The 19th Ryder Cup Matches were held September 16–18, 1971, in the United States at the Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri.

Source: [3] Six members of the Great Britain team were selected from a points list based on a player's best 10 performances in 15 events during the 1971 season, ending with the Benson & Hedges Festival of Golf on 21 August.

The leading six in the points table were: Neil Coles, Peter Oosterhuis, Brian Barnes, Harry Bannerman, Peter Butler and Maurice Bembridge.

The committee chose Brian Huggett, Peter Townsend and Bernard Gallacher who had finished 7th, 8th and 9th in the list, together with Tony Jacklin, Christy O'Connor Snr and John Garner.

Jacklin had played most of his golf in America, while O'Connor had missed much of the season with a wrist injury.