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I'm trying to think of Ryder Cup Pick 'Em formats. There are a couple of ways I can think of doing this:

1. Pick winners matches. The problem with this is, matchups will come in fairly late and I believe entrants will have to check in each day to place their picks. This just sounds really difficult. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

2. Pick individual players. Each player will have their own records. We can pick a few players and award points for each win, or tie they receive. This can be elaborated on even further. Maybe, going into the contest, entrants can choose which team they would support (Europe or the United States). I could create a custom Ryder Cup winner's seal with the flag of the winning team. If you pick Europe, you could only pick players on that team and would only be eligible to win if the European team won.

Obviously, I favor some version of #2 but if we could make #1 work or find some kind of combination, I wouldn't be opposed to it. Now, I just want to let everyone know that just because I have a thread looking for feedback on this, it doesn't mean we will have a Pick 'Em. I will only do this if I can find an acceptable format.

I would really enjoy some sort of Ryder Cup Contest but with the uncertain (and last minute) individual match ups, it sure seems like a lot of work for you. How about just picking the winning team, with the exact score? A tie breaker could be correctly predicting the point outcome of Sunday's 12 Singles Matches.

I like the idea of having some sort of pick-em format for the Ryder Cup, but I will have to think a bit to see if I can come up with some refinement of your #2 idea, which sounds interesting.

Okay, here's what I kind of have in my head at this point:

1. Pick the winning team
2. Pick the point totals and winning teams for each day
3. Pick three players from the team you picked to win who will have the best record. (wins and ties will earn points)
4. Pick a captain's pick from the team you picked to win who will have the best record.

Any changes? Modifications?

What about dividing both of the teams into three different groups, from each of which members have to pick one. That way members won't all be picking the top guys from each team, and it will bring into play some of the lower tier players. Of course, some of those players may not participate in all the matches, but that would be just another aspect of the pick--picking the guys who you think will actually be playing the most--and therefore winning the most. Put the captains' picks in a fourth group to avoid duplication.

I really like the "pick the winning team to win" aspect of this contest. And of course, the way you have it laid out, unless I'm misreading this, each day is a new competition with points accumulating. Could this theoretically result in someone picking the Euro team to accumulate enough points on Friday and Sauturday, let's say, to win the contest even though the US team might pull it out with the singles on Sunday?