1979 Ryder Cup

23rd Ryder Cup Matches

Dates

September 14–16, 1979

Venue

The Greenbrier,
The Greenbrier Course

Location

White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

Captains

Billy Casper (USA)
John Jacobs (Europe)

United States wins the Ryder Cup

The Greenbrier

Location in the United States

The 23rd Ryder Cup Matches were held September 14–16, 1979 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^[1]^[2] (specifically, Seve Ballesteros and Antonio Garrido of Spain). 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 becoming eligible in 1969. 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, 14½ 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
1½	Session	2½
2½	Overall	5½

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
5½	Overall	6½

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
7½	Overall	8½

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
8½	Overall	13½

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
2½	Session	3½
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
Andy Bean	2	2–1–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	1–0–0
Lee Elder	1	1–3–0	0–1–0	0–1–0	1–1–0
Hubert Green	1	1–1–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–0–0
Mark Hayes	1	1–2–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–1–0
Hale Irwin	3	3–1–0	1–0–0	1–0–0	1–1–0
Tom Kite	3	3–1–0	1–0–0	1–1–0	1–0–0
John Mahaffey	1	1–2–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–1–0
Gil Morgan	1	0–0–2	0–0–1	0–0–1	0–0–0
Larry Nelson	5	5–0–0	1–0–0	2–0–0	2–0–0
Lee Trevino	2.5	2–1–1	1–0–0	0–0–1	1–1–0
Lanny Wadkins	4	4–1–0	0–1–0	2–0–0	2–0–0
Fuzzy Zoeller	1	1–4–0	0–1–0	0–2–0	1–1–0

Europe

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
Seve Ballesteros	1	1–4–0	0–1–0	1–1–0	0–2–0
Brian Barnes	3	3–2–0	0–1–0	1–1–0	2–0–0
Ken Brown	1	1–2–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–1–0
Nick Faldo	3	3–1–0	1–0–0	1–0–0	1–1–0
Bernard Gallacher	4	4–1–0	1–0–0	1–1–0	2–0–0
Antonio Garrido	1	1–4–0	0–1–0	1–1–0	0–2–0
Tony Jacklin	1.5	1–2–1	0–1–0	1–0–1	0–1–0
Mark James	0.5	0–1–1	0–0–1	0–0–0	0–1–0
Michael King	0	0–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–0	0–0–0
Sandy Lyle	1.5	1–2–1	0–1–0	1–0–1	0–1–0
Peter Oosterhuis	2	2–2–0	0–1–0	1–0–0	1–1–0
Des Smyth	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.

Video

You Tube: 1979 Ryder Cup Sunday singles

References

↑ "Ryder Cup goes Continental". The Age (Melbourne, Australia). May 31, 1978. p. 26.
↑ "British receive help in Ryder Cup change". Spokane Daily Chronicle. Associated Press. May 30, 1978. p. 19.
↑ Jenkins, Dan (September 24, 1979). "The U.S. rookies were rough Ryders". Sports Illustrated. p. 26.
↑ "Not-so-good loser". Miami News. September 17, 1979. p. 1C.
↑ "Nelson-led Yanks retain Ryder Cup". Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. September 17, 1979. p. 19.
1 2 "U.S. minus Watson as Ryder Cup starts". St. Petersburg Times. wire services. September 14, 1979. p. 6C.
↑ Mark James withdrew because of injury. Gil Morgan was also injured, so this match was not actually played.
↑ "2014 Ryder Cup Media and Players' Guide". Retrieved October 5, 2014.

"Ryder Cup 2006 » History » 1979 Results". The PGA of America, Ryder Cup Limited, and Turner Sports Interactive. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
"Ryder Cup history: 1979". BBC Sport. 2004-09-13. Retrieved 2007-03-14.

External links

Ryder Cup

United States vs. Great Britain	1927 1929 1931 1933 1935 1937 1939 1941 1943 1945 1947 1949 1951 1953 1955 1957 1959 1961 1963 1965 1967 1969 1971

United States vs. Great Britain & Ireland	1973 1975 1977

United States vs. Europe	1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018

See also	Ryder Cup matches American Ryder Cup golfers European Ryder Cup golfers Ryder Cup records

Kraft Nabisco Championships

Other past events

Bob Hope Chrysler Classic (1999–2002, 2004–2006)
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Battle at the Bridges (1999–2005)
WGC-EMC World Cup (2000–2006)
Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (1999–2008)
Skins Game (1991-2008)
Target World Challenge (2001–2006)

Key figures

Music composers	Barry White ("Love's Theme") Non Stop Music Bob Christianson

Television contract history
ABC's Wide World of Sports (1966-1996)
Golf on ESPN

Coordinates: 37°47′13″N 80°18′50″W / 37.787°N 80.314°W / 37.787; -80.314

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