Seve and Olazabal were formidable, but there is only one European partnership that can claim to be the best

Before I’m accused of golfing blasphemy, I’ll make something clear. Seve and Jose Maria were brilliant.

Even though I was born three months after the Valderrama Ryder Cup, their legacy isn’t lost on me. From 15 matches played together, they won 12 points.

They played together for the first time in 1987 and won three points from four matches across foursomes and fourballs. They were beaten once that year, and only beaten once more in the next three editions of the event.

The Spanish pair were half a point shy of a 100% record together in 1991 in the War on the Shore. They inspired a generation and are still part of Team Europe’s fabric today.

“The amazing thing is that they played 15 games together, won 11 and halved two. That’s an 80% win ratio, which is pretty phenomenal for that number of games,” Martin Hopley of Match Play World said.

However, when we examine statistics and the detailed rankings available on Match Play World, which rank players by their match play records, we reveal another European duo that achieved success at an even higher rate.

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Luke Donald has a claim to be Europe’s best-ever Ryder Cupper, and part of that is down to his partnership with Sergio Garcia.

This pair played together six times across the 2004, 2006 and 2012 Ryder Cups and lost once. This is mightily impressive considering two of these matches were away from home. This gives them a greater winner percentage than Seve and Jose Maria, if we use a metric whereby a pair has had to play a minimum of five matches together.

“As you go down there, you’ve got to balance between how many games people have played and what the record is as well,” Hopley added.

“As you’re going down the ratio, one pairing that has an even better record than Ballesteros and Olazabal is Sergio Garcia and Luke Donald, who played six times (together) and won five of them. That’s 83%.

“If you’re going to have a threshold of a minimum of five games, then Garcia and Donald would be No.1. Ballesteros and Olazabal would be No.2, but Justin Rose and Ian Poulter also – 80% of their five games, which is exceptional.”

Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia’s Ryder Cup record when paired together

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You might still rank Ballesteros and Olazabal as the best, given their body of work and the place they hold in the event’s history. The gamesmanship of Ballesteros and the dance moves and personality of Olazabal fondly sit in the minds of European golf fans, a level of endearment that Donald and Garcia don’t have.

But boring numbers prove Donald and Garcia also showed their class on several occasions and reveal that they have been Europe’s most fruitful partnership since the continental team was born in 1979.

Their most memorable moments came in 2006 when they beat the partnerships of Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk, and Phil Mickelson and David Toms in both foursomes sessions.

They only played one fourball match together, and claimed Woods’ scalp once again when he played with Steve Stricker on the afternoon of day two in 2012.

Donald and Garcia forged their success in an era when many other bonds were forming too, other bonds that contained the Spaniard himself. He is still the event’s record points-scorer.

“Then, you are into some of the older pairings,” Hopley said. “You’ve got Bernhard Langer and Colin Montgomerie, seven games and 78%, and then Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood. They played eight times, won three-quarters of their games, as did Rose and Henrik Stenson.

“Another one is Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood, who also won 75% of their games from seven games. You can see here that within the period of Europe, we have pairings that stuck together and were there regularly from one event to another.”

Match Play World originated from the desire to form a better solution to a common problem with match play events in golf. The Match Play Matrix format means every player plays every round, but the winner is still the last player undefeated.

“The Matrix is something I came up with to solve the problems of match play at the professional level. When you watched the old Dell Match Play, the first few rounds were terrific when there were lots of games on the course,” Hopley said.

“But when it got to the final, there were only two players to watch. Whilst the match might be exciting, it was pretty slow television.“

While creating this unique format, Match Play World developed the Match Play World Golf Rankings for players dating back to 1927 when the first Ryder Cup was held. From the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup, Solheim Cup and WGC Match Play to the old EurAsia Cup and the new LIV Golf Team Championship, every match play event is covered. View the Match Play World Golf Rankings here. 

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