Alfred Dunhill Cup Explained

Alfred Dunhill Cup
Location:	St Andrews, Fife, Scotland
Establishment:	1985
Course:	Old Course at St Andrews
Par:	72
Tour:	European Tour
Format:	Team
Month Played:	September/October
Final Year:	2000
Final Champion:	Spain (Jiménez, Martín, Olazábal)

The Alfred Dunhill Cup was a team golf tournament which ran from 1985 to 2000, sponsored by Alfred Dunhill Ltd. It was for three-man teams of professional golfers, one team representing each country, and was promoted as the "World Team Championship". It was a "special approved event" on the European Tour, which means that it was supported by the Tour, but the prize money did not count towards the Tour's Order of Merit. The host course was the Old Course at St Andrews in Scotland.

The stature of the members of the American team was variable as the Dunhill Cup clashed with a PGA Tour event, though the fact that it was played at "The Home of Golf" helped to attract some star names. The other countries were generally represented by their best three golfers, or nearly so.

The Dunhill Cup was in competition with the World Cup, a similar event for two-man teams.^[1] In 2000, the World Cup's status was enhanced by its inclusion in the World Golf Championships series, and in 2001 the promoters of the Alfred Dunhill Cup replaced it with the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, which is a celebrity pro-am tournament and an official European Tour event.

Format

The field was always 16 teams of three players each. From 1985 to 1991, they compete in a single-elimination tournament that included a third place match. Beginning in 1992, the format switched to group play followed by a single-elimination tournament. The first three days were round-robin play amongst four groups of four teams to determine the semi-finalists. The semi-finals and the final were both played on the Sunday and the third place match was eliminated. The tournament was always played using medal match play.

Winners

Year	Country	Team
Dunhill Cup
		David Graham, Graham Marsh, Greg Norman
		Rodger Davis, David Graham, Greg Norman
		Gordon J. Brand, Howard Clark, Nick Faldo
		Eamonn Darcy, Ronan Rafferty, Des Smyth
		Mark Calcavecchia, Tom Kite, Curtis Strange
		David Feherty, Ronan Rafferty, Philip Walton
		Anders Forsbrand, Per-Ulrik Johansson, Mats Lanner
		David Gilford, Steven Richardson, Jamie Spence
		Fred Couples, John Daly, Payne Stewart
		Dave Barr, Rick Gibson, Ray Stewart
		Andrew Coltart, Colin Montgomerie, Sam Torrance
		Phil Mickelson, Mark O'Meara, Steve Stricker
		Ernie Els, David Frost, Retief Goosen
Alfred Dunhill Cup
		Ernie Els, David Frost, Retief Goosen
		Sergio García, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, José María Olazábal
		Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Miguel Ángel Martín, José María Olazábal

Results table

Country	Times played	Best finish	Players																'00
	16		24
	16		16
	16		21
	16		9
	10		7
	16		11
	11		10
	16		9
	15		13
	15		25
	13		10
	10		7
	8		8
	10		8
	11		15
	7		6
	4		4
	2		5
	7		8
	7		10
	8		15
	3		6
	4		6
	2		5
	3		6
	1		3
	1		3
	1		3
	1		3
	1		3
	1		3
	1		3
	3		4

External links

• Coverage on the European Tour's official site

Notes and References

1. News: Platts . Mitchell . John . Ballantine . St Andrews to be host of first £1 million event . The Times . London, England . 22 January 1985 . 25 . The Times Digital Archive . 8 June 2020 . limited.