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How Does the President’s Cup Scoring Work?

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.

Golf tournaments bring in large crowds

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.

How Much Do Golfers Earn?

It is no secret that top sports people, including golfers, can earn a lot of money. Not only do they earn money from taking part in (and hopefully winning) tournaments, but they also earn a lot of money from sponsorship deals, in fact these days they often earn more money from that than their actual sports earnings!

tiger-woodsBut regardless of sponsorship deals it can be interesting to look at money that golfers can earn from tournaments. In order to check on the top level of earnings that a golfer might be able to achieve, we have looked back on the earnings of Tiger Woods from when he turned professional.

Obviously looking at someone who was so successful will give a good idea of the maximum earnings a golfer can strive for not including sponsorships. But also in Woods’ case, you can see the effect of the bad years that he has had due to his personal situation and injuries.

Most tournaments that you take part in as a golfer offer prize money to all levels of participants – the bigger the tournament the higher the prize money of course.

Dropping just one extra shot in a tournament can lose you a large chuck of money so it is no wonder golfers need to be concentrating at all times and don’t like to have any distractions when playing.

So here are the annual tournament earnings of Tiger Woods from when he turned professional in 1996:

2015 – $448,598
2014 – $108,275
2013 – $8,553,439
2012 – $ 6,133,159
2011 – $ 660,238.00
2010 – $ 2,090,477.00
2009 – $ 9,434,813.00
2008 – $ 5,875,000.00
2007 – $ 12,217,052.00
2006 – $ 11,291,563.00
2005 – $ 10,870,522.00
2004 – $ 6,925,471.00
2003 – $ 7,373,413.00
2002 – $ 8,789,225.00
2001 – $ 6,846,108.00
2000 – $ 10,318,321.00
1999 – $ 6,816,584.00
1998 – $ 2,241,116.00
1997 – $ 2,376,831.00
1996 – $ 906,170.00

Looking at the annual earnings for other golfers it seems that the top golfer of the year earns around $8-12m depending on how many events they play and how dominant they are in those events.

For example in 2015 Jordan Speith was dominant with earnings of over $12 million, up with Tiger’s top earnings.

However, in 2014 Rory McIlroy was the top earning golfer but he actually ‘only’ earned over $8 million.

 

Wozzilroy – The New Celeb Sports Couple!

So with the demise of the old celebrity couples including this week the split of Ashton Kucher and Demi Moore, our appetite for more celebrity couples is satiated with the hottest new couple (in the sports world in any event) that is made up of the world’s number 1 female tennis player and the world’s number two golfer.

‘Wozzilroy’ as Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki have been dubbed by friends and fans alike (in fact, was the term invented by Graeme McDowell when he tweeted this picture of them recently?) have not been a couple for that long as Rory only split up with his long term girlfriend earlier in the year.

Wozzilroy
Rory Mcilroy and Caroline Wozniacki - Sports Hottest Couple

But in recent weeks they have been seen together a lot and are making no secret of their romance. With the power of Twitter these days it is possible to know what is going on as it happens, especially when the celebs themselves tweet the news!

Caroline has recently had her first golf lesson with Justin Parsons at the Butch Harmon School of Golf in Dubai and apparently Rory said that she didn’t do too badly! it certainly seems like love when they are trying out each other’s sports!

At the end of September Rory gave Caroline a golf club with the word ‘Wozzilroy’ engraved on it and she tweeted a picture for all to see:

Wozniacki tweeted a picture of the club that McIlroy gave her inscribed with 'Wozzilroy'

Bookies are already laying short odds on the couple becoming engaged, getting married or having a baby on the next year or so but let’s face it, McIlroy is only 22 and Wozniacki is only 21 so it is really early days for any of that kind of speculation!