1957 Ryder Cup

The 12th Ryder Cup Matches were held 4–5 October 1957 at Lindrick Golf Club near Worksop, England. The Great Britain team, led by captain Dai Rees, beat the United States team by a score of 7½ to 4½ points, and won the Ryder Cup for the first time since 1933.[1][2]

12th Ryder Cup Matches
Dates4–5 October 1957
VenueLindrick Golf Club
LocationWorksop, England
Captains
  • Dai Rees (Great Britain)
  • Jack Burke, Jr. (USA)
7½ 4½
Great Britain wins the Ryder Cup
Lindrick
Golf Club
Location in England

On the first day of competition was the Americans dominated the foursomes, winning three of the four matches. Dick Mayer and Tommy Bolt's 7 & 5 win over Britain's Christy O'Connor and Eric Brown was the largest margin of victory on day one.

The British rallied on the second day of competition, starting with the first two singles matches. Brown recorded a 4 & 3 victory over Bolt, and Peter Mills defeated U.S. captain Jack Burke, Jr. to draw Britain level at 3 to 3. The Americans responded when Fred Hawkins won his match against Peter Alliss, however Britain won the next four matches. Great Britain won the Ryder Cup when O'Connor defeated Dow Finsterwald, giving the British team 7 points. Harry Bradshaw and Mayer halved the final singles match to bring the final score to 7½ to 4½, with Britain gaining 6½ points in the eight singles matches.[2]

Format

The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. From 1927 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, 6½ points were required to win the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 36 holes.

Sir Stuart Goodwin

The event was financially supported by Sir Stuart Goodwin, a Yorkshire steel industrialist. He had sponsored a foursomes tournament, the Goodwin (Sheffield) Foursomes Tournament, in 1952, 1953 and 1954 with prize money of £3,000 and another in 1956, the Stuart C. Goodwin Tournament, with prize money of £5,250.[3][4] The £5,250 was the largest ever for a British golf event surpassing the £3,750 at the 1956 Open. All the tournaments were held in the Sheffield area, the 1953 event being held at Lindrick.

He offered the P.G.A. £10,000 to host the match at Lindrick, the gate money going to the P.G.A. who were responsible for all payments in connection with the match.[5] With gate receipts of £16,127 the £10,000 donation enabled the P.G.A. to make a record profit of about £11,000 out of the event.[6]

He later made a gift of £5,000 to the R&A to help promote the Walker Cup and games with Commonwealth countries.[7]

In 1959 Goodwin sponsored the Sherwood Forest Foursomes Tournament, which had prize money of £2,100.[8]

Goodwin was President of Lindrick Golf Club from 1958 to 1960. In 1960 Lindrick hosted the Curtis Cup. Goodwin gave the Ladies' Golf Union a gift of £2,000 to help stage the event and also guaranteed the LGU and Lindrick Golf Club against financial loss. Goodwin was a vice-president of the LGU.[9]

Teams

Source: [10]

A new system of selection was used for the Great Britain team. A points system based on performances over a two-year period ending after the 1957 Open Championship was used. Winners of the 1957 Open Championship and the 1957 News of the World Match Play were guaranteed places provided they were British. The remaining places to complete the team of 10 were selected from the points list.[11] Following the 1957 Open, nine places were finalised, the leading nine in the point list: Brown, Weetman, Bradshaw, Bousfield, Alliss, Rees, Faulkner, O'Connor and Hunt. Mills was 10th in the list.[12] Rees was again chosen as the captain.[13] With O'Connor winning the News of the World Match Play, Mills became the last member of the team.

The 1957 Amateurs–Professionals Match was played at Lindrick in early August. It was intended that the match would be between the Ryder Cup and Walker Cup teams, to give both teams some competitive experience and for the Ryder Cup team to gain experience of the Lindrick course. In the event, two of the Ryder Cup team, Christy O'Connor Snr and Harry Weetman were ill and replaced by Eric Lester and local professional, 49-year-old Jack Jacobs.[14]

 Team Great Britain
Name Age Previous
Ryder Cups		 Matches W–L–H Winning
percentage
Dai Rees – captain 446102–7–125.00
Peter Alliss 26120–2–00.00
Ken Bousfield 38321–1–050.00
Harry Bradshaw 43242–2–050.00
Eric Brown 32242–2–050.00
Max Faulkner 41471–6–014.29
Bernard Hunt 27120–1–125.00
Peter Mills 260Rookie
Christy O'Connor Snr 32110–1–00.00
Harry Weetman 36351–4–020.00


 Team USA
Name Age Previous
Ryder Cups		 Matches W–L–H Winning
percentage
Jack Burke, Jr. – captain 34366–0–0100.00
Tommy Bolt 41122–0–0100.00
Dow Finsterwald 280Rookie
Doug Ford 35122–0–0100.00
Ed Furgol 400Rookie
Fred Hawkins 340Rookie
Lionel Hebert 290Rookie
Ted Kroll 38232–1–066.67
Dick Mayer 330Rookie
Art Wall 330Rookie

Friday's foursome matches
Results
Alliss/Hunt 2 & 1 Ford/Finsterwald
Bousfield/Rees 3 & 2 Wall/Hawkins
Faulkner/Weetman 4 & 3 Kroll/Burke
O'Connor/Brown 7 & 5 Mayer/Bolt
1 Session 3
1 Overall 3

18 hole scores: Ford/Finsterwald: 1 up, Bousfield/Rees v Wall/Hawkins: all square, Kroll/Burke: 1 up, Mayer/Bolt: 3 up.[16]

Saturday's singles matches
Results
Eric Brown 4 & 3 Tommy Bolt
Peter Mills 5 & 3 Jack Burke, Jr.
Peter Alliss 2 & 1 Fred Hawkins
Ken Bousfield 4 & 3 Lionel Hebert
Dai Rees 7 & 6 Ed Furgol
Bernard Hunt 6 & 5 Doug Ford
Christy O'Connor 7 & 6 Dow Finsterwald
Harry Bradshaw halved Dick Mayer
6½ Session 1½
7½ Overall 4½

18 hole scores: Brown: 4 up, Mills: 5 up, Hawkins: 1 up, Bousfield: 5 up, Rees: 4 up, Hunt: 1 up, O'Connor/Finsterwald: all square, Mayer: 1 up.[17]

Weetman suspension

At a meeting on 21 October, Harry Weetman was suspended by the executive committee of the P.G.A. for twelve months. This was following his actions after being left out of the second day singles matches. Weetman had declared that he would never play in any Ryder Cup again if Rees were the captain. Weetman was unable to play in P.G.A. events.[18] The decision was upheld at the annual meeting of the P.G.A. in November.[19] Following an appeal from Rees the P.G.A. lifted the suspension on 17 April 1958.[20]

Individual player records

Each entry refers to the Win–Loss–Half record of the player.

Source: [10]

Great Britain
PlayerPointsOverallSinglesFoursomes
Peter Alliss00–2–00–1–00–1–0
Ken Bousfield22–0–01–0–01–0–0
Harry Bradshaw0.50–0–10–0–10–0–0
Eric Brown11–1–01–0–00–1–0
Max Faulkner00–1–00–0–00–1–0
Bernard Hunt11–1–01–0–00–1–0
Peter Mills11–0–01–0–00–0–0
Christy O'Connor11–1–01–0–00–1–0
Dai Rees22–0–01–0–01–0–0
Harry Weetman00–1–00–0–00–1–0

United States
PlayerPointsOverallSinglesFoursomes
Tommy Bolt11–1–00–1–01–0–0
Jack Burke, Jr.11–1–00–1–01–0–0
Dow Finsterwald11–1–00–1–01–0–0
Doug Ford11–1–00–1–01–0–0
Ed Furgol00–1–00–1–00–0–0
Fred Hawkins11–1–01–0–00–1–0
Lionel Hebert00–1–00–1–00–0–0
Ted Kroll11–0–00–0–01–0–0
Dick Mayer1.51–0–10–0–11–0–0
Art Wall00–1–00–0–00–1–0
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References
  1. "British golfers stun Americans; win Ryder Cup". Spokesman-Review. Associated Press. 6 October 1957. p. 2-sports.
  2. Longhurst, Henry (21 October 1957). "Britannia rules". Sports Illustrated. p. 49.
  3. "Golf". The Times. 27 November 1951. p. 8.
  4. "New professional tournament - British record prize fund". The Times. 5 October 1955. p. 13.
  5. "Ryder Cup match of Yorkshire course - £10,000 offer accepted". The Times. 7 March 1956. p. 16.
  6. "£11,000 Ryder Cup profit - Extra prize money". The Times. 4 December 1957. p. 16.
  7. "Royal & Ancient given £5,000 - Walker Cup backing". The Times. 8 October 1957. p. 14.
  8. "New tournament". The Times. 27 August 1958. p. 3.
  9. "Curtis Cup match gift". The Times. 25 February 1960. p. 16.
  10. "2016 Ryder Cup Media Guide" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2015. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
  11. "Helping the golf spectator - Innovations by the P.G.A.". The Times. 21 December 1955. p. 3.
  12. "Ryder Cup team - Nine places now filled". The Glasgow Herald. 6 July 1957. p. 5.
  13. "Sport in brief - Golf". The Times. 17 July 1957. p. 3.
  14. "Amateurs and Professionals at Lindrick – O'Connor and Weetman absent". The Glasgow Herald. 2 August 1957. p. 6.
  15. "Absence on Ryder team irks Snead". Milwaukee Sentinel. Associated Press. 30 September 1957. p. 5, part 2.
  16. "United States two up in Ryder match - Rees and Bousfield Britain's only foursomes winners - Weetman and Faulkner disappoint: left out of singles". The Times. 5 October 1957. p. 10.
  17. "Ryder Cup retained after 24 years - Rees's team magnificent in the singles - Astounding U.S. collapse". The Times. 7 October 1957. p. 12.
  18. "P.G.A. suspend Weetman - Action over Ryder Cup conduct". The Times. 22 October 1957. p. 15.
  19. "P.G.A. decision upheld - No reprieve for Weetman". The Times. 21 November 1957. p. 16.
  20. "P.G.A. lifts Weetman's suspension - Recommendation by Rees". The Times. 30 April 1958. p. 5.

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