The Ryder Cup of investing: correlation, stability and the captain

Next weekend is without doubt one of my favourites as The Ryder Cup, golf’s most prestigious event, brings together a dozen of Europe’s and the United States’ finest.

The biennial competition showcases the best golfing talents on both sides of the Atlantic in a thrilling contest. Crucially, it’s not just about individual skills but also team play. Who can co-exist best to bring the trophy home.

There have been some truly great moments in the history of the competition including the Concession (1969); the war on the shore (1991); the Battle of Brookline (1999 – we don’t like that one as we think the US cheated!); and perhaps the most memorable of all (and my favourite) the Miracle of Medinah, when Europe staged a miraculous comeback to beat the US on their own patch in 2012. Here’s hoping for something similar in New York this year.

The key is whether the team can mould together to become a force greater than the sum of their parts. This is where golf and investing share something in common – the process of selecting the right team and captain is like building a stable portfolio with a strong leader, diversification and correlation of assets.

We thought we’d look at a few funds that have a history of delivering on the big stage.

The captain – Luke Donald (Artemis Income)

Luke Donald has the big job for Europe – and it is more than just picking the team! He is setting up teams, lineups, finding the right balance and – perhaps most importantly of all – making alterations based on what he sees.

The captain must deliver a bit of everything and be consistent. This reminds me of the Artemis Income fund. Managed by a team which includes the experienced investor Adrian Frost, it is a flexible, high-conviction portfolio of UK stocks, targeting a rising income and capital gain.

It invests in UK stalwarts to deliver outperformance to investors. Household names in the portfolio include Aviva, Barclays, Tesco, Lloyds and NatWest*. Over the past five years it has returned 92%** to investors and currently offers a yield of 3.4%*.

The right pair (asset correlation) – Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal (BNY Mellon Multi-Asset Balanced)

Like with like? Do opposites attract? Where do personalities fit in? There is no real secret sauce to a great pairing in the Ryder Cup (although some say players from the same country is a good start in Europe’s case); sometimes they just complement each other’s game (Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal played together 15 times). Thankfully in the investing world there is a bit more of a methodology behind it. You can match a growth fund with a value fund; or a large fund with a smaller fund; or bonds with equities.

The best way to really do this is with a multi-asset fund. A good example is the BNY Mellon Multi-Asset Balanced fund. This aims to strike a balance between income and capital growth over the long term. This is defined as being at least five years. The fund’s manager, Simon Nichols, has created a global multi-asset vehicle that uses themes to target the forces driving global change in markets. The fund remains focused on companies that have more resilient earnings profiles and attractive end-market outlooks. Over the past five years it has returned 55% to investors**.

The rock-solid player who always delivers – Sergio Garcia (Guinness Global Equity Income)

Sergio Garcia is Europe’s greatest ever in terms of Ryder Cup returns – with 28.5 points from 10 Ryder Cups (one point for a win and half for a draw). Sergio won 63.3% of the points he competed for and is Europe’s youngest performer in this competition. When it mattered, he almost always stepped up.

In a similar vein, the Guinness Global Equity Income fund is one of the few offerings that has delivered a positive return to investors in each of the past 10 years***. Managed by Matthew Page and Ian Mortimer, the Guinness portfolio typically consists of around 35 equally-weighted stocks, which the managers aim to hold for three to five years. They focus on how well, and how consistently, a company can use money to generate returns. The managers focus on first choosing the right companies – rather than filtering by dividend yield – as it gives them a greater chance of finding hidden gems in the market. They look for growing, rather than high, income and the equally-weighted portfolio also sets the fund apart from many of its peers.

The wildcard – Ian Poulter (WS Amati Strategic Metals)

Ian Poulter is widely regarded as one of the finest exponents of Ryder Cup match play golf. ‘Poults’ has been selected as a wildcard by three different Ryder Cup captains in 2004, 2008 and 2012 and was always reliable when it mattered.

The WS Amati Strategic Metals fund is an active, high-conviction portfolio which taps into unique investment opportunities, including the transition to a lower carbon world.

It is not for the faint hearted and struggled when US interest rates were stubbornly high and there were major fears of deflation and a general slowdown in China. But the long-term trends are incredibly strong so the key to this portfolio is patience. We have seen this already in the past 12 months as some headwinds have eased and the fund has returned an impressive 78.7%^ for those who were willing to wait.

*Source: fund factsheet, 31 July 2025

**Source: FE Analytics, total returns in pounds sterling, 4 September 2020 to 4 September 2025

***Source: FE Analytics, discrete calendar year, 2015-2025

^Source: FE Analytics, total returns in pounds sterling, 4 September 2024 to 4 September 2025