2004 Ryder Cup

35th Ryder Cup Matches
Dates	September 17–19, 2004
Venue	Oakland Hills Country Club; South Course
Location	Bloomfield Township, Michigan
Captains	Hal Sutton (USA); Bernhard Langer (Europe);
	Europe wins the Ryder Cup
	← 2002 2006 →

The 35th Ryder Cup Matches were held September 17–19, 2004, in the United States at the South Course of Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, a suburb northwest of Detroit.

Oakland Hills Country Club

Location in Michigan and the United States

Oakland Hills Country Club

Oakland Hills Country Club (the United States)

The European team won the competition by a margin of 181⁄2 to 91⁄2 points,^[1] The victory margin was the largest by a European team in the history of the event, and the largest by either side since 1981, when Team USA defeated Team Europe by the same score. It was also the largest margin of defeat for the USA since the competition started in 1927.

Television

In the United States, live Friday coverage was provided by USA Network. Bill Macatee and Peter Kostis hosted from the 18th tower. NBC Sports presented live coverage of the Saturday and Sunday matches. Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller hosted from the 18th tower, Bob Murphy called holes, while on-course reporters were Gary Koch, Mark Rolfing, Roger Maltbie, and Ed Sneed.

Format

The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The competition format changed slightly from used from that used from 1991 to 2002, with the order of play swapped on the second day:

Day 1 (Friday) — 4 fourball (better ball) matches in a morning session and 4 foursome (alternate shot) matches in an afternoon session
Day 2 (Saturday) — 4 fourball matches in a morning session and 4 foursome 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, and 14 points were required for the defending champion to retain the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 18 holes.

Teams

Name	Age	Residence	Points rank	World ranking	Previous Ryder Cups	Matches	W–L–H	Winning percentage
Team USA
Hal Sutton	47	Shreveport, Louisiana	Non-playing captain
Tiger Woods	28	Windermere, Florida	1	2	3	15	5–8–2	40.00
Phil Mickelson	34	Rancho Santa Fe, California	2	4	4	16	8–5–3	59.38
Davis Love III	40	Sea Island, Georgia	3	6	5	21	8–9–4	47.62
Jim Furyk	34	Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida	4	11	3	11	3–6–2	36.36
Kenny Perry	44	Franklin, Kentucky	5	16	0	Rookie
David Toms	37	Shreveport, Louisiana	6	22	1	5	3–1–1	70.00
Chad Campbell	30	Lewisville, Texas	7	14	0	Rookie
Chris DiMarco	36	Orlando, Florida	8	17	0	Rookie
Fred Funk	48	Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida	9	59	0	Rookie
Chris Riley	30	Las Vegas, Nevada	10	40	0	Rookie
Jay Haas	50	Greenville, South Carolina	12	23	2	8	3–4–1	43.75
Stewart Cink	31	Duluth, Georgia	14	10	1	3	1–2–0	33.33

Captains picks are shown in yellow; the world rankings and records are at the start of the 2004 Ryder Cup.

As vice-captains, United States captain Hal Sutton selected Jack Burke and Steve Jones, to assist him during the tournament.

Name	Age	Residence	Points rank (World)	Points rank (European)	World ranking	Previous Ryder Cups	Matches	W–L–H	Winning percentage
Team Europe
Bernhard Langer	47	Anhausen, Germany Boca Raton, Florida, USA	Non-playing captain
Pádraig Harrington	33	Dublin, Ireland	1	5	8	2	7	3–3–1	50.00
Sergio García	24	Borriol, Spain	2	23	12	2	10	6–3–1	65.00
Darren Clarke	36	Chobham, England	3	3	15	3	12	4–6–2	41.67
Miguel Ángel Jiménez	40	Málaga, Spain	4	1	20	1	5	1–2–2	40.00
Lee Westwood	31	Worksop, England	5	2	41	3	15	7–8–0	46.67
Thomas Levet	36	Warfield, England	7	4	43	0	Rookie
Paul Casey	27	Weybridge, England Scottsdale, Arizona, USA	8	6	27	0	Rookie
David Howell	29	Weybridge, England	13	7	38	0	Rookie
Paul McGinley	37	Sunningdale, England	11	8	67	1	3	0–1–2	33.33
Ian Poulter	28	Milton Keynes, England	10	9	60	0	Rookie
Luke Donald	26	High Wycombe, England Chicago, Illinois, USA	9	36	36	0	Rookie
Colin Montgomerie	41	Troon, Scotland	19	16	62	6	28	16–7–5	66.07

Captains picks are shown in yellow; the world rankings and records are at the start of the 2004 Ryder Cup.

As vice-captains, European captain Bernhard Langer selected Joakim Haeggman and Anders Forsbrand to assist him during the tournament.

Thursday practice

Colin Montgomerie
Pádraig Harrington
Thomas Levet
Jim Furyk
Fred Funk
Tiger Woods
Chad Campbell
Stewart Cink

Friday's matches

Morning four-ball

U.S. captain Hal Sutton put his top pairing of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the first match of the Ryder Cup, hoping to come out to a quick lead. The decision backfired on Sutton, as the Woods/Mickelson pairing fell behind almost from the start, eventually losing. Only a 7-foot par putt by Chris Riley on the 18th hole of his match kept Team USA from being shut out by Team Europe. Team USA never had the lead during any of the first day's four-ball matches.

	Results
Montgomerie/Harrington	2 & 1	Mickelson/Woods
Clarke/Jiménez	5 & 4	Campbell/Love III
McGinley/Donald	halved	Riley/Cink
García/Westwood	4 & 3	Toms/Furyk
31⁄2	Session	1⁄2
31⁄2	Overall	1⁄2

Afternoon foursomes

The afternoon alternate-shot session was almost as good for Team Europe as the morning session. Mickelson and Woods lost an early lead in their match, leaving Woods winless in the first day of his last three Ryder Cups. Team USA picked up its first full point, but Europe ended the day with a 61⁄2–11⁄2 lead, its largest lead after the first day in Ryder Cup history.

	Results
Jiménez/Levet	3 & 2	DiMarco/Haas
Montgomerie/Harrington	4 & 2	Love III/Funk
Clarke/Westwood	1 up	Mickelson/Woods
García/Donald	2 & 1	Perry/Cink
3	Session	1
61⁄2	Overall	11⁄2

Saturday's matches

Morning four-ball

	Results
García/Westwood	halved	Haas/DiMarco
Clarke/Poulter	4 & 3	Woods/Riley
Casey/Howell	1 up	Furyk/Campbell
Montgomerie/Harrington	3 & 2	Cink/Love III
11⁄2	Session	21⁄2
8	Overall	4

Afternoon foursomes

	Results
Clarke/Westwood	5 & 4	Haas/DiMarco
Jiménez/Levet	4 & 3	Mickelson/Toms
García/Donald	1 up	Furyk/Funk
Harrington/McGinley	4 & 3	Love III/Woods
3	Session	1
11	Overall	5

Sunday's singles matches

	Results
Paul Casey	3 & 2	Tiger Woods
Sergio García	3 & 2	Phil Mickelson
Darren Clarke	halved	Davis Love III
David Howell	6 & 4	Jim Furyk
Lee Westwood	1 up	Kenny Perry
Colin Montgomerie	1 up	David Toms
Luke Donald	5 & 3	Chad Campbell
Miguel Ángel Jiménez	1 up	Chris DiMarco
Thomas Levet	1 up	Fred Funk
Ian Poulter	3 & 2	Chris Riley
Pádraig Harrington	1 up	Jay Haas
Paul McGinley	3 & 2	Stewart Cink
71⁄2	Session	41⁄2
181⁄2	Overall	91⁄2

Individual player records

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

Source: ^[2]

United States

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
Chad Campbell	1	1–2–0	1–0–0	0–0–0	0–2–0
Stewart Cink	1.5	1–2–1	0–1–0	0–1–0	1–0–1
Chris DiMarco	2.5	2–1–1	1–0–0	1–1–0	0–0–1
Fred Funk	0	0–3–0	0–1–0	0–2–0	0–0–0
Jim Furyk	1	1–3–0	1–0–0	0–1–0	0–2–0
Jay Haas	1.5	1–2–1	0–1–0	1–1–0	0–0–1
Davis Love III	1.5	1–3–1	0–0–1	0–2–0	1–1–0
Phil Mickelson	1	1–3–0	0–1–0	1–1–0	0–1–0
Kenny Perry	0	0–2–0	0–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–0
Chris Riley	1.5	1–1–1	0–1–0	0–0–0	1–0–1
David Toms	1	1–2–0	0–1–0	1–0–0	0–1–0
Tiger Woods	2	2–3–0	1–0–0	0–2–0	1–1–0

Europe

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
Paul Casey	1	1–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–0	1–0–0
Darren Clarke	3.5	3–1–1	0–0–1	2–0–0	1–1–0
Luke Donald	2.5	2–1–1	0–1–0	2–0–0	0–0–1
Sergio García	4.5	4–0–1	1–0–0	2–0–0	1–0–1
Pádraig Harrington	4	4–1–0	1–0–0	2–0–0	1–1–0
David Howell	1	1–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–0	1–0–0
Miguel Ángel Jiménez	1	1–3–0	0–1–0	0–2–0	1–0–0
Thomas Levet	1	1–2–0	1–0–0	0–2–0	0–0–0
Paul McGinley	2.5	2–0–1	1–0–0	1–0–0	0–0–1
Colin Montgomerie	3	3–1–0	1–0–0	1–0–0	1–1–0
Ian Poulter	1	1–1–0	1–0–0	0–0–0	0–1–0
Lee Westwood	4.5	4–0–1	1–0–0	2–0–0	1–0–1

References

"Ryder Cup 2004 / The Official Site of the 35th Ryder Cup Matches". The PGA of America, Ryder Cup Limited, and Turner Sports Interactive. Archived from the original on March 10, 2007. Retrieved March 14, 2007.
"Ryder Cup". BBC Sport. August 3, 2005. Retrieved March 14, 2007.

^ Montgomerie is widely credited as having holed the winning putt, although Ian Poulter birdied on the 15th hole of his match to guarantee a half point and so mathematically win the Ryder Cup seconds before Montgomerie. This was commentated on by course commentators and BBC Radio 5 Live, whose Golf correspondent Ian Carter recalled in the News of the World: "My editor said Poulter was three up seconds before Monty hit his putt. Then Colin's putt went in - you can imagine the situation. To have overruled his achievement would have been like trying to deny Alan Shearer a goal that went in off a defender." "This man won us Ryder Cup - not Monty" News of the World (London); September 26, 2004; Geoff Sweet; p. 75. Frank Keating of The Guardian also noted this chain of events, writing "radio logged the fact that it was not Montgomerie's putt which actually clinched the cup but Poulter's, a matter of seconds before and a few holes behind." "Golf, Cricket: Notes from the touchline" The Guardian (Manchester); Sep 24, 2004; Frank Keating; p. 34. Notwithstanding, Poulter was still in a Dormie position at this time (3 holes up with 3 to play) and players in this position can still be disqualified and thus lose their match. A similar situation took place 2 years later.
^ "2014 Ryder Cup Media and Players' Guide". Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2014.

42°32′38″N 83°16′37″W / 42.544°N 83.277°W / 42.544; -83.277

[1] Montgomerie is widely credited as having holed the winning putt, although Ian Poulter birdied on the 15th hole of his match to guarantee a half point and so mathematically win the Ryder Cup seconds before Montgomerie. This was commentated on by course commentators and BBC Radio 5 Live, whose Golf correspondent Ian Carter recalled in the News of the World: "My editor said Poulter was three up seconds before Monty hit his putt. Then Colin's putt went in - you can imagine the situation. To have overruled his achievement would have been like trying to deny Alan Shearer a goal that went in off a defender." "This man won us Ryder Cup - not Monty" News of the World (London); September 26, 2004; Geoff Sweet; p. 75. Frank Keating of The Guardian also noted this chain of events, writing "radio logged the fact that it was not Montgomerie's putt which actually clinched the cup but Poulter's, a matter of seconds before and a few holes behind." "Golf, Cricket: Notes from the touchline" The Guardian (Manchester); Sep 24, 2004; Frank Keating; p. 34. Notwithstanding, Poulter was still in a Dormie position at this time (3 holes up with 3 to play) and players in this position can still be disqualified and thus lose their match. A similar situation took place 2 years later.

[2] "2014 Ryder Cup Media and Players' Guide". Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2014.

[1]

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