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Two teams. Match play. Every hole counts. Here's how the team formats work and how to run your own version.
The Ryder Cup format, and all its civilian equivalents: Presidents Cup, Solheim Cup, Walker Cup, is built on one core idea: two teams compete across a series of individual and team matches, accumulating points. The team with the most points at the end wins.
Unlike stroke play tournaments where every shot counts toward a total, all Ryder Cup formats use match play scoring. In match play, you win a hole, lose a hole, or halve a hole (tie). The score on a hole is irrelevant beyond win/loss/halve, a double bogey beats a triple just as decisively as a birdie beats a par. This changes strategy fundamentally: protecting a lead matters more than grinding for score, and conceding a hole when you're already out of contention is standard practice.
Each match, whether it's a singles 1v1 or a foursomes 2v2, is worth 1 point. Win the match: your team gets 1 point. Halve it (finish tied): both teams get 0.5 points. Lose it: the other team gets 1 point. Points pile up across all the matches played across all sessions, and the team that crosses the threshold first (or has more at the end of all play) wins.
The real Ryder Cup is played over three days and uses three match formats across five sessions: fourball, foursomes, and singles. The two team formats (fourball and foursomes) fill the first two days, and singles closes the event on Sunday. Each format is its own kind of match play, and understanding all three is the key to following the event or running your own version.
Fourball is two vs two, and each player plays their own ball for the entire hole. On every hole the team counts the better (lower) score of its two partners, and that single best score goes head to head against the better score of the opposing pair. It is called fourball because four balls are in play on every hole, two per side.
This is the most forgiving Ryder Cup format. One partner can make a mess of a hole while the other makes par or birdie and carries the team. Because both players are always contributing their best, pairs that each produce the occasional great hole tend to win more holes than steady pairs who rarely make a number.
In fourball you do NOT add the two scores together. Only the lower of the two partner scores counts on each hole, then that score is compared to the opponents' lower score to decide who wins, loses, or halves the hole. This is the same idea covered in detail in our best ball format guide. With handicaps, each player's course handicap is applied independently, so a 12 and an 18 each get their own strokes on their own stroke holes, and the better net score on each hole counts for the pair.
Foursomes is two vs two, but each side plays only one ball and the partners alternate shots all the way to the hole. If Player A tees off, Player B hits the second shot, Player A hits the third, and so on until the ball is holed. Partners also alternate who tees off, with one player taking the odd-numbered holes and the other taking the even-numbered holes for the whole round.
This is the most team dependent and the most pressure packed format. A loose tee shot leaves your partner in trouble, and a missed short putt was set up by the shot before it. Chemistry matters enormously. Partners who trust each other and manage the course the same way tend to thrive, while pairs who overthink each other's shots tend to struggle.
For handicaps in foursomes, the common method is to take the combined course handicaps of each pair and apply the difference between the two teams' totals at a set percentage (the USGA recommends 50 percent of the combined team handicaps). Because only one ball is in play, a team gets far fewer strokes than it would in fourball, but the strokes still fall on the holes set by the course stroke index.
Singles is one vs one, straight match play over 18 holes. One player from each team is paired against one opponent, no partners involved, the purest head to head format in the game. In singles every player on both rosters is in the field at the same time, so an event with 12 players per side plays 12 singles matches at once.
Singles is saved for the final day of the Ryder Cup. All 12 matches go out at the same time, and the team scoreboard swings hole by hole as matches close out across the course. Because every point is live at once, the Sunday singles session is widely considered the most dramatic format in golf. For the underlying win, lose, and halve mechanics, see our match play rules guide.
Every Ryder Cup match, no matter the format, is worth exactly 1 point. Win your match and your team earns 1 point. Halve it (finish all square after 18 holes) and each team gets half a point. Lose it and the full point goes to the other side. There is no extra credit for winning a match by a wide margin. A 6 and 5 blowout is worth the same single point as a 1 up nail biter.
The modern Ryder Cup is made up of 28 matches in total: 8 fourball matches, 8 foursomes matches, and 12 singles matches. That means 28 points are available. To win the cup a team needs 14.5 points, which is more than half. If the teams finish tied at 14 to 14, the cup is NOT split or replayed. The team that currently holds the cup retains it. So the challenging side has to reach 14.5 to take the trophy, while the defending side only needs 14 to keep it.
Here is how match status and points break down:
Match terminology to know:
You don't need 24 tour professionals or a television crew. The format scales to any group size as long as you have an even number of players split evenly between teams.
For a one-day event with 8 players, a common structure is:
For a two-day event with 8 players:
The team that reaches 4.5 points wins. In the two-day version with 8 points, the team reaching 4.5 takes it.
Captains pick the pairings and lineup order. This is a genuine strategy decision, who plays foursomes together, which singles players anchor vs. lead, who gets the toughest opposing matchup. It's one of the most fun parts of running one of these events.
Team events like this work best with a team wager, one side bets the other on the final point total. A $20 per player team wager means the winning team collects from every player on the losing team. If there are 4 players per side and Team 1 wins, each Team 1 player collects $20 from one Team 2 player (or you total it up and settle as lump sums).
You can also run individual match wagers alongside the team points. Each match has its own $10 side bet, paid out directly between the match participants when the match is over. This gives every player a direct financial stake in their own match in addition to the team competition.
Some groups add a skins overlay on top, skins between all players in a match, running concurrently with the match play result. The two formats coexist cleanly and add another payout dimension for players who win holes but still lose the match.
Tracking several simultaneous matches across two sessions, keeping the team scoreboard live, and settling everything at the end is a lot to manage on a whiteboard. Settle Up Golf has a Team v. Team format built for exactly this. You set up the two teams, pick fourball, foursomes, or singles for each match, and every player tracks their own scorecard. The team standings update automatically, and when the last singles match closes out, the settlement screen shows every payout. No more IOUs at the 19th hole.
Team v. Team scales to any even number of players, so you can run an 8 player, 12 player, or larger event the same way the pros do. Want more side action on top of the team points? Pair it with the games in our golf betting games guide like skins or a Nassau running alongside each match.
In fourball, all four players play their own ball and each team counts its better score on every hole. In foursomes, each two player team shares one ball and the partners alternate shots. Fourball is the more forgiving format because a bad hole from one partner can be covered by the other, while foursomes punishes any loose shot because there is only one ball per side.
There are 28 points available across the 28 matches. A team needs 14.5 points to win the cup. If the teams tie 14 to 14, the cup is not split, and the team that already holds it keeps it, so the defending team only needs 14 points to retain.
Three formats: fourball (two vs two, best ball), foursomes (two vs two, alternate shot), and singles (one vs one). The two team formats fill the first two days, and the 12 singles matches decide the cup on the final day. Every match is played as match play and is worth one point.
Four ball (fourball) is two players against two players, with everyone playing their own ball for the whole hole. Each side takes its lower score on each hole, and the two lower scores are compared to win, lose, or halve the hole as a standard match play match. The team that is up by more holes than remain wins the match and earns one point.
See the setup guide: How to Run a Tour Cup Tournament in Settle Up Golf →
Settle Up Golf tracks every match, every point, and every payout, all from your phone.