When is the 2023 Ryder Cup? Dates, format, location, LIV Golf participation and more

The 2023 Ryder Cup is a massive moment for both the United States and Europe, but when is the match, where will it be played, LIV Golf involvement and more. 

Every two years, the golf world and the fans of the worldwide sport get treated to one of the best events in all of sports, the Ryder Cup. It’s the culmination of the past two seasons with the best players the United States puts together in a 12-man team facing off with the 12 best selected by Team Europe.

In the 2021 Ryder Cup, delayed a year at Whistling Straits by the COVID-19 pandemic given the health concerns and the need for fans for the atmosphere of the event, the American team came up huge with its first back-to-back home victory after winning the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine since 1979/1983. Moreover, the 19-9 winning score was the largest margin of victory in over 15 years.

But now the 2023 Ryder Cup heads to Europe once again with United States captain Zach Johnson trying to lead the Americans over his adversarial captain, Luke Donald, and the European team that hasn’t lost on home soil since 1993.

So when is this sure-to-be drama-filled 2023 Ryder Cup, where is it being played, how does the match work for newcomers to the event, and will LIV Golf be involved? Let’s take a look at the answers.

When is the 2023 Ryder Cup? Dates, schedule for the 44th Ryder Cup

The 2023 Ryder Cup will be played starting on Friday, Sept. 29 and lasting through Sunday, Oct. 1. Initially, the event was scheduled to be played in 2022 from Sept. 30-Oct. 2. but, with the 2021 event being delayed amid the pandemic and the governing bodies wanting to keep biennial (every two years) schedule for this vaunted event, they pushed it back to 2023 for this tournament.

Where is the 2023 Ryder Cup? Course and location

As mentioned, the 2023 Ryder Cup will be back on European soil, specifically being played at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome, Italy. While many American fans will not be familiar with the course, the DP World Tour has stopped here previously, most recently for the 2021 Italian Open, which was won by young Danish star Nicolai Hogjaard.

Rome and Marco Simone beat out bids from courses in Germany, Austria and Spain to host the event.

Ryder Cup format, explained

For golf fans who are unaware or newcomers to this event, the Ryder Cup is a match play tournament where every match is worth one point. There are 28 possible points available, meaning a winner needs 14.5 points to clinch. However, if the defending champion, which will be the United States in 2023, reaches 14 points, they retain the trophy until the next event as champions.

On Days 1 and 2 of the Ryder Cup, there are team match play events with four alternate shot matches and four fourball matches on each day. Alternate shot is as self-explanatory as it sounds with a player on the teams — teams chosen by the captain ahead of each day — hitting a shot and then their teammate hitting the next shot from where it lands. Fourball, also known as best ball, includes all four players in a match playing each hole and the best score from each team counting. Scoring is traditional match play with 18 holes being the maximum and, if a match is tied after 18 holes, the point available is halved between the US and Europe. The home captain — so Luke Donald in 2023 — chooses the order in which alternate shot and fourball are played between the morning and afternoon.

For the final day of the Ryder Cup on Sunday, every player on each team plays a singles match with a whole point available in each. The matches are chosen by the captains in terms of the order they send their players out to play.

Can LIV Golf players compete in the 2023 Ryder Cup?

The topic of LIV Golf players in the Ryder Cup has been a hot-button issue since Brooks Koepka’s win at the PGA Championship. It appears that LIV Golf players will be eligible to play for the United States for both automatic qualification and captain’s picks. However, the same is not true for the European team as it appears to be a possibility, but not a likely one.

The reason behind this difference in the two teams is the governing bodies. While LIV Golf has seen many players essentially banned from the PGA Tour, the PGA of America runs the American Ryder Cup team. Being a separate organization, they have no such bans, which we saw at the PGA Championship, which is also run by the PGA of America. As such, there are less restrictions there.

In the case of the European side, however, the Ryder Cup team is run by the DP World Tour. LIV Golf players have largely left the DP World Tour or resigned their memberships in order to change leagues, which would then put the DP World Tour in an unwelcomed spot of welcoming players who, in essence, defected from the tour onto a team that the tour is behind building.

Regardless, it’ll be fascinating to see the end results of this and how LIV Golf ultimately ends up factoring into the 2023 Ryder Cup.

For more from The PGA Tour, make sure to follow FanSided and stay tuned to our golf hub for all the latest news and results and check out The 73rd Hole on Mondays.