s 13, many things factor in to winning the Ryder Cup. We added the current team veterans’ points and weighed them to give our own ‘points’ to each team based on the results!

1. Team Experience

The European team is heading to Paris with an incredible five Ryder Cup rookies, while the Americans are only taking three! However, this may not have as much of an impact on the teams as you might think… Between all the members of the current teams, the American players have a collective 32 appearances, while the Europeans have 30.

	Veteran Appearances	2018 Rookies
Team U.S.A.	32	Bryson DeChambeau Tony Finau Justin Thomas
Team Europe	30	Tommy Fleetwood Tyrell Hatton Alex Noren Thorbjorn Olesen Jon Rahm

Winner: Team U.S.A – Mickelson’s impressive 11 consecutive appearances combine with their low number of rookies to give Team U.S.A. the upper hand. It’s also worth noting that American rookie Justin Thomas is the current World Golf Ranked No. 1, narrowly beating out Justin Rose – even with his recent winning of the FedEx Cup Championship!

2. Fourball Points

The current European team members have a better win record and are better at gaining the halve, but the Americans are more about the win or loss when it comes to the Fourball matches.

Team U.S.A.	27-28-4
Team Europe	22-15-11

Winner: Team U.S.A. – Although it was a tough call on this stat, ultimately whole points matter more than halves.

3. Foursome Points

The strongest Foursome player on both teams is Spaniard Sergio Garcia, with an impressive 9-3-3 record that helps bolster the European score overall.

Team U.S.A.	14-21-11
Team Europe	25-14-6

Winner: Team Europe – Even with a similar number of matches played by their current team members, they simply dominate the Americans.

4. Singles Points

When it comes to singles play, the Americans are relatively evenly matched with the Europeans.

Team U.S.A.	16-13-5
Team Europe	14-10-6

Winner: Halve – Both teams are pretty evenly matched when it comes to Singles play, and each individual can very greatly depending on the day and surrounding conditions. Ultimately, we’re betting on Team U.S.A. to take Singles play, in part due to Tiger’s record of 4-1-2 and the fact he’s coming off his huge Tour Championship win!

5. Points Won Overall

Overall scores show the Europeans with more points and more halves.

Team U.S.A.	57-62-20
Team Europe	61-39-23

Winner: Team Europe – Numbers don’t lie, despite less matches with their current team, they’ve earned more points than the Americans.

That leaves our rankings at 2 ½ points each! We’re going to defer to Ryder Cup protocol here and say that in the case of a draw like this, the previous winner retains the title!