President’s Cup Scoring

So the scoring for the President’s Cup golf tournament is different to most of the other golf events that you may see and in particular different to all the major tournaments which work on a strokeplay basis, where the President’s Cup works on a matchplay basis, like the Ryder Cup. So the aim is to win matches rather than just to get round the course in as few shots as possible.

In order to win a match the player or players in a team try to win as many holes as they can from the 18 that they may play. For each hole that they play, if they score better than their opponent then they win that hole. If they score the same as their opponent (i.e they take the same number of shots to sink their ball in the hole) then that hole is halved.

So, if one person or team wins the first hole let’s say, then they go 1 Up. If the other team wins the next hole then they will go back to ‘All Square’ (A/S). They keep playing until either they finish all 18 holes or one person or team has won so many holes that the other team cannot catch up. For example, if one team are 5 Up and there are only 4 holes remaining, then there is no way the other team can win, so the first team is said to win that match 5&4.

President’s Cup Format

The format of the President’s Cup is similar to that of the Ryder Cup. Except that in this case the competition is between the USA and a team from non-European countries (whereas the Ryder Cup is USA v Europe). There are 4 days of play and the President’s Cup is run alternate years to the Ryder Cup.

There are 12 players in each team, just like the Ryder Cup, but the players all play in more games as follows:

Thursday and Friday – there are 5 matches of Fourbballs and Five matches of Foursomes. Previously there were 6 matches of each so that all players played in these matches.
Saturday AM – 8 players from each team play in the Foursomes (4 matches)
Saturday PM – 8 players from each team play in the Fourballs (4 matches)
Sunday – all players play in the singles (12 matches)

So with a total of 30 matches, there are 30 points up for grabs and so a team can win by scoring 15 1/2 points. If it is a draw at 15 points all then the team that won the previous year keep hold of the trophy.

Foursomes Format

The foursomes format involves 2 players in each team only using one ball between them. One player is nominated to take the first tee shot and from then onwards tee shots alternate between players so one will take tee shots from the even numbered holes and one from the odd numbered holes.

The second shot is taken by the player who did not take the tee shot and so on, alternating players until the ball is holed.

The winner of the hole is the team that holes out in the fewest number of shots from that one ball.

Fourball Format

The fourball format involves 2 players on each team who each play their own ball. The team then takes the best score on each hole from either player and compares this to the best score from either player on the other team. Again the team with the best score will win that hole (or half it if both teams score the same).

So you may see a player pick up their ball if they cannot score any better than their partner.

President’s Cup 2017

The next President’s Cup tournament will take place in the USA at the Liberty National Golf Club, Jersey City, NJ, from September 26th to 1st October 2017. The two president’s Cup captains are Nick Price (International Team) and Steve Stricker (USA) and they will choose their teams a few weeks before the tournament.

Ten members of the USA team are chosen based on FedEx Cup points from September 2015 to September 2017 (weighted to favor points in 2017) with 2 captain’s picks made in September 2017.

The International Team is made up of the top ten players in the rankings as at 8 September 2017 plus 2 captain’s picks made in September 2017.