Seve Trophy: Looking Back at the Continent vs. GB&I Tournament

The Seve Trophy was a competition between teams of male professional golfers representing Continental Europe and Great Britain & Ireland (GB&I). It was played every other year, in the years in which there was no Ryder Cup. The Seve Trophy was first played in 2000 and last played in 2013.

Golfers on both teams had to be both European and members of the European Tour.

Each team was led by a team captain, usually an older (40s or 50s), retired or semi-retired player of achievement; each team captain selected one or more assistant captains to assist him.

Team captains were selected by the European Tour, which was the organizing body. Golfers were selected through an automatic qualifying process. The tournament was originally played in even-numbered years, but beginning in 2003 switched to odd-numbered years.

It is named after Seve Ballesteros, who originally ensivioned it as one way for European golfers to better prepare for the Ryder Cup. The Seve Trophy was sometimes played the same week as the Presidents Cup, in which Europe's Ryder Cup foe Team USA plays against an International squad. In that sense, the Seve Trophy and Presidents Cup were, while they both existed, sorts of tune-up tournaments for the Ryder Cup.

Seve Trophy Scores

Here are the results of every Seve Trophy played (click on the final score to view location, team captains, team rosters, and all matches):

2013: Europe 15, GB&I 13
2011: GB&I 15.5, Europe 12.5
2009: GB&I 16.5, Europe 11.5
2007: GB&I 16.5, Europe 11.5
2005: GB&I 16.5, Europe 11.5
2003: GB&I 15, Europe 13
2002: GB&I 14.5, Europe 11.5
2000: Europe 13.5, GB&I 12.5

Team Selection

Both sides in the Seve Trophy were comprised of 10 golfers. And both teams were selected based on a combination of the world rankings the European Tour money list:

• Both teams were first filled with the five highest-ranked golfers (per side) in the world rankings.
• And the next five players on each side were the five highest-ranked golfers (per side) from the European Tour money list.

Seve Trophy Format

The Seve Trophy, as of its last playing in 2013, used a 4-day competition schedule. There were 28 matches total. The Seve Trophy ended using this schedule:

• First day: Five fourball matches
• Second day: Five fourball matches
• Third day: Four foursomes matches in a morning session; four more foursomes in an afternoon session
• Fourth day: 10 singles matches

The tournament used different formats (including greensomes, a rarely used format at the professional level) and schedules earlier in its history.