Ryder Cup History

The story of the Ryder Cup begins in the 1920s, when the rapid growth of the sport prompted calls for the introduction of an annual golf tournament pitting a team from Britain against a team from the United States.

James Harnett, a journalist working for the Golf Illustrated journal is thought to have first proposed the concept to the United States PGA. The idea didn’t garner much support at its first airing, and was instead embraced on the other side of the Atlantic when proposed by Inverness Club president SP Jermain.

The first match up of teams from the United Kingdom and America was an unofficial event that resulted in the Americans being trounced 9-3 by their British counterparts. Five years later another contest was organised, with a team from the United Kingdom winning by an even bigger margin, 13½-1½.

It was at the second of these contests that an official tournament between the two countries was proposed. The man willing to finance the idea was one Samuel Ryder, an English seed merchant from Hertfordshire.

The First Ryder Cup

The first official Ryder Cup took place in 1927 at the Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts. Samuel Ryder commissioned a trophy for the tournament and put up 5 pounds in prize money for each of the players on the winning team. The United States team engineered a remarkable turnaround in form in the first Ryder Cup, beating the British team 9½-2½.

Since the inaugural Ryder Cup was played in 1927, the tournament has been played biennially, with the hosting of the tournament alternating between the United States and Europe. The event was canceled only for the duration of the Second World War, before being resurrected in 1947.

Evolution of the Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup remained a two nations competition, featuring only British and American players, until 1973 when the top players from the Republic of Ireland were invited to join the British Ryder Cup team. The Irish and British played together in three Ryder Cups before players from continental Europe were made eligible for selection in the Ryder Cup team.

The assimilation of Europe’s best players into the Ryder Cup team sparked a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for the Europeans, who needed just one decade to end a prolonged period of American dominance of the tournament, and begin winning the Ryder Cup on a regular basis.