27th Ryder Cup Matches
Dates		September 25–27
Venue		Muirfield Village
Location		Dublin, Ohio
Captains		Jack Nicklaus (USA) Tony Jacklin (Europe)
13   15
Europe retains the Ryder Cup
«1985		1989»

The 27th Ryder Cup Matches were held at the Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio.

The European team won the competition by a score of 15 to 13 points for the first time ever away from home. It was a historic victory for the European Team and probably the most historic victory of all time because it was the first time in the history of the Ryder Cup, after an unbeaten record spanning sixty years that the Americans who were captained by Jack Nicklaus on a course which he himself designed had lost on home soil.

Europe took a lead of 5 points into the Sunday singles but the U.S. fought back strongly to narrow the deficit. Eamonn Darcy, who previously had a very poor Ryder Cup record, managed to defeat Ben Crenshaw by 1 hole to get Europe to 13 points. Crenshaw had earlier broken his putter in a moment of frustration and had been putting with his 1 iron for the rest of their match. Bernhard Langer subsequently halved his match with Larry Nelson and when Seve Ballesteros defeated Curtis Strange 2 & 1 it ensured a European victory.^[1]

Contents 1 Format 2 Teams 3 Friday's matches 3.1 Morning foursomes 3.2 Afternoon four-ball 4 Saturday's matches 4.1 Morning foursomes 4.2 Afternoon four-ball 5 Sunday's singles matches 6 References

Format

The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The competition format in 1987 adjusted slightly from the previous three events, with the order of play on the second day swapped:

• Day 1 (Friday) — 4 foursome (alternate shot) matches in a morning session and 4 four-ball (better ball) matches in an afternoon session
• Day 2 (Saturday) — 4 foursome matches in a morning session and 4 four-ball matches in an afternoon session
• Day 3 (Sunday) — 12 singles matches

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

Team USA Captain: Jack Nicklaus Andy Bean Dan Pohl Larry Mize Mark Calcavecchia Payne Stewart Scott Simpson Tom Kite Ben Crenshaw Larry Nelson Curtis Strange Lanny Wadkins Hal Sutton

Team Europe Captain: Tony Jacklin Ian Woosnam Howard Clark Sam Torrance Nick Faldo José María Olazábal José Rivero Sandy Lyle Eamonn Darcy Bernhard Langer Seve Ballesteros Ken Brown Gordon Brand, Jnr

Friday's matches

Morning foursomes

	Results
Torrance/Clark	4 & 2	Strange/Kite
Brown/Langer	2 & 1	Sutton/Pohl
Faldo/Woosnam	2 holes	Wadkins/Mize
Ballesteros/Olazábal	1 hole	Nelson/Stewart
2	Session	2
2	Overall	2

Afternoon four-ball

	Results
Brand/Rivero	3 & 2	Crenshaw/Simpson
Lyle/Langer	1 hole	Bean/Calcavecchia
Faldo/Woosnam	2 & 1	Sutton/Pohl
Ballesteros/Olazábal	2 & 1	Strange/Kite
4	Session	0
6	Overall	2

Saturday's matches

Morning foursomes

	Results
Rivero/Brand	3 & 1	Strange/Kite
Faldo/Woosnam	halved	Sutton/Mize
Lyle/Langer	2 & 1	Wadkins/Nelson
Ballesteros/Olazábal	1 hole	Crenshaw/Stewart
2½	Session	1½
8½	Overall	3½

Afternoon four-ball

	Results
Faldo/Woosnam	5 & 4	Strange/Kite
Darcy/Brand	3 & 2	Bean/Stewart
Ballesteros/Olazábal	2 & 1	Sutton/Mize
Lyle/Langer	1 hole	Wadkins/Nelson
2	Session	2
10½	Overall	5½

Sunday's singles matches

	Results
Ian Woosnam	1 hole	Andy Bean
Howard Clark	1 hole	Dan Pohl
Sam Torrance	halved	Larry Mize
Nick Faldo	1 hole	Mark Calcavecchia
José María Olazábal	2 holes	Payne Stewart
José Rivero	2 & 1	Scott Simpson
Sandy Lyle	3 & 2	Tom Kite
Eamonn Darcy	1 hole	Ben Crenshaw
Bernhard Langer	halved	Larry Nelson
Seve Ballesteros	2 & 1	Curtis Strange
Ken Brown	3 & 2	Lanny Wadkins
Gordon Brand, Jnr	halved	Hal Sutton
4½	Session	7½
15	Overall	13

References