The 1st Ryder Cup Matches were held at the

Worcester Country Club Worcester Country Club is a private country club and golf course in Worcester, Massachusetts. The course hosted the first Ryder Cup in 1927, and was the site of the 1925 U.S. Open, which was won by Willie Macfarlane. Worcester also hosted the 196 ...

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...

. The first competition was dominated by the United States who won by the then landslide score of 9–2 points. USA Captain

Walter Hagen Walter Charles Hagen (December 21, 1892 – October 6, 1969) was an American professional golfer and a major figure in golf in the first half of the 20th century. His tally of 11 professional majors is third behind Jack Nicklaus (18) and Tiger ...

became the first winning captain to lift the

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

Samuel Ryder Samuel Ryder (24 March 1858 – 2 January 1936) was an English businessman, entrepreneur, golf enthusiast, and golf promoter. He originated the idea of selling garden seeds in "penny packets" and built a very successful business on the concept. ...

, the competition's founder was unable to be present at

for the inaugural event due to ill health at the time. Ted Ray was the first captain to represent the Great Britain team.

Format

The

is a

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

event, with each match worth one point. From this inaugural event through 1959, the format consisted of 4 foursome (alternate shot) matches on the first day and 8 singles matches on the second day, for a total of 12 points. Therefore, 6 points were required to win the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 36 holes.

Teams

Source: A sub-committee of the Professional Golfers' Association was appointed to choose the Great Britain team for the first official Ryder Cup. This consisted of

Harry Vardon Henry William Vardon (9 May 1870 – 20 March 1937) was a professional golfer from Jersey. He was a member of the Great Triumvirate with John Henry Taylor and James Braid. Vardon won The Open Championship a record six times, and also won the ...

, J.H. Taylor and James Braid. In March 1927 an initial group of 9 players was selected to represent Great Britain. These consisted of the above 9 players but with

Abe Mitchell Henry Abraham Mitchell (18 January 1887 – 11 June 1947) was an English professional golfer. Mitchell had eight top-10 finishes out of 17 appearances in the Open Championship, his best performance being fourth in 1920. He was runner-up in the 1 ...

instead of Jolly. Later in March it was announced that

would be the captain of the team. However, in May, his health gave some concern. It was eventually decided that he was unfit to travel. Later he was operated on for appendicitis. Seven members of the team left on the

Aquitania Gallia Aquitania ( , ), also known as Aquitaine or Aquitaine Gaul, was a province of the Roman Empire. It lies in present-day southwest France, where it gives its name to the modern region of Aquitaine. It was bordered by the provinces of Gallia ...

on May 21, Boomer being picked up in Cherbourg. Ray was appointed the new captain."The British Team for America". ''The Times'', May 23, 1927; pg. 7; Issue 44588; col A. George Philpot, editor of the British ''Golf Illustrated'' magazine, was the team manager and travelled with the team. With the team a man short, the PGA Secretary Percy Perrins recruited Jolly who sailed on a later boat, the Majestic, and arrived in New York on May 31, four days after the rest of the team.

Friday's foursome matches

Saturday's singles matches

Individual player records

Each entry refers to the win–loss–half record of the player. Source:

United States

Al Espinosa Abel Ruben "Al" Espinosa (March 24, 1891 – January 4, 1957) was an American professional golfer. Biography Espinosa was born on March 24, 1891 in Monterey, California. He was of Mexican American descent, and served in the U.S. Army in W ...

did not play in any matches.

Great Britain

George Gadd Francis George Gadd (1890 – 25 September 1957) was an English professional golfer. He was on the 1927 Ryder Cup team but did not play in any matches. Gadd was Welsh Professional Champion in 1913, won the 1922 News of the World Match Play, ...

did not play in any matches.

References

External links

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Golf in Massachusetts History of Worcester, Massachusetts

Ryder Cup Sports competitions in Massachusetts Sports in Worcester, Massachusetts Tourist attractions in Worcester, Massachusetts