Brush up on your Ryder Cup history with this list of all-time points leaders for Europe and the U.S.
Over its nearly 100-year history the Ryder Cup has featured some impressive performances from the world’s best players, especially since the competition switched to include all of Europe back in 1979.
From Nick Faldo and Arnold Palmer to Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods, a handful of players have stood out with their play and find themselves on the all-time points list in the biennial bash.
Of the top 10, six are European players, but when it comes to the top 20 — which includes a handful of active players — the split is right down the middle at 10 a piece.
As the teams of 12 from both the United States and Europe prepare to square off in the next round of matches at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Italy this week, take a scroll through the all-time points winners in Ryder Cup history from both squads.
While talking with Golfweek about the Ryder Cup, Wadkins doubled down on his statements about Mickelson.
Lanny Wadkins knows plenty about what it takes to succeed at the Ryder Cup. The 1977 PGA Championship winner has been a part of nine of them in his storied career, eight as a player and one as a captain.
The Wake Forest product has amassed as many Ryder Cup points as any living American — he’s tied with Phil Mickelson at 21½ — and his 18 total overall match victories are the most by any living player on the U.S. side.
And although he’s 73, Wadkins is showing no signs of slowing down. He still dabbles in PGA Tour Champions TV commentary and his Lanny Wadkins Design firm continues to help with new designs (his BlackJack’s Crossing at Lajitas Golf Club in Texas is Golfweek’s Best Course you can play in the state) as well as redesigns. In fact, on Wednesday, he was in Austin, Texas, to unveil a massive club rebranding at the former Lost Creek Golf Club. Wadkins’ group helped with a complete redesign of the property at what will now be referred to as Westlake Country Club.
As part of the proceedings, Wadkins gave Golfweek some exclusive time to talk Ryder Cup strategy, discuss his loss as U.S. captain at the 1995 event at Oak Hill, and his recent comments about Mickelson.
Once again, Phil Mickelson found himself in the middle of another controversy last week, this time due to an excerpt from an upcoming book about his gambling past.
Billy Walters, a noted gambler and friend of Mickelson, wrote in his soon-to-be-released “Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk,” that Mickelson attempted to bet on the 2012 Ryder Cup, an event he played in.
Lefty refuted the story on Twitter, writing “I never bet on the Ryder Cup. While it is well known that I always enjoy a friendly wager on the course, I would never undermine the integrity of the game. I have also been very open about my gambling addiction. I have previously conveyed my remorse, took responsibility, have gotten help, have been fully committed to therapy that has positively impacted me and I feel good about where I am now.”
Lanny Wadkins, the 1995 United States Ryder Cup captain and 1977 PGA Championship winner, joined Golf Channel Monday and was asked about the recent allegations against Mickelson by Golfweek columnist and Golf Today host Eamon Lynch.
“Very disconcerting. I don’t know if there has ever been a more disappointing figure in golf than Phil Mickelson,” Wadkins said, “seeing what’s transpired with him over the last 10-plus years. He was the beloved figure for a long time. We all marveled at the way he could play. But nothing looks kosher about what he’s doing these days.”
"I don't know if there has ever been a more disappointing figure in the game of golf than Phil Mickelson."
In reference to the Ryder Cup, Wadkins said, “He probably would’ve been a two-time captain. Now he’s not going to be involved. It’s really kind of a shame. He’s really self-imploded, and he just continues to do it at every turn.
“It’s disappointing and sad. It’s sad that we have people in our game that think they’re bigger than the game, and obviously Phil thinks he’s bigger.”
Mickelson, who last played for Team USA in 2018, grabbed his second top-10 finish of his LIV Golf career — 18 events — last week at Bedminster (T-9).
Joaquin Niemann, Lanny Wadkins and Charlie Sifford are names to remember from the 2022 Genesis Invitational.
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Three days of sunshine and clear, blue skies gave way to some cloud cover and chillier temps on Sunday on a golf course that pretty much every PGA Tour pro calls one of the best.
Riviera Country Club, nearing its 100th birthday, shined once again, proving its mettle as a premier Tour stop.
The world’s top-10 golfers headlined a stacked field and except for Dustin Johnson, they all advanced to the weekend. The leaderboard was dominated at the very top by a 23-year-old Chilean, a 24-year-old rookie and a two-time major champion.
After a final-round 71 by Joaquinn Niemann, we did get a wire-to-wire winner at the 2022 Genesis Invitational but a long-standing Tour mark stays intact.
After grabbing the lead with an opening-round, 8-under 63 in the Tiger Woods-hosted Genesis Invitational when most everything went right at Riviera Country Club, the 23-year-old from Chile didn’t do much wrong Friday and added another 63 to open up a two-shot advantage midway through the second round.
His 126 total through two rounds shattered the 36-hole tournament record by four shots. And he made mute the theory that it’s tough to follow a great round with another great round.
Through 36 holes, he has 16 birdies and an eagle. At 16 under, he’s two shots clear of rookie Cameron Young. And Lanny Wadkins’ tournament records of 20 under and 264 total that have lasted nearly 30 years are in jeopardy.
“Everything is working pretty well. Obviously I’m making a lot of putts right now,” Niemann said. “I feel I’m starting my ball online with the putter, so when you have greens this good, when you start your line, I think you’ve got a good chance of making putts, so I think that’s been big this week.
“The one thing on days that I played that good and then I got to come the day after, sometimes it’s probably not as good. But I was able to try to keep it calm, try to stay with my emotions and try to just feel the same. The same way I feel on Thursday, try to make it the same on Friday. I think I made a good job there, which I was feeling great the whole day.”
The eagle came on his first hole on a chilly Friday morning, when he hit a 6-iron from 207 yards to four feet. He followed up with a birdie from 15 feet on the second and then a tap-in birdie on the seventh.
As the day warmed up and sunshine was abundant and conditions calm, Niemann added red numbers from 9, 12, 42, 18 and 3 feet coming home.
“Obviously it was a great start after yesterday’s round,” he said. “Didn’t sleep much, it was pretty late when I finished and we started pretty early, but we got it going pretty good at the beginning.”
Young had quite a day, too.
After posting a 66 in the opening round, Young, playing on a sponsor exemption, didn’t make a bogey and closed with four birdies to shoot 62, one off the tournament-course record. While his longest birdie came from 20 feet, seven came from within 10 feet, including a tap-in on the ninth, his final hole.
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The two-time Korn Ferry Tour winner’s best finish on the PGA Tour is a tie for second in last year’s Sanderson Farms Championship. His in good position to move up from his world ranking of 113th.
His 128 total through two rounds bested the old 36-record by two shots.
“I feel like I’ve been playing really well the last few weeks, my last few starts. Hasn’t turned into anything great, a bunch of made cuts, finished kind of middle of the pack, but every week it’s just felt like I should be right there,” Young said. “It’s either been I had one bad day where I just didn’t hit it well or just didn’t quite make anything. Today finally felt kind of like I got a lot out of it, which hasn’t been happening as much.”
Niemann and Young were well clear of the field when the afternoon wave of players, including Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Justin Thomas started play.
Past Genesis champion Adam Scott was in third place at 9 under after a 65.
Niemann’s lone PGA Tour title came in the 2019 Military Tribute at The Greenbrier. Niemann said it feels like it’s been forever since he won, but he won’t put any pressure on himself to get win No. 2.
“Obviously you play this game to try to win every week, but you know how hard it is to win here and how competitive they are, how many good players there are here. You have to be patient and just wait for my week,” he said. “There’s still a lot of golf to go. There’s 36 more holes to go, so a lot of things can happen there.
“Just try to not think about it, who’s going to be up there with me or who’s going to be coming from behind, just try to worry about my game, try to worry about my shots and I think it should be all right.”
Wadkins, a 21-time winner on Tour, takes a trip down memory lane to relive some of his finer moments.
The old saying for those who’ve relocated to the Lone Star state is “I wasn’t born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could.”
That’s certainly the case for Lanny Wadkins, a Virginia native who has maintained a residence in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for decades.
It’s no surprise Wadkins has felt at home in the DFW — his second PGA Tour victory, one that solidified his standing as one of the game’s great emerging players, came at the 1973 Byron Nelson Classic when he edged Dan Sikes in a playoff.
We caught up with Wadkins earlier this week in Dallas at a Golfweek Raters event at Las Colinas Country Club.
Golfweek: Tell us your memories of that 1973 victory at the Byron Nelson (then played at Preston Trail Golf Course):
Lanny Wadkins:I won in ’72, which was my rookie year. I won in Las Vegas, and for my first win, I’d beaten Arnold Palmer by a shot, so then here at the Nelson, I was playing well coming in. I’d finished fifth the week before the Tournament of Champions in La Costa. So, I knew I was playing well. I came here and had a great week driving the ball. The last day was really windy. I was three back then I think I birdied five of the last seven holes on the last day and thought I’d won the thing, but Dan Sikes holed about a 40-footer from just off the back edge of the green on 18 to tie me.
Then I won on the first sudden-death hole, which was 15 back then. They went to 15 because that’s where TV started.
GW: What did that win mean for you?
LW: I was playing really well. In fact, I went to Houston next week and finished third, so I had a fifth, a first and a third right in a row as a 23-year-old.
So it kind of put me up there. I finished fifth on the money list that year. I finished 10th my first year, which was technically supposed to be my senior year at Wake Forest, since I left a year early. I was 10th on the money list and so it worked out well. But like with anything — you go through something where you’re feeling your way through.
Lanny Wadkins talks to a group of Golfweek Raters during an event at Las Colina Country Club. Wadkins won the 1973 Byron Nelson Classic. (Photo by Tim Schmitt/Golfweek)
GW: To win in your sophomore season on the Tour, did you kind of feel like, “hey, wait a minute, this isn’t a fluke. I belong here.”
LW: I mean, I felt I did anyway. I was runner-up at the Heritage in 1970 when I was U.S. Amateur champ. So I had finished second at a PGA Tour event as an amateur. I finished 13th in a U.S. Open as an amateur. So, I knew I could play before I got out there — that’s why I went out there. So I was settled in.
GW: So, now let’s come full circle. In 1983, you think you’re going to win at the Nelson again. What happened?
LW: Yeah, well that was the first year they moved it (to TPC-Las Colinas). I played well there a number of times. And when it went to Las Colinas, I finished top two or three several times.
I lost to Payne Stewart by a shot one year (in 1990) and in ’83, the first year we moved the Nelson to Las Colinas. I actually had the 54-hole lead. I’d won at La Costa in the Tournament of Champions. I won that so I was coming in here thinking, you know, I was playing well, they just moved the tournament.
I knew the course. I had the 54-hole lead. You know, I thought I might take down back-to-back wins, but I didn’t do it. Ben Crenshaw played great on the final day and I think I ended up finishing third. That’s one I really thought I had.
GW: So when a tournament like this keeps moving — and it’s in its first year at TPC Craig Ranch — does that lose its luster for you, personally? Or doesn’t it really matter?
LW: I think they’ve been trying to figure it out. I think, you know, they had to move away from Preston Trail. We didn’t have the room for anything out there anymore. We had no room for parking. The neighborhood was growing up. The size of the venue wasn’t large enough and the footprint got much larger at Las Colinas because eventually, they had 36 holes of this so that gave them ample room and they even used both courses during the tournament several times. It gave them other venues for pro-ams and they had plenty of room out there for corporate hospitality, so it all worked, you know. The corporate hospitality is a big part of it today, you’ve got to take that into consideration when you’re planning a PGA Tour event.
I was surprised by the move to Trinity Forest and I’m not surprised by the move out to Craig Ranch. I believe Craig Ranch — it’s a Tom Weiskopf course — it’s a very good straightforward golf course. I think it’s going to be an excellent venue for the tournament. I think the players will love it. Right down the road in Frisco there’s hotels, there’s restaurants, there’s, you know, 10 to 15 minutes away there’s everything in the world you could want, so I think all in all it’s a wonderful spot for the tournament.
Lanny Wadkins on the range on Wednesday during the PNC Father/Son Challenge at The Ritz Carlton Golf Club of Orlando.
GW: You now have an interesting perspective, you were a player at a time when it was all about the golf course, pure and simple. People came to tournaments for the course. Now, it’s much more about the staging and the hospitality and TV. Do you see a difference in the way players treat their schedules?
LW: The players are still coming because of the golf course and how they how the course suits them. The players themselves aren’t coming because of the hospitality, right? I mean now this with the Nelson, it’ll be a bigger venue, a bigger show on Tour, if you will. Like Phoenix, for example, is sometimes it’s a show. It’s a happening.
GW: Would you have changed your schedule if you played today?
LW: My schedule always revolved around if I liked the golf course. Did I play it well? I mean when you get down to the bottom line, it’s a business and you’ve got to make money. I’m not going to go someplace where I miss the cut every year. That doesn’t make sense to go spend $5,000 of your own money to make nothing, right?
So I mean even here in Dallas when I was living here, I was having a run at Colonial where I just played horribly. I love the golf course, but I played terrible at Colonial. I missed the cut every year. So finally, in ’86 and ’87, I just didn’t play Colonial. Even though I was here, I didn’t play Colonial. I went back in ’88 and won. I hadn’t made the cut there in forever but I needed a break from it. And I went back an ’88 and won, and then played good there from then on.
GW: How come?
LW: I have no idea. I love the course. I like the grasses. I mean, I’m here. I just went over there the first year back in ’88 and had a good first round, I think I shot a 67, and was like now I can shoot a score here. And that’s all I needed. I just needed to know that I could and then it was OK.
