The 26th Ryder Cup Matches were held 13–15 September 1985 at the Brabazon Course of The Belfry in Wishaw, Warwickshire, England. Team Europe won the competition for the first time by a score of 161⁄2 to 111⁄2 points. This marked the first U.S. loss since 1957, previously the sole U.S. loss in fifty years.
| Dates | 13–15 September 1985 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venue | The Belfry, Brabazon Course | ||||
| Location | Wishaw, Warwickshire, England | ||||
| Captains |
| ||||
| |||||
| Europe wins the Ryder Cup | |||||
A key turning point in the matches came Saturday morning, when Craig Stadler missed a two-foot putt on the 18th hole, which would have earned a win for him and Curtis Strange over Europe's Bernhard Langer and Sandy Lyle. The match was halved, so instead of the U.S. being in the lead through three stages, the overall score was tied at 6-6. Europe went on to win three of the four Saturday afternoon matches. "In the past, it was always us who missed those putts," said European captain Tony Jacklin. "That has to crush them."[1]
Europe took that two-point lead into the Sunday singles and increased their lead throughout Sunday. It fell to Sam Torrance to secure the winning margin when he holed a 22-foot (7 m) putt on the 18th hole to defeat Andy North 1 up and go up 141⁄2 to 81⁄2, a six-point margin with five matches on the course.[2][3]
This was the last Ryder Cup played in Europe that was not shown on live television in the United States.[4] The USA Network first televised it in 1989 on cable with video provided by the BBC.[5][6] NBC Sports took over live weekend coverage in 1991 in South Carolina,[7] and 1993 marked the first time a major U.S. network televised it live from Europe.
Format edit
The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The competition format in 1985 was as follows:
- 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 — 12 singles matches
With a total of 28 points, 141⁄2 points were required to win the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 18 holes.
Teams edit
Nine of the European team were chosen from the 1985 European Tour money list at the conclusion of the Benson & Hedges International Open on 18 August with the remaining three team members being chosen immediately after the final event by the team captain, Tony Jacklin. Prior to the final event Christy O'Connor Jnr was in the 9th qualifying position. However he missed the cut in the Benson & Hedges International Open and was overtaken by José María Cañizares, O'Connor finishing just £115.89 behind Cañizares. Jacklin's choices of Nick Faldo and Ken Brown were widely expected but his choice of José Rivero was a surprise.[8]
 Team Europe
| ||||||
| Name | Age | Points rank |
Previous Ryder Cups |
Matches | W–L–H | Winning percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tony Jacklin
|
41 | Non-playing captain | ||||
 Sandy Lyle
|
27 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 3–7–1 | 31.82 |
| Sam Torrance
|
32 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 1–5–3 | 27.78 |
 Ian Woosnam
|
27 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0–2–1 | 16.67 |
 Bernhard Langer
|
28 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 5–3–1 | 61.11 |
| Paul Way
|
22 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 3–1–1 | 70.00 |
| Howard Clark
|
31 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1–1–1 | 50.00 |
 Seve Ballesteros
|
28 | 7 | 2 | 10 | 3–5–2 | 40.00 |
| Manuel Piñero
|
33 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 2–2–0 | 50.00 |
| José María Cañizares
|
38 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 2–3–1 | 41.67 |
| José Rivero
|
29 | 0 | Rookie | |||
| Ken Brown
|
28 | 3 | 8 | 3–5–0 | 37.50 | |
| Nick Faldo
|
28 | 4 | 15 | 11–4–0 | 73.33 | |
Captains picks are shown in yellow.[9]
 Team USA
| ||||||
| Name | Age | Points rank |
Previous Ryder Cups |
Matches | W–L–H | Winning percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lee Trevino | 45 | Non-playing captain | ||||
| Andy North | 35 | – | 0 | Rookie | ||
| Hubert Green | 38 | – | 2 | 4 | 3–1–0 | 75.00 |
| Curtis Strange | 30 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1–2–0 | 33.33 |
| Lanny Wadkins | 35 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 9–2–1 | 79.17 |
| Raymond Floyd | 43 | 3 | 5 | 19 | 5–11–3 | 34.21 |
| Calvin Peete | 42 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2–1–1 | 62.50 |
| Mark O'Meara | 28 | 5 | 0 | Rookie | ||
| Craig Stadler | 32 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2–1–0 | 66.67 |
| Hal Sutton | 27 | 7 | 0 | Rookie | ||
| Peter Jacobsen | 31 | 8 | 0 | Rookie | ||
| Tom Kite | 35 | 9 | 3 | 11 | 7–2–2 | 72.73 |
| Fuzzy Zoeller | 33 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 1–5–1 | 21.43 |
North qualified by virtue of winning the 1985 U.S. Open, while Green qualified by winning the 1985 PGA Championship.
Friday's matches edit
Morning foursomes edit
|
|
Results |
|
|---|---|---|
| Ballesteros/Piñero |  2 & 1
|
Strange/O'Meara |
| Langer/Faldo |  3 & 2
|
Peete/Kite |
| Lyle/Brown | 4 & 3
|
Wadkins/Floyd |
| Clark/Torrance | 3 & 2
|
Stadler/Sutton |
| 1 | Session | 3 |
| 1 | Overall | 3 |
Afternoon four-ball edit
|
|
Results |
|
|---|---|---|
| Way/Woosnam | 1 up
|
Zoeller/Green |
| Ballesteros/Piñero | 2 & 1
|
North/Jacobsen |
| Langer/Cañizares | halved | Stadler/Sutton |
| Torrance/Clark | 1 up
|
Floyd/Wadkins |
| 21⁄2 | Session | 11⁄2 |
| 31⁄2 | Overall | 41⁄2 |
Saturday's matches edit
Morning four-ball edit
|
|
Results |
|
|---|---|---|
| Torrance/Clark | 2 & 1
|
Kite/North |
| Way/Woosnam | 4 & 3
|
Green/Zoeller |
| Ballesteros/Piñero | 3 & 2
|
O'Meara/Wadkins |
| Langer/Lyle | halved | Stadler/Strange |
| 21⁄2 | Session | 11⁄2 |
| 6 | Overall | 6 |
Afternoon foursomes edit
|
|
Results |
|
|---|---|---|
| Cañizares/Rivero | 7 & 5
|
Kite/Peete |
| Ballesteros/Piñero | 5 & 4
|
Stadler/Sutton |
| Way/Woosnam | 4 & 2
|
Strange/Jacobsen |
| Langer/Brown | 3 & 2
|
Floyd/Wadkins |
| 3 | Session | 1 |
| 9 | Overall | 7 |
Sunday's singles matches edit
|
|
Results |
|
|---|---|---|
| Manuel Piñero | 3 & 1
|
Lanny Wadkins |
| Ian Woosnam | 2 & 1
|
Craig Stadler |
| Paul Way | 2 up
|
Raymond Floyd |
| Seve Ballesteros | halved | Tom Kite |
| Sandy Lyle | 3 & 2
|
Peter Jacobsen |
| Bernhard Langer | 5 & 4
|
Hal Sutton |
| Sam Torrance | 1 up
|
Andy North |
| Howard Clark | 1 up
|
Mark O'Meara |
| José Rivero | 1 up
|
Calvin Peete |
| Nick Faldo | 3 & 1
|
Hubert Green |
| José María Cañizares | 2 up
|
Fuzzy Zoeller |
| Ken Brown | 4 & 2
|
Curtis Strange |
| 71⁄2 | Session | 41⁄2 |
| 161⁄2 | Overall | 111⁄2 |
Individual player records edit
Each entry refers to the win–loss–half record of the player.
Source: [10]
Europe edit
| Player | Points | Overall | Singles | Foursomes | Fourballs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seve Ballesteros | 3.5 | 3–1–1 | 0–0–1 | 2–0–0 | 1–1–0 |
| Ken Brown | 1 | 1–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–1–0 | 0–0–0 |
| José María Cañizares | 2.5 | 2–0–1 | 1–0–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–0–1 |
| Howard Clark | 2 | 2–2–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–1–0 |
| Nick Faldo | 0 | 0–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–0–0 |
| Bernhard Langer | 3 | 2–1–2 | 1–0–0 | 1–1–0 | 0–0–2 |
| Sandy Lyle | 1.5 | 1–1–1 | 1–0–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–0–1 |
| Manuel Piñero | 4 | 4–1–0 | 1–0–0 | 2–0–0 | 1–1–0 |
| José Rivero | 1 | 1–1–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–0–0 |
| Sam Torrance | 2 | 2–2–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–1–0 |
| Paul Way | 3 | 3–1–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–1–0 | 2–0–0 |
| Ian Woosnam | 2 | 2–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–1–0 | 2–0–0 |
United States edit
| Player | Points | Overall | Singles | Foursomes | Fourballs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raymond Floyd | 2 | 2–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–1–0 | 1–0–0 |
| Hubert Green | 1 | 1–2–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–0–0 | 0–2–0 |
| Peter Jacobsen | 1 | 1–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–1–0 |
| Tom Kite | 1.5 | 1–2–1 | 0–0–1 | 1–1–0 | 0–1–0 |
| Andy North | 0 | 0–3–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–0–0 | 0–2–0 |
| Mark O'Meara | 1 | 1–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–0–0 |
| Calvin Peete | 2 | 2–1–0 | 1–0–0 | 1–1–0 | 0–0–0 |
| Craig Stadler | 3 | 2–1–2 | 1–0–0 | 1–1–0 | 0–0–2 |
| Curtis Strange | 2.5 | 2–1–1 | 1–0–0 | 1–1–0 | 0–0–1 |
| Hal Sutton | 1.5 | 1–2–1 | 0–1–0 | 1–1–0 | 0–0–1 |
| Lanny Wadkins | 3 | 3–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–1–0 | 2–0–0 |
| Fuzzy Zoeller | 0 | 0–3–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–0–0 | 0–2–0 |
References edit
- ^ https://vault.si.com/vault/1985/09/23/the-empire-strikes-back
- ^ McDermott, Barry (23 September 1985). "The Empire Strikes Back". Sports Illustrated. p. 44.
- ^ "North falls as US loses Ryder Cup". Milwaukee Sentinel. wire services. 16 September 1985. p. 6, part 2.
- ^ "Ryder Cup matches scheduled for TV". Palm Beach Daily News. 3 October 1985. p. 7.
- ^ "Ryder Cup will be televised". Milwaukee Sentinel. Associated Press. 31 January 1989. p. 3C.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Modoono, Bill (21 September 1989). "Ryder Cup play creates fuzzy picture". Pittsburgh Press. p. C3.
- ^ Sandomir, Richard (26 September 1991). "U.S. losses put Ryder Cup golf back on network". Eugene Register-Guard. (New York Times). p. 8D.
- ^ "Jacklin's surprise choice". The Times, 19 August 1985; p. 19; Issue 62220.
- ^ Kelley, Brent. "Ryder Cup captain's picks and how they've fared". About.com. Archived from the original on 4 September 2014. Retrieved 4 September 2014.
- ^ "2014 Ryder Cup Media and Players' Guide". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2014.
- "Ryder Cup 2006 » History » 1985 Results". The PGA of America, Ryder Cup Limited, and Turner Sports Interactive. Archived from the original on 23 February 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2007.
- "Ryder Cup history: 1985". BBC Sport. 14 September 2006. Retrieved 14 March 2007.
External links edit
- PGA of America: 1985 Ryder Cup
- About.com: 1985 Ryder Cup Archived 27 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine