Golf: Ryder v world scheme

THE US PGA Tour is planning to match the US Ryder Cup team in a biennial competition against a team from the rest of the world excluding Europe. The commissioner, Deane Beman, said in Carlsbad, California, on Wednesday that the tour hoped to stage the inaugural event later this year.

Beman said he was talking with other tours around the world and with sponsors in an effort to settle on a suitable date and venue for the event. The event, to be named the President's Cup, would provide players from outside Europe and the US with a chance to play in a Ryder Cup-like event.

As in the Ryder Cup, each team would comprise 12 men playing a matchplay format in non-Ryder Cup years. The US captain would be selected by the PGA Tour and the US president or his representative.

The Rest of the World team could include players of the calibre of the Australians Greg Norman and Steve Elkington, Zimbabwe's Nick Price, the South Africans David Frost and Ernie Els, Fiji's Vijay Singh and Japan's Jumbo Ozaki.

Beman feels an urgency to get the event started because the International Management Group has unveiled plans for a similar event to involve the holder of the Ryder Cup against a Rest of the World team.