Why is the Ryder Cup called the Ryder Cup? Ryan YoungSeptember 23, 2025 at 7:53 AM 0 The Ryder Cup kicks off this week from Bethpage Black, where captain Keegan Bradley and the American team will attempt to win a third straight title on home soil.
- - Why is the Ryder Cup called the Ryder Cup?
Ryan YoungSeptember 23, 2025 at 7:53 AM
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The Ryder Cup kicks off this week from Bethpage Black, where captain Keegan Bradley and the American team will attempt to win a third straight title on home soil.
While there's no actual official money involved, the Ryder Cup trophy is one of the most prestigious in the sport.
But why? Unlike the other major championships and events throughout the golf world, this biennial event between the United States actually dates back nearly a full century simply to an old English businessman.
How the Ryder Cup got its name
If it weren't for Samuel Ryder, who didn't even play his first round of golf until just before his 50th birthday, this iconic tournament wouldn't have its name.
Ryder was a successful English businessman and seed merchant in the late 1800s who was introduced to golf later in life in an attempt to "slow his frenetic work pace." He grew up in the Manchester area before relocating with his family to St. Albans — a city just outside of London where he served as mayor and justice of the peace briefly.
He quickly fell in love with the sport and even served on the greens committee of his local golf club for two decades. While there were a series of unofficial matches between the best American golfers and the best golfers from the United Kingdom, Ryder — who was frequently footing the bill for British golfers and running tournaments to try and keep pace with their American counterparts — made a move in 1926. He held an event that was meant to be the first Ryder Cup at Wentworth Golf Club that year, but the American side had to fill their team with "replacement" players due to a strike that impacted travel into the country.
The following year counts as the first "official" Ryder Cup. The Americans won that first battle 9.5-2.5 at Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts, but the two sides alternated every other year through the 1935 event. Ryder remained the tournament's organizer and financial backer before he died in 1936. He was 77.
The American team, led by captain Walter Hagen, won the inaugural Ryder Cup back in 1927. (Getty Images) (Bettmann via Getty Images)The Ryder Cup's post-WWII resurgence
Like just about everything else, the Ryder Cup took a break during World War II. But the event nearly fell apart completely as the world started getting back to normal.
It was Robert Hudson, however, who saved it. Hudson, who was essentially Ryder's younger American counterpart, was a grocer and businessman from Portland, Oregon, who also loved golf despite reportedly not being very good at it himself. In 1947, he took on the entire bill to bring the British side over to the Portland Golf Club for the first Ryder Cup event in a decade. That included their boat trip to New York, a "lavish dinner party" at the Waldorf Astoria and their train trip across the country to Portland. The Americans rolled to an 11-1 win, but the event was saved.
"Some people put their money into yachts," Hudson once said, via Golfweek. "I put mine into golf."
The Ryder Cup, save for a few exceptions with an extra year break thrown in there, has been played every other year since then. It finally expanded to include all of Europe in time for the 1979 playing, a little more than a decade before the European Union was founded.
Luke Donald and Keegan Bradley sat with the Ryder Cup trophy on Monday at Bethpage Black. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) (Jared C. Tilton via Getty Images)What about the trophy?
While the original Ryder Cup trophy is kept with the Professional Golfers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland, a replica of the iconic golf trophy is handed out at the end of the Ryder Cup.
Ryder first commissioned the 17-inch tall gold trophy with a cup at the top back in 1926. He paid about £250 for it at the time, which is the equivalent of about $18,000 today. He first handed it out to the Americans after their win in Massachusetts in 1927.
While there is a man at the top of the trophy, and the event was named after Ryder, he isn't actually on the trophy. The figure is meant to depict Abe Mitchell, one of the better British golfers from the start of the event. Mitchell and Ryder were longtime friends, and Ryder even once hired Mitchell to become his golf instructor. Mitchell ended up playing in three Ryder Cups with the United Kingdom team, and finished with a record of 4-2-0.
Though it's smaller than of all the major championship trophies, the Ryder Cup may very well be the most important of them all.
Source: "AOL Sports"
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