The Presidents Cup is a series of men's golf matches between a team representing the United States and an International Team representing the rest of the world minus Europe. Europe competes against the United States in a similar but considerably older event, the Ryder Cup.
The Presidents Cup has been held biennially since 1994. Initially it was held in even numbered years, with the Ryder Cup being held in odd numbered years. However, the cancellation of the 2001 Ryder Cup due to the September 11 attacks pushed both tournaments back a year, and the Presidents Cup is now held in odd numbered years. It is hosted alternately in the United States and in countries represented by the International Team.
The scoring system of the event is match play. The format is drawn from the Ryder Cup and consists of 12 players per side. Each team has a non-playing captain, usually a highly respected golf figure, who is responsible for choosing the pairs in the doubles events, which consist of both alternate shot and best ball formats (also known as "foursome" and "fourball" matches respectively). Each match, whether it be a doubles or singles match, is worth one point with a half-point awarded to each team in the event of a halved match.
There have been frequent small changes to the format, although the final day has always consisted of 12 singles matches. The contest was extended from 3 days to 4 in 2000. In 2015 there were a total of 9 foursome doubles matches, 9 fourball doubles matches and 12 singles matches. With a total of 30 points, a team needed to get 15.5 points to win the Cup.
Until the 2005 event, prior to the start of the final day matches, the captains selected one player to play in a tie-breaker in the event of a tie at the end of the final match. Upon a tie, the captains would reveal the players who would play a sudden-death match to determine the winner. In 2003, however, the tiebreaker match ended after three holes because of darkness, and the captains, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus. agreed that the Cup would be shared by both teams.
From 2005 to 2013, singles matches ending level at the end of the regulation 18 holes were to be extended to extra holes until the match was won outright. All singles matches would continue in this format until one team reaches the required point total to win the Presidents Cup. Remaining singles matches were only to be played to the regulation 18 holes and could be halved. Although this rule was in force for 5 Presidents Cup contests, no matches actually went beyond 18 holes.
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