The RyDov Cup, where the Tour began all those years ago, has staked its claim as both the marquee event of the year and also the final event of the year.

It is revered by all who have played in it, and each year brings a new story line, greater intrigued and fantastic competition and camaraderie.

The 2024 edition is no different, yet in many ways it is, it is the 10th match played and with that comes a level of expectation never really felt before. The Tour have also marked this occasion by diverging from the traditional selection method and have created a team of Founding players to face off against a team of newcomers and have put two players that epitomize the Tour entirely, Andy Love and Paul Gowens, in charge of them.

We’ve heard the team announcement, we’ve witnessed the verbal sparring of the Captains, now we’ve unleashed EuroDov Reporter on 9 years’ worth of RyDov Cup records and thousands of sheets of data from Tour events to give us a blow by blow prediction from each match so sit back, enjoy and get ready to argue your case against EuroDov Reporter.

Match 11 in the morning singles features David McColgan v Joel Morrison.

Could this one be any more opposite – ever-present RyDov Cupper versus rookie, 24 x Tour winner v no-wins.

McColgan will make his 10th appearance at the RyDov Cup, standing alongside Stuart Sutherland as the only players to appear in all matches (notable mention for Stephen Hedges who has played in 100% of the matches since his debut in 2016.)

McColgan has a win rate of 50% in the singles and enters 2024 with only 1 win in his last 4 appearances.

His opponent Joel Morrison is metronomic on the course, unfazed by much, slowly plotting his way around the course without troubling himself too much. As a rookie he has little to go on. His Carnegie Cup record is 50% in the singles, losing in 2023 and winning in 2024.

On Tour Morrison sits with 550 points in the Order of Merit whilst McColgan sits some 4000 odd points above him in first place.

Many people – including McColgan – are big supporters of Morrison making the leap into Tour winner in the near future but none of the matters during the RyDov Cup.

This is a curious one because everything has to be on McColgan, the record books, the current form guide and the rookie struggles. But Morrison is going to have a significant handicap advantage in this match and his handicap isn’t there to portray a player that is erratic across the course, matchplay might just be the perfect format for Morrison against McColgan and I am going to put my neck on the line here and call this the biggest upset of the day and Morrison wins it for Team Gowens.

Team Love 6 – 5 Team Gowens