What the Ryder Cup is
The Ryder Cup is the most important and prestigious golf event in the world. Played in the United States for the first time in 1927, it is named after English businessman Samuel Ryder, who donated the trophy.
The tournament has no prize money: the glory, the cup and the honor of victory are the only prizes at stake.
The Ryder Cup pits the United States and Europe against each other and is one of the three sporting events in which the Old Continent competes as a team. It is played every two years alternately in a European or American city.
On 14th December 2015, Italy won the right to host the Ryder Cup 2023. The competition was held in Rome, Italy for the first time, from 29th September to 1st October at the official venue of the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club: it was only the third time that golf’s most prestigious competition has been held outside Great Britain (after the edition hosted by Spain in 1997 and France in 2018). The event that was supposed to be held in 2022 was postponed by a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The widespread popularity of golf around the world and the presence of the world’s top golfers on the course have made the Ryder Cup a unique event. The third most important sporting event in the world in terms of media coverage, after the World Cup and the Olympics, it has represented a spotlight for Italy and Rome, a planetary showcase that has strengthened the appeal of our Nation in the world.
2023 RYDER CUP RECORDS
The 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy set new records across the board, with Europe’s 16½-11½ victory against at United States attracting unprecedented levels of engagement across social media and global broadcasts.
A total of 271,191 people from 100 different countries attended the 44th Ryder Cup in person at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club in Rome, with millions more following the action from afar on television and digital platforms.
There were 2,653 posts across official Ryder Cup Europe, Ryder Cup USA, and joint Ryder Cup social channels during the Ryder Cup week, which led to more than 600 million impressions and pageviews. Furthermore, early figures show views of Ryder Cup official social media channels amounted to 197.6 million, with a total of 26.7 million interactions, contributing to the channels gaining 500,000 new followers.
On Ryder Cup Europe’s platforms alone, impressions numbered 347,106, 426 – a remarkable 117 percent increase on the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris which totalled 160 million.
Footage from the European Team Bus on the Sunday night particularly resonated with fans, with 14,054,985 views across all channels in the first 48 hours, total impressions of 19,188,189, and engagement amounting to 1,482,709.
Early figures also show notable increases across global broadcasts, with a rise in average viewership on Sky Sports in the UK of 38 percent compared to the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits and 25 percent up on the 2018 edition at Le Golf National, making it the most watched Ryder Cup on Sky Sports on record.
The Ryder Cup is thus confirmed as the ideal event to promote a sport that can boast 65 million players worldwide, making it the most popular individual discipline.
