The 21st Ryder Cup Matches were held September 19–21 at

Laurel Valley Golf Club Laurel Valley Golf Club is a golf club located just south of the Pittsburgh suburb of Ligonier, Pennsylvania. Designed by Dick Wilson and renovated by Arnold Palmer, the Laurel Valley golf course opened in 1959. Since its opening, the club has hos ...

Ligonier, Pennsylvania Ligonier is a borough in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,513 at the 2020 census. Ligonier was settled in the 1760s. The borough is well known for nearby Idlewild Park, one of the oldest amusement parks in t ...

. The United States team won the competition by a score of 21 to 11 points. After the competition, questions started to be asked about the future of the event, as Britain and Ireland had once again failed to seriously challenge the United States team. The next time the competition was held in the U.S. in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

, the visiting team included players from continental

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. Laurel Valley was co-founded by U.S. captain

Arnold Palmer Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Dating back to 1955, he won numerous ev ...

and had hosted the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

a decade earlier, in

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in for a full term ...

Format

The

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

is a

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

event, with each match worth one point. The competition format was adjusted slightly from the

1973 Ryder Cup The 20th Ryder Cup Matches were held at Muirfield in Gullane, East Lothian, Scotland. The United States team won the competition by a score of 19 to 13 points. For the first time, what had previously been the "Great Britain" team was called "Grea ...

, with the second day sessions being swapped: *Day 1 — 4 foursome (alternate shot) matches in a morning session and 4 four-ball (better ball) matches in an afternoon session *Day 2 — 4 four-ball matches in a morning session and 4 foursome matches in an afternoon session *Day 3 — 16 singles matches, 8 each in morning and afternoon sessions With a total of 32 points, 16 points were required to win the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 18 holes.

Teams

Source: Eight members of the Great Britain and Ireland team were chosen from the money leaders in 1975 European Tour events after the

Benson & Hedges Festival The Benson & Hedges International Open was a men's professional golf tournament which was played in England. It was founded in 1971 and for its first five years it was called the Benson & Hedges Festival of Golf. It was sponsored by Benson & Hedg ...

on 16 August, with the remaining four members of the 12-man team selected by a committee. The eight automatic selections were:

Eamonn Darcy Eamonn Christopher Darcy (born 7 August 1952) is an Irish professional golfer. He won four times on the European Tour and played in the Ryder Cup four times. Professional career Darcy, with a handicap of 12, turned professional at the age of ...

, Maurice Bembridge, Brian Barnes,

Bernard Gallacher Bernard Gallacher, OBE (born 9 February 1949) is a Scottish professional golfer. Early life and amateur career Gallacher was born in Bathgate, Scotland. He took up golf at the age of eleven. In 1965 he won the Lothians Golf Association Boys C ...

, Norman Wood, John O'Leary,

Guy Hunt Harold Guy Hunt (June 17, 1933 – January 30, 2009) was an American politician, pastor, and convicted felon who served as the 49th governor of Alabama from 1987 to 1993. He was the first Republican to serve as governor of the state since Re ...

and

Brian Huggett Brian George Charles Huggett, (born 18 November 1936) is a Welsh professional golfer. He won sixteen events on the European circuit, including two after the formal start of the European Tour in 1972. In 1968 he won the Harry Vardon Trophy for l ...

. The committee chose two US-based players, Tony Jacklin and Peter Oosterhuis, together with

Christy O'Connor Jnr Christy O'Connor Jnr (born Christopher O'Connor; 19 August 1948 – 6 January 2016) was an Irish professional golfer. He is best known for defeating American Fred Couples at the 1989 Ryder Cup, helping Europe secure the trophy. Early life O'Co ...

and

Tommy Horton Thomas Alfred Horton, (16 June 1941 – 7 December 2017) was an English professional golfer. He finished in the top ten of the Open Championship four times, won a number of important tournaments both before and after the founding of the Europe ...

. Horton was selected despite finishing 15th in the points list, making his debut at the age of 34.

Neil Coles Neil Chapman Coles, MBE (born 26 September 1934) is an English professional golfer. Coles had a successful career in European golf, winning 29 important tournaments between 1956 and 1982. After reaching 50, he won a further 14 important Seniors ...

withdrew from consideration because of his fear of flying and because it was impractical to travel by sea.

Friday's matches

Morning foursomes

Afternoon four-ball

Saturday's matches

Morning four-ball

Afternoon foursomes

Sunday's matches

Morning singles

Afternoon singles

Individual player records

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

United States

Great Britain and Ireland

References

* *

External links

PGA of America: 1975 Ryder Cup
{{coord, 40.229, -79.236, type:event, display=title Ryder Cup Golf in Pennsylvania