The 19th Ryder Cup Matches were held September 16–18, 1971, in the United States at the Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri. The U.S. team won the competition by a score of 181⁄2 to 131⁄2 points.

The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. From 1963 through 1971 the competition format was as follows:

• Day 1 — 8 foursomes (alternate shot) matches, 4 each in morning and afternoon sessions
• Day 2 — 8 four-ball (better ball) matches, 4 each in morning and afternoon sessions
• Day 3 — 16 singles matches, 8 each in morning and afternoon sessions

With a total of 32 points, 161⁄2 points were required to win the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 18 holes.

Source:

Team USA
Name	Age	Previous Ryder Cups	Matches	W–L–H	Winning percentage
Jay Hebert	48	Non-playing captain
Miller Barber	40	1	4	1–1–2	50.00
Frank Beard	32	1	4	1–2–1	37.50
Billy Casper	40	5	24	14–4–6	70.83
Charles Coody	34	0	Rookie
Gardner Dickinson	44	1	5	5–0–0	100.00
Gene Littler	41	5	21	9–4–8	61.90
Jack Nicklaus	31	1	4	1–2–1	37.50
Arnold Palmer	42	4	21	16–4–1	78.57
Mason Rudolph	37	0	Rookie
J. C. Snead	30	0	Rookie
Dave Stockton	29	0	Rookie
Lee Trevino	31	1	6	3–2–1	58.33

Six members of the Great Britain team were selected from a points list based on a player's best 10 performances in 15 events during the 1971 season, ending with the Benson & Hedges Festival of Golf on 21 August. The remaining six were chosen by a committee and announced on 23 August. The leading six in the points table were: Neil Coles, Peter Oosterhuis, Brian Barnes, Harry Bannerman, Peter Butler and Maurice Bembridge. The committee chose Brian Huggett, Peter Townsend and Bernard Gallacher who had finished 7th, 8th and 9th in the list, together with Tony Jacklin, Christy O'Connor Snr and John Garner. Jacklin had played most of his golf in America, while O'Connor had missed much of the season with a wrist injury. Garner was chosen over Tommy Horton who had had a good season in 1970 but had been less consistent than Garner in 1971.

Team Great Britain
Name	Age	Previous Ryder Cups	Matches	W–L–H	Winning percentage
Eric Brown	46	Non-playing captain
Harry Bannerman	29	0	Rookie
Brian Barnes	26	1	3	0–3–0	0.00
Maurice Bembridge	26	1	5	2–2–1	50.00
Peter Butler	39	2	9	2–5–2	33.33
Neil Coles	36	5	27	10–13–4	44.44
Bernard Gallacher	22	1	4	2–2–0	50.00
John Garner	24	0	Rookie
Brian Huggett	34	3	15	4–7–4	40.00
Tony Jacklin	27	2	12	6–3–3	62.50
Christy O'Connor Snr	46	8	27	9–16–2	37.04
Peter Oosterhuis	23	0	Rookie
Peter Townsend	25	1	5	3–2–0	60.00

	Results
Coles/O'Connor	2 & 1	Casper/Barber
Townsend/Oosterhuis	2 up	Palmer/Dickinson
Huggett/Jacklin	3 & 2	Nicklaus/Stockton
Bembridge/Butler	1 up	Coody/Beard
3	Session	1
3	Overall	1

	Results
Bannerman/Gallacher	2 & 1	Casper/Barber
Townsend/Oosterhuis	1 up	Palmer/Dickinson
Huggett/Jacklin	halved	Trevino/Rudolph
Bembridge/Butler	5 & 3	Nicklaus/Snead
11⁄2	Session	21⁄2
41⁄2	Overall	31⁄2

	Results
O'Connor/Barnes	2 & 1	Trevino/Rudolph
Coles/Garner	2 & 1	Beard/Snead
Oosterhuis/Gallacher	5 & 4	Palmer/Dickinson
Townsend/Bannerman	2 & 1	Nicklaus/Littler
0	Session	4
41⁄2	Overall	71⁄2

	Results
Gallacher/Oosterhuis	1 up	Trevino/Casper
Jacklin/Huggett	2 & 1	Littler/Snead
Townsend/Bannerman	1 up	Palmer/Nicklaus
Coles/O'Connor	halved	Coody/Beard
11⁄2	Session	21⁄2
6	Overall	10

	Results
Tony Jacklin	1 up	Lee Trevino
Bernard Gallacher	halved	Dave Stockton
Brian Barnes	1 up	Mason Rudolph
Peter Oosterhuis	4 & 3	Gene Littler
Peter Townsend	3 & 2	Jack Nicklaus
Christy O'Connor	5 & 4	Gardner Dickinson
Harry Bannerman	halved	Arnold Palmer
Neil Coles	halved	Frank Beard
31⁄2	Session	41⁄2
91⁄2	Overall	141⁄2

	Results
Brian Huggett	7 & 6	Lee Trevino
Tony Jacklin	1 up	J. C. Snead
Brian Barnes	2 & 1	Miller Barber
Peter Townsend	1 up	Dave Stockton
Bernard Gallacher	2 & 1	Charles Coody
Neil Coles	5 & 3	Jack Nicklaus
Peter Oosterhuis	3 & 2	Arnold Palmer
Harry Bannerman	2 & 1	Gardner Dickinson
4	Session	4
131⁄2	Overall	181⁄2

Each entry refers to the win–loss–half record of the player.

Source:

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
Miller Barber	0	0–3–0	0–1–0	0–2–0	0–0–0
Frank Beard	2	1–1–2	0–0–1	0–1–0	1–0–1
Billy Casper	0	0–3–0	0–0–0	0–2–0	0–1–0
Charles Coody	0.5	0–2–1	0–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–1
Gardner Dickinson	4	4–1–0	1–1–0	2–0–0	1–0–0
Gene Littler	2	2–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–0	2–0–0
Jack Nicklaus	5	5–1–0	2–0–0	1–1–0	2–0–0
Arnold Palmer	4.5	4–1–1	0–1–1	2–0–0	2–0–0
Mason Rudolph	1.5	1–1–1	0–1–0	0–0–1	1–0–0
J. C. Snead	4	4–0–0	1–0–0	1–0–0	2–0–0
Dave Stockton	1.5	1–1–1	1–0–1	0–1–0	0–0–0
Lee Trevino	3.5	3–1–1	2–0–0	0–0–1	1–1–0

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes	Fourballs
Harry Bannerman	2.5	2–2–1	1–0–1	1–0–0	0–2–0
Brian Barnes	2	2–1–0	2–0–0	0–0–0	0–1–0
Maurice Bembridge	1	1–1–0	0–0–0	1–1–0	0–0–0
Peter Butler	1	1–1–0	0–0–0	1–1–0	0–0–0
Neil Coles	2	1–2–2	0–1–1	1–0–0	0–1–1
Bernard Gallacher	3.5	3–1–1	1–0–1	1–0–0	1–1–0
John Garner	0	0–1–0	0–0–0	0–0–0	0–1–0
Brian Huggett	1.5	1–2–1	0–1–0	1–0–1	0–1–0
Tony Jacklin	1.5	1–3–1	0–2–0	1–0–1	0–1–0
Christy O'Connor	1.5	1–2–1	0–1–0	1–0–0	0–1–1
Peter Oosterhuis	3	3–3–0	2–0–0	0–2–0	1–1–0
Peter Townsend	0	0–6–0	0–2–0	0–2–0	0–2–0

• PGA of America: 1971 Ryder Cup Archived October 23, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
• About.com: 1971 Ryder Cup Archived January 27, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
• Old Warson Country Club

38°37′01″N 90°23′13″W / 38.617°N 90.387°W / 38.617; -90.387