On years where the Ryder Cup does not take place, Team USA takes part in the Presidents Cup, also a biennial event putting Team USA against Team International (outside of Europe). The Europeans also get a taste of competition in the Seve Trophy this week, where players from Great Britain and Ireland will face off against players from Continental Europe to honor the Legend, Seve Ballesteros.
This year, the Seve Trophy will be held in Paris, France at the Golf de Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche. The format of the Seve Trophy is a four day event – on the first two days, there are 5 fourball matches each day. The third day had 4 foursomes in the morning and 4 foursomes in the afternoon, with 10 singles matches on the fourth day.
Continental Europe will be led by CaptainJ osé María Olazábal, who steered Europe to Ryder Cup glory in 2012 and includes some members of that European Ryder Cup team – Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts and Italian Francesco Molinari, as well as Denmark’s Thomas Björn, the winner of the Omega European Masters and Spaniard Miguel Angel Jiménez. The rest of the team will consist of Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Finland’s Mikko Ilonen and Italian Matteo Manassero, who played in the contest in 2007 and 2011, and Frenchman Grégory Bourdy, Dutchman Joost Luiten and Dane Thorbjørn Olesen.
Great Britain and Ireland will be captained by Sam Torrance, the victorious 2002 European Ryder Cup Captain, and include Scotland’s Paul Lawrie, another member of last year’s historic Ryder Cup team, and Englishman Paul Casey, a three-time Ryder Cup player. Englishman Chris Wood (undefeated on his last appearance in 2009), Scotland’s Marc Warren, Welshman Jamie Donaldson and Scotland’s Scott Jamieson are all other players on the team that have Seve Trophy experience. The four debutants for the team are the English trio of Tommy Fleetwood, David Lynn, and Simon Khan joined by Scotland’s Stephen Gallacher.
What’s probably gotten more publicity though is the fact that big name European players such as Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood, Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell and Sergio Garcia have decided not to play the event. But regardless, they’ve honored Seve in their own way, battling back to win with the “Miracle at Medinah.” The Presidents Cup and Seve Trophy should be two fun golf events, so make sure to catch some coverage!
Source: European Tour
