Hennessy Cognac Cup

The Hennessy Cognac Cup was a biennial team golf tournament contested from 1976 to 1984. The contests in 1976, 1978 and 1980 were between teams of professional male golfers; one team representing Great Britain and Ireland, the other team representing Continental Europe. There was also an earlier event, in 1974, played at Sotogrande in Spain, not sponsored by Hennessy. In 1982 a third team, the Rest of the World, was added and the event became a stroke-play contest. The 1984 event was run on a different basis, with 10 national teams competing. The tournament was played in years when there was no Ryder Cup.

The first matches between a team representing Great Britain and Ireland and a team representing Continental Europe were played for the Joy Cup from 1954 to 1958. The concept was restarted with the Seve Trophy in 2000.

Winners

Year	Venue	Winners	Points	Runner-up	Points
Hennessy Cognac Cup
1984	Ferndown Golf Club	England	3½	Spain	2½
1982	Ferndown Golf Club	Great Britain and Ireland	2166	Rest of the World	2186
1980	Sunningdale Golf Club	Great Britain and Ireland	16½	Continent of Europe	13½
1978	The Belfry	Great Britain and Ireland	17½	Continent of Europe	14½
1976	Bondues Golf Club	Great Britain and Ireland	20	Continent of Europe	10
Sotogrande Match
1974	Royal Sotogrande Golf Club	Great Britain and Ireland	31	Continent of Europe	25

The score given above in 1984 was the result of the final. The 1982 contest was determined by a cumulative stroke-play score. In 1974 2 points were awarded for a win and 1 for a halved match.

1974

Source: ^[1]

1976

Source: ^[2][3][4]

1978

Source: ^[5][6][7]

1980

Source: ^[8][9]

1982

Source: ^{[10][11][12][13]}

1984

The tournament was played from 13 to 16 September between 10 teams, the four home nations, five from continental Europe and a Rest of the World team. The event was again played at Ferndown Golf Club in Dorset. There were 4 players in each team who each played a round of stroke-play on each of the first two days. The best three rounds on each day were used to determine the team score. The leading four teams then played semi-finals and a final on the next two days.The semi-finals and final were match-play contests with two fourball matches in the morning and four singles in the afternoon.

There was a £4,000 prize for the leading player after the first two days. This was won by Sandy Lyle with a score of 129, a stroke ahead of Howard Clark.

Source: ^{[14][15][16][17]}

Qualifying table

Team	Day 1	Day 2	Total
Scotland	193	201	394
England	196	199	395
Ireland	204	198	402
Spain	199	207	406
France	208	203	411
Wales	203	208	411
Rest of the World	201	215	416
Italy	213	206	419
Sweden	214	205	419
West Germany	215	205	420

Knock-out

	Semifinals				Final
	Scotland	1
	Spain	5
					Spain	2½
					England	3½
	Ireland	½
	England	5½			Third place
					Scotland	5
					Ireland	1

References