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 4 in the morning singles features Daniel Peck v Scott Gowens.

Match 4 is where our first RyDov debutant features. Scott Gowens may sound familiar to those who follow the Tour closely, he is the son of 2022 rookie of the year Paul Gowens, but he’s also the winner of the 2023 Anstruther Plate and is currently sitting 3rd in Q-School after a fantastic season. In fact, so good is his Q-School season he sits in 6th qualifying spot for the EuroDov Tour 2025 Carnegie Cup squad.

On paper Peck has 6-0 appearance advantage. It is worthwhile pointing out at this point that rookies have notoriously struggled in the RyDov Cup. Of the 31 rookies who have teed it up since 2016, 18 of them have walked away pointless in the singles format, leaving just a 42% success rate for rookies.

Looking at the positives here for Scott Gowens, he did have a good run at the #1 seed in the first round of the Matchplay and at the time of writing is sitting third in Q-School with a very high possibility of making the leap to the Order of Merit in 2025.

Also, despite Peck’s 6 appearances he has only managed a single point in his RyDov Cup career which isn’t exactly something to shout about.

Looking at all the variables in this match, Gowens will have a slim numerical advantage when it comes to the handicap, but the historical rookie struggles and Peck’s experience around Kinross are going to make it tough for anything but a Team Love win.

Team Love 3 – 1 Team Gowens.