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 12 in the morning singles features John Hedges v Paul Gowens.

In 6 of the last 9 RyDov Cups the team that wins the final match in the morning goes on to win the Cup. Momentum, as they say, is key.

So, match 12 isn’t just the end of the order, it’s the start of the afternoon battles. Head into lunch with the win and your team is lifted for the morning session.

So, let’s look at it here. Andy Love sends out John Hedges, a founding member of the Tour. Hedges’ only plays in the RyDov Cup these days and whilst he has been on Tour since 2013, very few players will know too much about him.

However, he has won 4.5 points in 8 singles appearances and that has to count for something.

Gowens, who has sent his Vice Captain out first and himself outlast, on the other hand has only made 2 appearances and won 2 points (100%) in his singles – beating Kieran Lynch and Andy McGregor.

This is a hard match to call as Hedges has the pedigree and history and Gowens the newcomer to the Tour.

However, whilst Hedges Jnr. has little profile on the Tour, Gowens is one of the most liked players on Tour.

He was the 2022 Rookie of the Year when he lifted 5 individual awards – including the Bruce Shield. After a year on medical exemption in 2023, he sits 11th in the Order of Merit – at the time of writing – won the Anstruther Plate (for the second year in a row) and is in the final of the maiden iteration of the Matchplay and came within 1 putt of winning his first Major at the EuroDov Cup.

Momentum is key, and the pressure on this match will be huge. More and more eyes will be cast towards that match as players finish in the top order and I think it’ll be all smiles for Team Gowens as I have to say I can only see this one going one way and that’s a win for Captain Paul Gowens.

Team Love 6 – 6 Team Gowens