1987 Ryder Cup

The 27th Ryder Cup Matches were held September 25–27, 1987 at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb north of Columbus. The European team won their second consecutive competition by a score of 15 to 13 points in probably the most historic Ryder Cup. After an unbeaten record of 13–0 spanning sixty years, the U.S. team lost for the first time on home soil.^[1][2]

27th Ryder Cup Matches

Dates	September 25–27, 1987
Venue	Muirfield Village Golf Club
Location	Dublin, Ohio
Captains	Jack Nicklaus (USA) Tony Jacklin (Europe)
13 15
Europe wins the Ryder Cup
← 1985 1989 →

Muirfield Village

Location in the United States

Muirfield Village

Location in Ohio

Muirfield Village Golf Club

Europe took a lead of 5 points into the Sunday singles matches, but the U.S. fought back strongly to narrow the deficit. Eamonn Darcy, who previously had a very poor Ryder Cup record, defeated Ben Crenshaw at the last hole to get Europe to 13 points. Crenshaw had broken his putter in a moment of frustration after the sixth hole and putted with his 1 iron for the last dozen holes. Bernhard Langer then halved his match with Larry Nelson and when Seve Ballesteros defeated Curtis Strange 2 & 1 to total 141⁄2 points, the European victory was secured.^[1][2][3]

This was the last Ryder Cup in which the U.S. team did not employ captain's selections.^[4] Europe used captain's picks in 1979, 1981, 1985, and this year.^[5]

Muirfield Village, founded and designed by U.S. captain Jack Nicklaus, has hosted the Memorial Tournament on the PGA Tour since 1976. The 2013 Presidents Cup was held at the same course.

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, 141⁄2 points were required to win the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 18 holes.

Teams

Team USA
Name	Age	Points rank	World ranking	Previous Ryder Cups	Matches	W–L–H	Winning percentage
Jack Nicklaus	47	Non-playing captain
Scott Simpson	32	–	13	0	Rookie
Larry Nelson	40	–	28	2	9	9–0–0	100.00
Payne Stewart	30	1	5	0	Rookie
Ben Crenshaw	35	2	11	2	6	3–2–1	58.33
Curtis Strange	32	3	4	2	7	3–3–1	50.00
Hal Sutton	29	4	21	1	4	1–2–1	37.50
Larry Mize	29	5	15	0	Rookie
Lanny Wadkins	37	6	9	4	17	12–4–1	73.53
Dan Pohl	32	7	25	0	Rookie
Tom Kite	37	8	17	4	15	8–4–3	63.33
Mark Calcavecchia	27	9	32	0	Rookie
Andy Bean	34	10	36	1	3	2–1–0	66.67

Simpson qualified by virtue of winning the 1987 U.S. Open, while Nelson qualified by winning the 1987 PGA Championship.

The selection process for the European team remained unchanged from 1985, with nine players chosen from the 1987 European Tour money list at the conclusion of the German Open on August 30 and the remaining three team members being chosen immediately afterwards by the team captain, Tony Jacklin.^[6] Prior to the final event Eamonn Darcy was in the 9th qualifying place with Mats Lanner in 10th. Lanner finished just one shot ahead of Darcy in the German Open and Darcy retained his qualifying place. Jacklin's choices were Ken Brown, Sandy Lyle and José María Olazábal.^[7]

Team Europe
Name	Age	Points rank	World ranking	Previous Ryder Cups	Matches	W–L–H	Winning percentage
Tony Jacklin	43	Non-playing captain
Ian Woosnam	29	1	12	2	7	2–4–1	35.71
Nick Faldo	30	2	20	5	17	11–6–0	64.71
Howard Clark	33	3	42	3	7	3–3–1	50.00
Seve Ballesteros	30	4	2	3	15	6–6–3	50.00
Gordon Brand Jnr	29	5	40	0	Rookie
Sam Torrance	34	6	54	3	13	3–7–3	34.62
Bernhard Langer	30	7	3	3	14	7–4–3	60.71
José Rivero	32	8	68=	1	2	1–1–0	50.00
Eamonn Darcy	35	9	112	3	9	0–7–2	11.11
José María Olazábal	21	11	43	0	Rookie
Sandy Lyle	29		7	4	14	4–8–2	35.71
Ken Brown	30		77=	4	11	4–7–0	36.36

Captains picks are shown in yellow.^[4][5] The world rankings and records are at the start of the 1987 Ryder Cup.

Friday's matches

Morning foursomes

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

Afternoon four-ball

	Results
Brand/Rivero	3 & 2	Crenshaw/Simpson
Lyle/Langer	1 up	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 up	Crenshaw/Stewart
21⁄2	Session	11⁄2
81⁄2	Overall	31⁄2

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 up	Wadkins/Nelson
2	Session	2
101⁄2	Overall	51⁄2

Sunday's singles matches

	Results
Ian Woosnam	1 up	Andy Bean
Howard Clark	1 up	Dan Pohl
Sam Torrance	halved	Larry Mize
Nick Faldo	1 up	Mark Calcavecchia
José María Olazábal	2 up	Payne Stewart
José Rivero	2 & 1	Scott Simpson
Sandy Lyle	3 & 2	Tom Kite
Eamonn Darcy	1 up	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
41⁄2	Session	71⁄2
15	Overall	13

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	0–0–0	1–1–0
Mark Calcavecchia	1	1–1–0	1–0–0	0–0–0	0–1–0
Ben Crenshaw	0	0–3–0	0–1–0	0–1–0	0–1–0
Tom Kite	3	3–2–0	1–0–0	2–0–0	0–2–0
Larry Mize	2	1–1–2	0–0–1	0–1–1	1–0–0
Larry Nelson	0.5	0–3–1	0–0–1	0–2–0	0–1–0
Dan Pohl	1	1–2–0	0–1–0	1–0–0	0–1–0
Scott Simpson	1	1–1–0	1–0–0	0–0–0	0–1–0
Payne Stewart	2	2–2–0	1–0–0	0–2–0	1–0–0
Curtis Strange	2	2–3–0	0–1–0	2–0–0	0–2–0
Hal Sutton	3	2–1–2	0–0–1	1–0–1	1–1–0
Lanny Wadkins	1	1–3–0	1–0–0	0–2–0	0–1–0

Europe

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
Seve Ballesteros	4	4–1–0	1–0–0	2–0–0	1–1–0
Gordon Brand Jnr	1.5	1–2–1	0–0–1	0–1–0	1–1–0
Ken Brown	0	0–2–0	0–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–0
Howard Clark	1	1–1–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–0–0
Eamonn Darcy	1	1–1–0	1–0–0	0–0–0	0–1–0
Nick Faldo	3.5	3–1–1	0–1–0	1–0–1	2–0–0
Bernhard Langer	3.5	3–1–1	0–0–1	1–1–0	2–0–0
Sandy Lyle	3	3–1–0	0–1–0	1–0–0	2–0–0
José María Olazábal	3	3–2–0	0–1–0	2–0–0	1–1–0
José Rivero	1	1–2–0	0–1–0	0–1–0	1–0–0
Sam Torrance	0.5	0–1–1	0–0–1	0–1–0	0–0–0
Ian Woosnam	3.5	3–1–1	0–1–0	1–0–1	2–0–0

References

1. Diaz, Jaime (October 5, 1987). "A Cup for the Old World". Sports Illustrated. p. 58. Archived from the original on August 14, 2013.
2. "Europeans use crucial 18th hole to win Ryder Cup". Eugene Register-Guard. Associated Press. September 28, 1987. p. 2C.
3. "Ryder Cup 1987". Retrieved October 1, 2012.
4. "Ryder Cup squad set". Reading Eagle. wire services. August 10, 1987. p. 27.
5. Kelley, Brent. "Ryder Cup captain's picks and how they've fared". About.com. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
6. "Back to the old Belfry spirit". The Times, November 28, 1986; pg. 36; Issue 62627.
7. "McNulty and Darcy's Rhapsody". The Times, August 31, 1987; pg. 28; Issue 62861.
8. "2014 Ryder Cup Media and Players' Guide". Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2014.

• "Ryder Cup 2006 » History » 1987 Results". The PGA of America, Ryder Cup Limited, and Turner Sports Interactive. Archived from the original on February 23, 2007. Retrieved March 14, 2007.
• "Ryder Cup – 1987". About:Golf. Archived from the original on January 27, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2007.
• "Ryder Cup history: 1987". BBC Sport. September 14, 2006. Retrieved March 14, 2007.

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