Blog

Good morning from Classic Swing Golf School in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. Here’s an interesting blog from Dan DeFreest.

Back in September we watched as Europe retained the Ryder Cup once again. Although billed as Europe vs. the United States, about half of the European team resides now in the US.

The Ryder Cup originally started as a formal match in 1921 between American and British professional golfers before the Open Championship. That match led to the formation of the Walker Cup, an amateur competition between the two countries. As amateur golf started to diminish in popularity compared to professional golf, the Ryder Cup was developed as a professional competition between the two countries. The first official Ryder Cup match took place in 1927 at Worcester Country Club in Worcester Massachusetts.

Since 1927, the Ryder Cup has been played every two years with the exception of 1939 – 1947 due to World War II.

In 1973, Ireland was added to the Great Britain team and then in 1979 the team was expanded to include all of Western Europe.

The Ryder Cup has seen sportsmanship highlights such as Jack Nicklaus conceding a 2 ft. putt to halve the competition in 1969, and a few lowlights such as when Paul Azinger and Seve Ballesteros engaged in a heated competition, contesting each other on the rules some twenty years later.

To date, the US has won 25 of the 40 competitions, although Europe has become dominant over the last 20 years. On the European side, Seve Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal have an 11 – 2 -2 record and Arnold Palmer and Gardner Dickenson are perfect at 5 – 0, and individually, the great Arnold Palmer has the highest winning percentage with nearly 72%.

If you would like to know more about the history of the game of golf, come see our pros at Classic Swing Golf School.