Golf? For Samuel Ryder – founding father of the Ryder Cup – his faith was more vital

Here’s a shock for most of the world’s top golfers, and golfing fans gathering in Farmingdale, New York for the forty fifth Ryder Cup. 

Samuel Ryder, the British businessman who founded the competition in 1927, was not that obsessed with golf! His Christian faith was much more vital.

A letter, written by a relative and published within the Herts Advertiser newspaper in 2023, explains, “Samuel enjoyed golf and the corporate of the clubhouse. But his meaning in life centred on Trinity Church, St Albans, his position as Magistrate, and his great interest in his company, Heath & Heather and the welfare of his workforce. This was much more vital to him.”

Millions of golf fans will watch the world-famous competition now played between teams from the United States and Europe from September 26 to twenty-eight at Bethpage Black Course, unaware that the concept began with a middle-aged Hertfordshire seed merchant simply wanting to enhance his fitness.

Samuel Ryder, who gave his name to the event, is buried in Hatfield Road cemetery just across from the church in St Albans, north of London, where I minister. He died in 1936, aged 77.

Ryder’s unassuming grave is tucked away amongst many others but can often be spotted by the golf balls left there by players paying their respects. 

The inscription reads: “His body to the nice country’s earth and his pure soul unto his captain Christ under whose colors he had fought so long.”

Samuel Ryder – a successful businessman who invented the concept of the ‘penny packet’ to sell seeds in small quantities – began playing golf in his fifties, following advice from a church friend and preacher, to hunt fresh air and exercise. He took every day lessons – except on Sundays – and quickly became a reliable player. He joined the local golf club and was elected team captain. 

Keen to advertise golf and the status of its skilled players, Ryder proposed a challenge

match between the United States and Great Britain & Ireland and commissioned the competition’s trophy. 

The first match was played in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1927 – won by the US team – and the second in Leeds, England, won by the British golfers. Samuel Ryder lived to see two competitions played on home soil, before dying in January 1936.

Ryder’s funeral was a significant civic occasion in St Albans – the primary to be held in an independent church, slightly than in the town’s Anglican Cathedral. His daughter, Marjorie, sent her father’s favourite five iron club to be placed in his coffin.

Samuel Ryder was brought up as a Wesleyan Methodist and attended the Independent Chapel in St Albans. He was one in every of its elders, with special responsibility for religious education. At one point, he was supervising 18 teachers. When the congregation outgrew the chapel within the late nineteenth century, Ryder financially supported the constructing of a latest larger church, Trinity Church, in the town. 

Ryder is remembered as a person “at all times aware of his philanthropic and civic duties.” He had witnessed great poverty in his native Lancashire and desired to help those less fortunate than himself. He was involved in local politics and was elected Mayor of St Albans in 1905.

Ryder is fondly remembered in St Albans with a college and a hotel named after him, and a few proposals for a statue. Although the town’s tour guides have researched his history and organise talks and walks celebrating his life, it’s Ryder’s reference to the high-profile golf tournament that continues to be his lasting legacy. 

Today, the competition’s organisers describe the tournament in graphic terms: “Drama, tension, incredible golf, camaraderie and sportsmanship are served in equal measure, charming an audience of hundreds of thousands around the globe. It’s an event that transcends sport, yet stays true to the spirit of its founder, Samuel Ryder.” 

Ryder, they declare, “is accountable for creating one of the exhilarating and fiercely competitive sporting events on the earth.” 

Rev Peter Crumpler is a Church of England minister in St Albans, Herts, UK, and a former communications director with the CofE.