1979 Ryder Cup Explained

Ryder Cup
Year:	1979
Dates:	September 14–16, 1979
Venue:	The Greenbrier, The Greenbrier Course
Location:	White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
Home:	USA
Away:	Europe
Homecaptain:	Billy Casper
Awaycaptain:	John Jacobs
Homescore:	17
Awayscore:	11
Result:	United States wins

The 23rd Ryder Cup Matches were held September 14–16, 1979, in the United States, at the Greenbrier Course of The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

It was the beginning of a new era for the Ryder Cup. For the first time, players from continental Europe took part in the Ryder Cup (specifically, Seve Ballesteros and Antonio Garrido of Spain).^[1] ^[2] The new Team Europe replaced Great Britain and Ireland as the official opposition to the United States. It was hoped that the change would help raise the profile of the competition and bring about the end of near total domination by the United States that had existed since the end of the Second World War. However the change made no real impact at the first attempt as the United States won the competition easily by a score of 17 to 11 points and led after every session.^[3] Ballesteros and Garrido played together in all four team sessions and were 1–3; both lost their singles matches on Sunday. All four of Ballesteros' losses came against Larry Nelson.^[4] ^[5]

Jack Nicklaus, age 39, failed to make the team for the first time since missing his first chance at making the team in 1967. Tom Watson left the day before the competition for the birth of his first child and was replaced on the team by first alternate Mark Hayes.^[6]

Format

The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The competition format was similar to the formats used from 1963 through 1975, but with fewer singles matches:

Day 1 — 4 four-ball (better ball) matches in a morning session and 4 foursome (alternate shot) matches in an afternoon session
Day 2 — 4 foursome matches in a morning session and 4 four-ball matches in an afternoon session
Day 3 — 12 singles matches, 6 each in morning and afternoon sessions

With a total of 28 points, 14 points were required to win the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 18 holes.

Teams

Name	Age	Points rank	Previous Ryder Cups	Matches	W–L–H	Winning percentage
Team USA
Billy Casper	48	Non-playing captain
Gil Morgan	32		0	Rookie
Hubert Green	32		1	2	2–0–0	100.00
Larry Nelson	32		0	Rookie
John Mahaffey	31		0	Rookie
Tom Kite	29		0	Rookie
Lee Trevino	39		4	22	11–6–5	61.36
Hale Irwin	34		2	8	6–1–1	81.25
Lanny Wadkins	29		1	3	3–0–0	100.00
Andy Bean	26		0	Rookie
Fuzzy Zoeller	27		0	Rookie
Lee Elder	45		0	Rookie
Mark Hayes	30		0	Rookie

Mark Hayes replaced Tom Watson.^[6]

Name	Age	Points rank	Previous Ryder Cups	Matches	W–L–H	Winning percentage
Team Europe
John Jacobs	54	Non-playing captain
Seve Ballesteros	22	1	0	Rookie
Mark James	25	2	1	3	0–3–0	0.00
Brian Barnes	34	3	5	20	7–12–1	37.50
Bernard Gallacher	30	4	5	20	8–8–4	50.00
Sandy Lyle	21	5	0	Rookie
Ken Brown	22	6	1	1	0–1–0	0.00
Antonio Garrido	35	7	0	Rookie
Tony Jacklin	35	8	6	31	12–12–7	50.00
Michael King	29	9	0	Rookie
Nick Faldo	22	10	1	3	3–0–0	100.00
Des Smyth	26	12	0	Rookie
Peter Oosterhuis	31	–	4	21	12–6–3	64.29

The wild card selections are shown in yellow.

Friday's matches

September 14, 1979

Morning four-ball

	Results
Garrido/Ballesteros	2 & 1	Wadkins/Nelson
Brown/James	3 & 2	Trevino/Zoeller
Oosterhuis/Faldo	2 & 1	Bean/Elder
Gallacher/Barnes	2 & 1	Irwin/Mahaffey
1	Session	3
1	Overall	3

Afternoon foursomes

	Results
Brown/Smyth	7 & 6	Irwin/Kite
Ballesteros/Garrido	3 & 2	Zoeller/Green
Lyle/Jacklin	halved	Trevino/Morgan
Gallacher/Barnes	4 & 3	Wadkins/Nelson
1	Session	2
2	Overall	5

Saturday's matches

September 15, 1979

Morning foursomes

	Results
Jacklin/Lyle	5 & 4	Elder/Mahaffey
Faldo/Oosterhuis	6 & 5	Bean/Kite
Gallacher/Barnes	2 & 1	Zoeller/Hayes
Ballesteros/Garrido	3 & 2	Wadkins/Nelson
3	Session	1
5	Overall	6

Afternoon four-ball

	Results
Ballesteros/Garrido	5 & 4	Wadkins/Nelson
Jacklin/Lyle	1 up	Irwin/Kite
Gallacher/Barnes	3 & 2	Trevino/Zoeller
Faldo/Oosterhuis	1 up	Elder/Hayes
2	Session	2
7	Overall	8

Sunday's matches

September 16, 1979

Morning singles

	Results
Bernard Gallacher	3 & 2	Lanny Wadkins
Seve Ballesteros	3 & 2	Larry Nelson
Tony Jacklin	1 up	Tom Kite
Antonio Garrido	1 up	Mark Hayes
Michael King	4 & 3	Andy Bean
Brian Barnes	1 up	John Mahaffey
1	Session	5
8	Overall	13

Afternoon singles

	Results
Nick Faldo	3 & 2	Lee Elder
Des Smyth	5 & 3	Hale Irwin
Peter Oosterhuis	2 up	Hubert Green
Ken Brown	1 up	Fuzzy Zoeller
Sandy Lyle	2 & 1	Lee Trevino
Mark James	halved^[7]	Gil Morgan
2	Session	3
11	Overall	17

Individual player records

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

Source: ^[8]

United States

Player	Points	Overall !	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
	2	2–1–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	1–0–0
	1	1–3–0	0–1–0	0–1–0	1–1–0
	1	1–1–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–0–0
	1	1–2–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–1–0
	3	3–1–0	1–0–0	1–0–0	1–1–0
	3	3–1–0	1–0–0	1–1–0	1–0–0
	1	1–2–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–1–0
	1	0–0–2	0–0–1	0–0–1	0–0–0
	5	5–0–0	1–0–0	2–0–0	2–0–0
	2.5	2–1–1	1–0–0	0–0–1	1–1–0
	4	4–1–0	0–1–0	2–0–0	2–0–0
	1	1–4–0	0–1–0	0–2–0	1–1–0

Europe

Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
1	1–4–0	0–1–0	1–1–0	0–2–0
3	3–2–0	0–1–0	1–1–0	2–0–0
1	1–2–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–1–0
3	3–1–0	1–0–0	1–0–0	1–1–0
4	4–1–0	1–0–0	1–1–0	2–0–0
1	1–4–0	0–1–0	1–1–0	0–2–0
1.5	1–2–1	0–1–0	1–0–1	0–1–0
0.5	0–1–1	0–0–1	0–0–0	0–1–0
0	0–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–0	0–0–0
1.5	1–2–1	0–1–0	1–0–1	0–1–0
2	2–2–0	0–1–0	1–0–0	1–1–0
0	0–2–0	0–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–0

Controversy and fallout

On their return to the United Kingdom, Mark James and Ken Brown received the highest fines in professional golf up to this point. James received a £1500 fine for "unprofessional conduct" and Brown was fined £1000 and banned from international duty for 12 months.https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/golf-jacklin-opposes-james-captaincy-1196820.html

Video

You Tube: 1979 Ryder Cup Sunday singles

References

Web site: Ryder Cup 2006 » History » 1979 Results . The PGA of America, Ryder Cup Limited, and Turner Sports Interactive . 2007-03-14 . October 22, 2006 . https://web.archive.org/web/20061022153401/http://www.rydercup.com/2006/europe/history/results/1979.html . dead .
Web site: Ryder Cup history: 1979 . BBC Sport . 2007-03-14 . 2004-09-13 .

External links

37.787°N -80.314°W

Notes and References

News: Ryder Cup goes Continental . The Age. Melbourne, Australia. May 31, 1978 . 26 .
News: British receive help in Ryder Cup change . Spokane Daily Chronicle . Washington . Associated Press . May 30, 1978 . 19.
The U.S. rookies were rough Ryders . https://archive.today/20130814204655/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1095397/index.htm. dead. August 14, 2013. Sports Illustrated . Jenkins . Dan . September 24, 1979 . 26 .
News: Not-so-good loser. Miami News. September 17, 1979 . 1C.
News: Nelson-led Yanks retain Ryder Cup . Spokesman-Review. Associated Press . September 17, 1979. 19.
News: U.S. minus Watson as Ryder Cup starts . St. Petersburg Times . wire services . September 14, 1979 . 6C.
Mark James withdrew because of injury. Gil Morgan was also injured, so this match was not actually played.https://www.espn.com/golf/rydercup04/news/story?id=1880647
Web site: 2014 Ryder Cup Media and Players' Guide . October 5, 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20141006074322/http://2014rcmediaguide.com/2014RyderCupMediaGuide/ . October 6, 2014 .