When the British team disembarked from the ship "Aquitania" following a 6-day journey in 1927, its players headed for Worcester Country Club in Worcester, Mass., for the first official Ryder Cup.
The U.S., captained by Walter Hagen and featuring Gene Sarazen, Leo Diegel, "Wild" Bill Mehlhorn and Jim Turnesa, defeated the Brits, 9.5 to 2.5.
The two teams traded victories in the first four Ryder Cup competitions, the British winning the 1929 and 1933 competitions in England, and the U.S. taking the 1927 and 1931 events.
The 1929 matches at Moortown Golf Club in Leeds, England, were notable for an equipment issue: The R&A, the governing body of golf in Great Britain, would not approve steel-shafted clubs until 1930, so all matches had to be played with hickory-shafted clubs. Horton Smith, who would go on to win the first Masters, had never before played hickory clubs. That didn't stop him from winning his singles match, 4 and 2.
Hagen captained the first five American teams, not yielding the captaincy until Ben Hogan took the spot in 1937.
The 1933 matches marked perhaps the greatest matchup of captains. Hagen, of course, led the Americans, and J.H. Taylor, part of Britain's legendary "Great Triumvirate," guided the Brits. Taylor's team won, 6.5 to 5.5, in what would be the final victory for Great Britain for 24 years.
Following the 1933 win, Britain would not win again until 1957 - and the 1957 victory was Britain's only one from 1933 through 1985. That dominance by the Americans is easily understoon when one takes a look at some of the teams the U.S. was able to field in those years. Pick just about any year from that time period and you'll find American teams stocked with legends and major championship winners.
For example, 1951: Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Jimmy Demaret, Jack Burke Jr. and Lloyd Mangrum are on the U.S. team. Another, 1973: Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Billy Casper, Tom Weiskopf, Lou Graham and Homero Blancas lead the U.S. Those are just a couple teams we chose randomly. And the Americans didn't always have all their best players; Jack Nicklaus didn't play in a Ryder Cup match until 1969 because of a rule - no longer in effect - that a player must have completed five years on the PGA Tour to be eligible for the U.S. team.
The British and GB&I teams of this era might be led by a great player, such as Henry Cotton or Tony Jacklin, but the Brits simply didn't have the depth to compete on equal footing. Many of the scores reflect the American dominance: 11-1 in 1947, 23-9 in 1963, 23.5 to 8.5 in 1967.
When the U.S. won, 8-4, in 1937, it was the first time a team had won back-to-back Cups. The Ryder Cup wasn't played again until 1947 because of World War II, and it almost wasn't played again at all.
Next: Team Europe Emerges
