1959 Ryder Cup
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The 13th Ryder Cup Matches were held November 6–7, 1959 at the Eldorado Country Club in
Indian Wells, California Indian Wells is a city in Riverside County, California, Riverside County, California, in the Coachella Valley. Incorporated in 1967, it lies in between the cities of Palm Desert and La Quinta, California, La Quinta. As of the 2010 Census, the c ...
. The United States team won the competition by a score of 8 to 3 points. The British were again led by
Dai Rees David James Rees, (31 March 1913 – 15 November 1983) was one of the Britain's leading golfers either side of the Second World War. The winner of many prestigious tournaments in Britain, Europe and farther afield, Rees is best remembered as ...
, but were unable to repeat the heroics of two years earlier and were comprehensively beaten on American soil. The Americans took a 2–1 lead in the foursomes before finishing off the British challenge in the singles by winning five matches with two matches finishing all square to win the cup back. The British won just one foursome match with Christy O'Connor and
Peter Alliss Peter Alliss (28 February 1931 – 5 December 2020) was an English professional golfer, television presenter, commentator, author and golf course designer. Following the death of Henry Longhurst in 1978, he was regarded by many as the "Voice of g ...
beating
Art Wall Jr. Arthur Jonathan Wall Jr. (November 25, 1923 – October 31, 2001) was an American professional golfer, best known for winning the Masters Tournament in 1959 Masters Tournament, 1959. Early life Wall was born and raised in Honesdale, Pennsylvania ...
and
Doug Ford Douglas Robert Ford Jr. (born November 20, 1964) is a Canadian politician and businessman who has served as the 26th and current premier of Ontario since June 2018 and leader of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party since March 2018. He ...
by 3 & 2 and one singles match when Eric Brown beat
Cary Middlecoff Emmett Cary Middlecoff (January 6, 1921 – September 1, 1998) was an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour from 1947 to 1961. His 39 Tour wins place him tied for tenth all-time, and he won three major championships. Middlecoff graduated as ...
by 4 & 3 however by the time his match was won the United States had already won the competition.


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. Since the inaugural event in 1927, the format consisted of four foursome (alternate shot) matches on the first day and eight singles matches on the second day, for a total of 12 points. Therefore, 6 points were required to win the Cup, and all matches were played to a maximum of 36 holes. This was the last Ryder Cup played under this format.


Teams

Source: Seven members of the British team were chosen using a Ryder Cup points system based on performances during the 1959 season. The first event was the
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starting on 8 April with the final event being the
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finishing on 12 July. The seven qualifiers were Hunt, Rees, Weetman, Mills, Alliss, Drew and O'Connor. The remaining three, Bousfield, Brown and Thomas, were selected by the P.G.A. tournament committee in late September, after the
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. The British team sailed from Southampton on 15 October on the '' Queen Elizabeth''. Mills had a back injury while the team was in Washington and was to be replaced by
John Panton John Panton, MBE (9 October 1916 – 24 July 2009) was a Scottish professional golfer, who represented Great Britain three times in the Ryder Cup. Panton was born in Pitlochry. He turned professional in 1935 and took up a job in the local gol ...
. However, he recovered enough to attend the event, although he was not chosen to play any matches; Hunt was also not in full health, suffering from bronchial trouble. The British team had a rough trip on a short flight from
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to
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and nearly all the players were ill, with some taking several days to recover.


Friday's foursome matches

Two matches went to the last hole. Boros and Finsterwald were 1 up against Rees and Bousfield playing the last. The match ended when the British pair put their second shot in the water and took 4 to reach the green. Weetman and Thomas were 1 up against Snead and Middlecoff at the last. Snead put his second in the water but rather than playing short, Weetman also put his second in the water. Middlecoff then chipped to 8 feet and Snead holed the putt to win the hole and halve the match. Weetman received some criticism for his decision not to lay-up. 18 hole scores: Rosburg/Souchak: 6 up, Boros/Finsterwald: 1 up, O'Connor/Alliss: 2 up, Snead/Middlecoff: 1 up.


Saturday's singles matches

The Americans got off to a good start in many of the matches and had large leads in five of the matches at lunch. Eric Brown was the only British winner on the day. 18 hole scores: Ford: 1 up, Souchak: 4 up, Rosburg: 4 up, Snead: 4 up, Wall: 5 up, Finsterwald: 5 up, Alliss: 1 up, Brown: 3 up.


Individual player records

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


United States

Jack Burke Jr. did not play in any matches.


Great Britain

Peter Mills did not play in any matches.


References

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External links


PGA of America: 1959 Ryder Cup
{{coord, 33.711, -116.339, type:event, display=title Ryder Cup Golf in California
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...