[Photo: PGA of America]
In mid-August, US captain Jim Furyk hinted that a new Ryder Cups point system was coming for 2027, and that unlike Europe’s announcement, it would represent a big change for the US team. That change dropped overnight (Australian time) in a statement from the PGA of America, and the two major headlines are that there will no longer be points awarded for “off-year” events and the standings will no longer be tied to money.
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Previously, major winners from the year before the Ryder Cup, along with the Players Championship winner, would be compensated with one point for every $US1,000 earned. Now, per the new system, there will be no points given for 2026 results, major or otherwise. Instead, qualification will begin at the 2027 American Express tournament in January, and last for 31 events, concluding at the BMW Championship in mid-August.
Those points will be allocated under a new system that has no specific ties to prizemoney. Team USA will employ a sliding scale, with the most points going to tournament winners – 3,000 for a major, 2,850 for the Players, 2,250 for a signature event on the PGA Tour and 1,500 for a “normal” PGA Tour event, with no points awarded for opposite-field events – and decreasing with each place. All players who make the cut in these events will earn a percentage of the overall total, and you can see the full points breakdown here.
One thing that won’t change is the number of captain’s picks. The top six in the points standings at the conclusion of the BMW Championship will qualify for the team automatically, while Furyk will allow himself six captain’s picks. The 6/6 system began, for the US, at the Whistling Straits Ryder Cup in 2021.
The new points allocation procedure bears a close resemblance to the European system, although the Europeans will award points for events in late 2026, opting for a one-year qualification period compared to the “2027 only” system the Americans have adopted.
“I have worked diligently with our team and am pleased to implement a new qualifying process for the 2027 US Ryder Cup team,” Furyk said in a press release. “We possess an exceptional mix of veterans and rising stars, and this system will help us identify the strongest players in September 2027.”
The philosophy behind ending points for performance in off-year majors is that it can bolster players who go on to lose their form the next season, potentially saddling a captain with a player who is no longer at his best. In theory, this change is bad news for Cameron Young, who won the 2026 Players Championship and would have benefited under the old system, and Wyndham Clark, the 2026 US Open winner.
As for severing the connection between points and prizemoney, Furyk mentioned in May at the PGA Championship that the huge difference in purses between signature events and ordinary events made it necessary to create a points system that didn’t rely on that metric.
