How the second attempt at a Britain-US golf match between the pros was “unofficial”,
Here’s a question, writes Ross Biddiscombe: Why did it take until 1927 for the first official international team golf competition to take place between British and American professionals? Golfing amateurs managed a proper contest five years earlier and other sports were much more advanced with this kind of event – the first international cricket match was in 1844; in football, it was 1872; and even tennis’s Davis Cup started in 1900. The answer to the question is complicated, but it helps to look deeper than into the sport of golf.
Firstly, the fact that the two PGAs on each side of the Atlantic were new, underfunded and fragile didn’t help: the British PGA formed only in 1900 and its American equivalent in 1916. Plus, the world turned more slowly 100 years ago and countries and cultures were struggling to find a new normality after World War I. And, despite the decade eventually becoming known as The Roaring Twenties, it did not roar for everyone or for very long; the 1920s would end in the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and then give the world The Great Depression.
Also, this was a time when amateur sportsmen and women were lauded by the general public, sometimes more than the pros. This was particularly true in America where Bobby Jones would become a national hero and fellow American amateurs Francis Ouimet and Chick Evans made huge headlines by winning pre-War US Opens. This fame took large amounts of financial support away from the pros. Evans, for example, was given thousands of dollars for golf instruction and then gave it all to charitable foundations to maintain his amateur status. Also, many gentlemen golfers – like Jones who was a successful lawyer – enjoyed their own financial resources; it was no surprise that the Walker Cup between US and British amateurs began as early as 1922.
Then there was the financial imbalance among pros. In America, there was more golf money sloshing around than in Britain because the fast-growing golf population of America – over 1 million US golfers were playing during this decade – boosted the sport in every which way. Tournament purses in the US were much larger. The 1920 PGA Championship boasted a $2,500 prize pot, while the Open Championship’s total purse in the same year was just £200 ($800); no wonder top British golfers emigrated across The Pond.
In Britain, money was scarce for pros; the game was much more elitist than in the US. The vast majority of professionals were simple club pros with an annual retainer, lesson income, and an occasional individual or pairs challenge match to pay their bills. There was some support from the golf industry, like club and ball manufacturers, or newspapers and golf magazines, but the best option for UK pros was a patron dedicated to helping them rather than the upper-class amateurs. The emergence of Samuel Ryder was a blessing.
In 1920, Ryder was aged 62, living in St Albans just north of London, and running a hugely successful mail order seed business. His love of golf had begun over a decade earlier when his doctor recommended the sport as an antidote to his heavy work schedule.
He became a fine player and served as captain of his local golf club, Verulam GC, and by 1923 he was a sponsor of golf tournaments, promoting his seed company Heath and Heather. He also engaged top pro Abe Mitchell for private lessons, giving him an annual salary plus expenses of £750. But all this was not enough for Ryder, especially when he heard something from another senior British player, Ernest Whitcombe. “The Americans come over here smartly dressed and backed by wealthy supporters, the Britisher has a poor chance compared to that,” said the West Country pro. So, Ryder’s thoughts turned to supporting a GB-US pro challenge match and he announced the idea to a newspaper in 1924. A match, albeit unofficial, took place at Wentworth in Surrey two years later.
The British PGA did the heavy lifting to set up the event by organising the venue and their team, while American involvement was player-led rather than driven by the PGA of America; captain Walter Hagen picked his own playing ‘compadres’. The Wentworth club was ideal because its West Course – designed by the renowned Harry Colt – was newly opened and club owners were in full-on sales mode advertising plots of land for houses on the estate. However, this ‘Walker Cup for the pros’ fell short of becoming an official match, just like the one five years earlier at Gleneagles.
Primarily, the reason was that the American team was not truly representative. Three players – Tommy Armour, Jim Barnes and Fred McLeod – were ex-pat Brits, not born in the US, and had not even become American citizens. A fourth member, Joe Kirkwood, was actually Australian. Hagen’s team choices were disrupted by the chaos of the General Strike of 1926 which caused four US players to withdraw. Also, Ryder had yet to provide his gold cup, something that would seal the deal for the following year.
The Wentworth event became a friendly, warm-up tournament for visiting golfers before the Open at Lytham St Annes in Lancashire a couple of weeks later. The US team took a beating, 13½ to 1½, but at Lytham five of the side finished in the top 10 (the amateur Bobby Jones won). American professional pride was restored on the Lancs coast, so a return match in the US could happen in 1927 and, crucially, be dubbed “official”. Golf’s most intense rivalry could truly begin.
Ross Biddiscombe is the author of Ryder Cup Revealed: Tales of the Unexpected & his weekly Ryder Cup posts are also on Substack; click here for the app https://substack.com/app and subscribe for FREE to receive extra Ryder Cup stories and other sporting journalism
- Next week: Ryder Cup 2025 Series Part 3 illustrates why Britain’s domination of golf was over by the end of the 1920s