1981 Ryder Cup 1981 Ryder Cup The 24th Ryder Cup Matches were held 18–20 September 1981 at the Walton Heath Golf Club in Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey, England, southwest of London. The United States team won the competition by a score of 18½ to 9½ points. To date, it remains the largest margin of defeat for a European team (since 1979) at the Ryder Cup. Seve Ballesteros was not selected for the European team after an ongoing dispute with the European Tour concerning appearance money. Tony Jacklin was also left off the team. It was the sixth and final Ryder Cup for Jack Nicklaus as
Ryder Cup display boards at The Belfry still read "The 2001 Ryder Cup", and U.S. captain Curtis Strange deliberately referred to his team as "The 2001 Ryder Cup Team" in his speech at the closing ceremony. It was later decided to hold the subsequent Ryder Cup in 2004 (rather than 2003) and thereafter in even-numbered years. This change also affected the men's Presidents Cup and Seve Trophy and women's Solheim Cup competitions, as each switched from even to odd years. Although the team was referred to as "Great Britain" up to 1971, a number of golfers from the Republic of Ireland, Northern