How to watch Ryder Cup 2021 from the UK? Channel and time

The USA host visiting challengers Europe in the Ryder Cup. The famous golf cup normally takes place every two years, but this is the first edition since 2018 due to the Covid-19 pandemic

The Ryder Cup is arguably golf’s biggest event.

The team championship pits two teams of the best golfers from the United States of America and Europe respectively.

Held every two years, it regularly sees tough competition and an extremely high standard of golf.

Since the cup was expanded in 1979 – the previous edition of the competition originally included matches between the USA and Great Britain (and briefly Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland) – Europe have 11 wins to the USA’s eight.

The competition is extremely popular. Approximately 270,000 spectators attended the last week of golfing activities at France’s Le Golf National in 2018, the most recent edition of the event.

This year’s event takes place at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, USA.

Where can I watch the Ryder Cup?

Tee off time in the UK for the first matches of the day is at 1:05pm on Friday and Saturday.

Each of these days will start with the foursome matches, followed by the fourball matches at 6:10pm again on Friday and Saturday.

Sunday’s fast paced singles matches will begin every 11 minutes, starting at 5.04pm.

Sky Sports Golf will be showing full coverage of the event, which begins on Friday 24 September at 11am.

Highlights of the three days of golf will also be shown each morning on at 12:05am on Saturday and Monday and at 12am on Sunday morning.

BBC Two will be covering the highlights.

Now TV will continue to provide access via their own servers. A daily sports pass for Sky Sports is £9.98. However, may want to fork out for the monthly pass of £33.99, should you wish to watch all three days.

How does the Ryder cup work?

For those new to the world of the Ryder Cup, play will be split between three forms of matches.

The foursomes are two pairs competing against each other, taking turns to hit the ball.

This is slightly different to the fourball matches where each player has their own ball.

Each match winner will receive one point, any drawn match and the point is shared at half a point each.

The final days play will be a day of twelve singles matches, each team member playing a person from the opposing team.

Both teams have captains. The USA’s captain is Steve Stricker. Irishman Padraig Harrington captains the visitors from Europe.

As winners of the last competition in 2018, Europe must reach 14 points to retain the trophy. Whichever team is first to reach 14 1/2 points will win the cup.

You can see a full breakdown of the teams here.