Why Ryder Cup is played between US and Europe? Exploring the history of the golf tournament

The Ryder Cup is considered the greatest tournament in men's golf. The initial tournament foundation was suggested by James D. Harnett, who worked for Golf Illustrated. On September 27, 1920, he wrote a letter to the PGA of America suggesting they send a team of 12 to 20 golfers to the 1921 Open Championship. The idea was to make any of the American golfers win the prestigious major tournament, which they had never won till then.

The American organization took the suggestion positively and announced a British Open Championship Fund. A team of 12 golfers sailed to Europe for a warm-up tournament at Gleneagles just two weeks prior to the prestigious major tournament at St. Andrews.

Later, an idea to organize a 12-man per side tournament was proposed and was reported in The Times on May 17. After multiple consequences, a tournament at Gleneagles was finally organized between the United States and Great Britain.

The Glasgow Herald Tournament was won by Great Britain in a competition that included five morning foursome matches and 10 afternoon singles matches, all played on the King's Course.

After the successful conclusion of the tournament, the American team traveled to St. Andrews for the 1921 Open Championship. Two of the players from the 12-man team, Walter Hagen and Jock Hutchison, played at the major tournament. It was the latter, Hutchison, who won the tournament and fulfilled the objective of playing the team event.

Later in 2021, a tournament between the American and British amateurs was organized at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, which was later called the Walker Cup.

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Journey to the first Ryder Cup

After Jock Hutchison's first victory at The Open Championship, the number of players from the USA increased.

In 1926, Walter Hagen was announced to select four American professional golfers, before The Open, to play four British golfers in a stroke-play event. Also, a golf enthusiast named Samuel Ryder was set to present the trophy for the event. The number of players per team increased to 8 later in May and the tournament was decided to become a match-play event.

The tournament was held at the Wentworth and was won by the British team by a margin of 13-1. The tournament was widely referred to as the "Ryder Cup" in popular media. However, there were multiple complications regarding the officiality of the match as the team was selected by Walker Hagen instead of the PGA of America.

In 1927, it was the first time the competition was organized in a formal manner. The Worcester Country Club was decided to be the venue of the first-ever Ryder Cup. After multiple meetings among the PGA organizations, the rules were finalized. While at that time, the PGA of America restricted their team selection to only American-born golfers.

In the Ryder Cup 1927, the United States team, which was led by Walter Hagen, defeated the Great Britain team led by Ted Ray by a margin of 9.5-2.5.

After multiple meetings, it was mutually agreed by the organization that the tournament could not be held annually. Therefore, the next edition was held in 1929 at Moortown Golf Club, Yorkshire.

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Exploring the results of Ryder Cup so far

Since 1927, there have been 43 editions of the prestigious Ryder Cup organized so far. The United States won the tournament 27 times and settled for two ties.

The Great Britain team played until 1971, then was renamed as the Great Britain & Ireland team as players from Ireland started to get an entry into the Ryder Cup matches.

Later on, the major change in the tournament was the inclusion of multiple continental European players. In 1979, the team was formally known as Team Europe.

The Great Britain/Great Britain & Ireland team won the three times, while the Team Europe won the Ryder Cup 11 times.