The 7th Ryder Cup Matches were held November 1–2, 1947 at

Portland Golf Club The Portland Golf Club is a private golf club in the northwest United States, in suburban Portland, Oregon. It is located in the unincorporated Raleigh Hills area of eastern Washington County, southwest of downtown Portland and east of Beaver ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, marking a resumption of the competition after a full decade.

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

forced cancellations from 1939 to 1945; the last competition was in

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Fe ...

. The United States overwhelmed the British team, 11–1. An invitation to renew the Ryder Cup was sent by the American P.G.A. in November 1946. This was accepted by the British P.G.A. in December. However it was not until August 1947 that the dates and venue were agreed."Ryder Cup Match in November". ''The Times'', Wednesday, August 13, 1947; pg. 2; Issue 50838. The revival of the Ryder Cup in 1947 was initiated by Portland businessman Robert A. Hudson, who paid for the expenses of the teams and chaired the event. He even met the British team in New York, threw a lavish party at the Waldorf-Astoria, and accompanied them on the four-day rail journey across the U.S. to Portland. The course had hosted the stroke play Portland Open on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

in 1944 and 1945, won by

Sam Snead Samuel Jackson Snead (pronounced English_phonology">sni:d.html" ;"title="English_phonology.html" ;"title="nowiki/>English phonology">sni:d">English_phonology.html" ;"title="nowiki/>English phonology">sni:d May 27, 1912 – May 23, 2002) was an ...

and

Ben Hogan William Ben Hogan (August 13, 1912 – July 25, 1997) was an American professional golfer who is generally considered to be one of the greatest players in the history of the game. He is notable for his profound influence on golf swing theory and ...

, and the match play

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...

in August

1946 Events January * January 6 - The 1946 North Vietnamese parliamentary election, first general election ever in Vietnam is held. * January 7 – The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into f ...

, won by Hogan. The American team won all four matches on the opening day and continued to dominate by winning all but one singles match. The only British victory in the competition came when Sam King beat

Herman Keiser Herman W. Keiser (October 7, 1914 – December 24, 2003) was an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour, best known for winning the Masters Tournament in 1946, his only major title. Keiser was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri. Li ...

4 & 3. Played in the Pacific Northwest in November in wind and rain, soft course conditions prevailed as a week-long rain preceded the event. The next several matches in the U.S. were played in more southerly venues.

Format

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 ...

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 ...

event, with each match worth one point. From 1927 through

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

, 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: This was the first of only two Ryder Cups for Hogan as a player and the second and final appearance for

Byron Nelson John Byron Nelson Jr. (February 4, 1912 – September 26, 2006) was an American professional golfer between 1935 and 1946, widely considered one of the greatest golfers of all time. Nelson and two other legendary champions of the time, Ben Hog ...

, later the non-playing captain in

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...

. Hogan was to be a non-playing captain in

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

and

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

. In January 1947 the British P.G.A. appointed a selection committee of five. This committee included three ex-Ryder Cup players: Bill Davies, George Duncan and Charles Whitcombe. In early August they announced a list of 14 players from which the final 10 would be chosen. The winner of the

News of the World Match Play The British PGA Matchplay Championship was a match play golf tournament that began in 1903 and ran until 1979. Between 1903 and 1969, the event was sponsored by the now defunct British newspaper the ''News of the World'', and was commonly known b ...

would also be included in the list. In early September they announced the first seven members of the team: Cotton (captain), Daly, Rees, King, Adams, Ward and Horne. They also added two new names to the list of possible players (Arthur Lees and Laurie Ayton, Jnr), leaving nine or ten players competing for the remaining three places. Later in September two more players were selected: Green and Lees, to which would be added the winner of the Match Play Championship or Max Faulkner if the winner of that tournament should already be in the team or ineligible. The final place fell to Faulkner on September 26 when three of the semi-finalists in the Match Play Championship were already in the team and the fourth (

Flory Van Donck Flory Van Donck (23 June 1912 – 14 January 1992) was a Belgian professional golfer. Van Donck is widely regarded as the greatest ever Belgian golfer. During his career, he won more than fifty tournaments worldwide, including many of the mo ...

, a Belgian) was ineligible. The British team was accompanied by Commander R.C.T. Roe, Secretary of the British P.G.A., who acted as manager of the team. They left from

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

for

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

on the Queen Mary on October 18.

Saturday's foursome matches

18 hole scores: Oliver/Worsham: 6 up, Snead/Mangrum: 6 up, Adams/Faulkner: 2 up, Rees/King: 1 up."The Ryder Cup". ''The Times'', Monday, November 3, 1947; pg. 2; Issue 50908.

Sunday's singles matches

Individual player records

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

United States

Great Britain

Eric Green and

Reg Horne Reginald William Horne (19 July 1908 – 5 January 1984) was an English professional golfer whose most notable success came in winning the News of the World Match Play shortly after World War II had ended in 1945. Horne won other important e ...

did not play in any matches.

References

* *

External links

PGA of America: 1947 Ryder Cup
{{coord, 45.477, -122.763, type:event, display=title Ryder Cup Golf in Oregon Sports competitions in Oregon

1947 in Portland, Oregon