# 1985 Ryder Cup

The 26th Ryder Cup Matches were held 13–15 September 1985 at the Brabazon Course of The Belfry in Wishaw, Warwickshire, England. Team Europe won the competition for the first time by a score of 161⁄2 to 111⁄2 points. This marked the first U.S. loss since 1957, previously the sole U.S. loss in fifty years.
A key turning point in the matches came Saturday morning, when Craig Stadler missed a two-foot putt on the 18th hole, which would have earned a win for him and Curtis Strange over Europe's Bernhard Langer and Sandy Lyle. The match was halved, so instead of the U.S. being in the lead through three stages, the overall score was tied at 6-6. Europe went on to win three of the four Saturday afternoon matches. "In the past, it was always us who missed those putts," said European captain Tony Jacklin. "That has to crush them."
Europe took that two-point lead into the Sunday singles and increased their lead throughout Sunday. It fell to Sam Torrance to secure the winning margin when he holed a 22-foot (7 m) putt on the 18th hole to defeat Andy North 1 up and go up 141⁄2 to 81⁄2, a six-point margin with five matches on the course.
This was the last Ryder Cup played in Europe that was not shown on live television in the United States. The USA Network first televised it in 1989 on cable with video provided by the BBC. NBC Sports took over live weekend coverage in 1991 in South Carolina, and 1993 marked the first time a major U.S. network televised it live from Europe.

## Format

The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The competition format in 1985 was as follows:
* Day 1 — 4 foursome (alternate shot) matches in a morning session and 4 four-ball (better ball) matches in an afternoon session
* Day 2 — 4 four-ball matches in a morning session and 4 foursome matches in an afternoon session
* Day 3 — 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

Nine of the European team were chosen from the 1985 European Tour money list at the conclusion of the Benson & Hedges International Open on 18 August with the remaining three team members being chosen immediately after the final event by the team captain, Tony Jacklin. Prior to the final event Christy O'Connor Jnr was in the 9th qualifying position. However he missed the cut in the Benson & Hedges International Open and was overtaken by José María Cañizares, O'Connor finishing just £115.89 behind Cañizares. Jacklin's choices of Nick Faldo and Ken Brown were widely expected but his choice of José Rivero was a surprise.
Team Europe :
| Name | Age | Points rank | Previous Ryder Cups | Matches | W–L–H | Winning percentage |
| Tony Jacklin | 41 | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain |
| Sandy Lyle | 27 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 3–7–1 | 31.82 |
| Sam Torrance | 32 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 1–5–3 | 27.78 |
| Ian Woosnam | 27 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0–2–1 | 16.67 |
| Bernhard Langer | 28 | 4 | 2 | 9 | 5–3–1 | 61.11 |
| Paul Way | 22 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 3–1–1 | 70.00 |
| Howard Clark | 31 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1–1–1 | 50.00 |
| Seve Ballesteros | 28 | 7 | 2 | 10 | 3–5–2 | 40.00 |
| Manuel Piñero | 33 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 2–2–0 | 50.00 |
| José María Cañizares | 38 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 2–3–1 | 41.67 |
| José Rivero | 29 | | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |
| Ken Brown | 28 | | 3 | 8 | 3–5–0 | 37.50 |
| Nick Faldo | 28 | | 4 | 15 | 11–4–0 | 73.33 |
Captains picks are shown in yellow.
Team USA :
| Name | Age | Points rank | Previous Ryder Cups | Matches | W–L–H | Winning percentage |
| Lee Trevino | 45 | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain | Non-playing captain |
| Andy North | 35 | – | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |
| Hubert Green | 38 | – | 2 | 4 | 3–1–0 | 75.00 |
| Curtis Strange | 30 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1–2–0 | 33.33 |
| Lanny Wadkins | 35 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 9–2–1 | 79.17 |
| Raymond Floyd | 43 | 3 | 5 | 19 | 5–11–3 | 34.21 |
| Calvin Peete | 42 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2–1–1 | 62.50 |
| Mark O'Meara | 28 | 5 | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |
| Craig Stadler | 32 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2–1–0 | 66.67 |
| Hal Sutton | 27 | 7 | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |
| Peter Jacobsen | 31 | 8 | 0 | Rookie | Rookie | Rookie |
| Tom Kite | 35 | 9 | 3 | 11 | 7–2–2 | 72.73 |
| Fuzzy Zoeller | 33 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 1–5–1 | 21.43 |
North qualified by virtue of winning the 1985 U.S. Open, while Green qualified by winning the 1985 PGA Championship.

## Friday's matches
### Morning foursomes

| | Results | |
| Ballesteros/Piñero | 2 & 1 | Strange/O'Meara |
| Langer/Faldo | 3 & 2 | Peete/Kite |
| Lyle/Brown | 4 & 3 | Wadkins/Floyd |
| Clark/Torrance | 3 & 2 | Stadler/Sutton |
| 1 | Session | 3 |
| 1 | Overall | 3 |

### Afternoon four-ball

| | Results | |
| Way/Woosnam | 1 up | Zoeller/Green |
| Ballesteros/Piñero | 2 & 1 | North/Jacobsen |
| Langer/Cañizares | halved | Stadler/Sutton |
| Torrance/Clark | 1 up | Floyd/Wadkins |
| 21⁄2 | Session | 11⁄2 |
| 31⁄2 | Overall | 41⁄2 |

## Saturday's matches
### Morning four-ball

| | Results | |
| Torrance/Clark | 2 & 1 | Kite/North |
| Way/Woosnam | 4 & 3 | Green/Zoeller |
| Ballesteros/Piñero | 3 & 2 | O'Meara/Wadkins |
| Langer/Lyle | halved | Stadler/Strange |
| 21⁄2 | Session | 11⁄2 |
| 6 | Overall | 6 |

### Afternoon foursomes

| | Results | |
| Cañizares/Rivero | 7 & 5 | Kite/Peete |
| Ballesteros/Piñero | 5 & 4 | Stadler/Sutton |
| Way/Woosnam | 4 & 2 | Strange/Jacobsen |
| Langer/Brown | 3 & 2 | Floyd/Wadkins |
| 3 | Session | 1 |
| 9 | Overall | 7 |

## Sunday's singles matches

| | Results | |
| Manuel Piñero | 3 & 1 | Lanny Wadkins |
| Ian Woosnam | 2 & 1 | Craig Stadler |
| Paul Way | 2 up | Raymond Floyd |
| Seve Ballesteros | halved | Tom Kite |
| Sandy Lyle | 3 & 2 | Peter Jacobsen |
| Bernhard Langer | 5 & 4 | Hal Sutton |
| Sam Torrance | 1 up | Andy North |
| Howard Clark | 1 up | Mark O'Meara |
| José Rivero | 1 up | Calvin Peete |
| Nick Faldo | 3 & 1 | Hubert Green |
| José María Cañizares | 2 up | Fuzzy Zoeller |
| Ken Brown | 4 & 2 | Curtis Strange |
| 71⁄2 | Session | 41⁄2 |
| 161⁄2 | Overall | 111⁄2 |

## Individual player records

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

### Europe

| Player | Points | Overall | Singles | Foursomes | Fourballs |
| Seve Ballesteros | 3.5 | 3–1–1 | 0–0–1 | 2–0–0 | 1–1–0 |
| Ken Brown | 1 | 1–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–1–0 | 0–0–0 |
| José María Cañizares | 2.5 | 2–0–1 | 1–0–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–0–1 |
| Howard Clark | 2 | 2–2–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–1–0 |
| Nick Faldo | 0 | 0–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–0–0 |
| Bernhard Langer | 3 | 2–1–2 | 1–0–0 | 1–1–0 | 0–0–2 |
| Sandy Lyle | 1.5 | 1–1–1 | 1–0–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–0–1 |
| Manuel Piñero | 4 | 4–1–0 | 1–0–0 | 2–0–0 | 1–1–0 |
| José Rivero | 1 | 1–1–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–0–0 |
| Sam Torrance | 2 | 2–2–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–1–0 |
| Paul Way | 3 | 3–1–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–1–0 | 2–0–0 |
| Ian Woosnam | 2 | 2–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–1–0 | 2–0–0 |

### United States

| Player | Points | Overall | Singles | Foursomes | Fourballs |
| Raymond Floyd | 2 | 2–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–1–0 | 1–0–0 |
| Hubert Green | 1 | 1–2–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–0–0 | 0–2–0 |
| Peter Jacobsen | 1 | 1–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–0–0 | 0–1–0 |
| Tom Kite | 1.5 | 1–2–1 | 0–0–1 | 1–1–0 | 0–1–0 |
| Andy North | 0 | 0–3–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–0–0 | 0–2–0 |
| Mark O'Meara | 1 | 1–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–0–0 |
| Calvin Peete | 2 | 2–1–0 | 1–0–0 | 1–1–0 | 0–0–0 |
| Craig Stadler | 3 | 2–1–2 | 1–0–0 | 1–1–0 | 0–0–2 |
| Curtis Strange | 2.5 | 2–1–1 | 1–0–0 | 1–1–0 | 0–0–1 |
| Hal Sutton | 1.5 | 1–2–1 | 0–1–0 | 1–1–0 | 0–0–1 |
| Lanny Wadkins | 3 | 3–2–0 | 0–1–0 | 1–1–0 | 2–0–0 |
| Fuzzy Zoeller | 0 | 0–3–0 | 0–1–0 | 0–0–0 | 0–2–0 |