The 40th Ryder Cup matches were held 26–28 September 2014 in Scotland on the PGA Centenary Course at the Gleneagles Hotel near Auchterarder in Perth & Kinross. This was the second Ryder Cup held in Scotland; it was previously at Muirfield in 1973. The team captains in 2014 were Paul McGinley for Europe and Tom Watson for the USA.
Europe were the defending cup holders, having won in 2012 at Medinah Country Club near Chicago.
Europe won the 2014 competition to retain the Ryder Cup, defeating the US by 16 points to 11, for their third consecutive win. From 1995 to 2014, Europe won eight out of ten Ryder Cups.
Format
The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. The competition format was as follows: Day 1 (Friday) – 4 fourball (better ball) matches in the morning, followed by 4 foursome (alternate shot) matches in the afternoon Day 2 (Saturday) – 4 fourball matches in the morning, followed by 4 foursome matches in the afternoon Day 3 (Sunday) – 12 singles matches
On the Monday before the competition, European captain Paul McGinley announced that he had chosen to play fourball matches in the mornings, as had been the case for every European home captain since 1997 (while American home captains have chosen to play foursomes in the mornings every year except for 2004).
With a total of 28 points available, 14 points were required for the US to win the Ryder Cup, and 14 points were required for Europe to retain it. All matches were played to a maximum of 18 holes. If a match was level after 18 holes each side was awarded half a point.
Course
The Gleneagles Hotel, located one hour outside of Edinburgh and set in grounds of , had undergone a major redevelopment programme, partly in preparation for the 2014 Ryder Cup.
The PGA Centenary Course, designed by Jack Nicklaus and one of three at Gleneagles, currently measures off the championship tees. The course was awarded the Ryder Cup in 2001, and it was originally scheduled to host the matches in 2013, however this was delayed a year due to the alteration of the Ryder Cup schedule after the September 11 attacks in 2001. This was the final Ryder Cup to be affected by the rescheduling, as it was the furthest scheduled match at the time of the attacks. Just as the 2012 matches had been, all future matches are regularly scheduled for even-numbered years.
Television
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, Sky Sports provided live coverage, with the BBC showing highlights each evening on free-to-air television.
Coverage in South Africa was provided on the Supersport channels.
In the US, corporate siblings Golf Channel and NBC televised the event live, after NBC had traded for complete rights (that it was contractually given the rights to in 2005) back from ESPN, who had televised the previous three Ryder Cups on Friday. Golf Channel televised action on Friday and a half-hour on Saturday, from where NBC took over for the rest of the weekend. In the early-morning sessions, Terry Gannon hosted from the 18th tower alongside Frank Nobilo. Curt Byrum and Tom Abbott served as hole announcers and Jerry Foltz was an on-course commentator. Nick Faldo appeared as a guest commentator on Friday, and sparked controversy after critical comments about Sergio García. For the afternoon sessions and the singles matches on Sunday, the regular NBC golf crew provided coverage. Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller hosted from the 18th tower, with Gary Koch and Peter Jacobsen as hole announcers. On course commentators were Mark Rolfing, Roger Maltbie and Notah Begay III. On the weekend, Colin Montgomerie appeared as a guest commentator to lend a European perspective, a role he previously filled for NBC in 2012.
Team qualification and selection
Europe
The European team qualification rules were announced on 21 May 2013. The number of captain's picks was increased from 2 to 3 with the number of players qualifying from the European Points being reduced from 5 to 4. The team consists of: