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What if I expect more football-like than usual support at the Ryder Cup in Italy? As a football lover I hope so, we players would enjoy it. I think the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club is the most 'football-like' of the facilities where the Ryder has been played."
Jordan Spieth, statements
Thus the American golfer Jordan Spieth, member of the USA team and winner of three Major tournaments, during today's press conference.
The Ryder Cup is a golf trophy created in 1927, bequeathed by Samuel Ryder, which rewards every two years the winner of the tournament which has pitted Europe and the United States against each other since 1979. The competition is jointly administered by the PGA of America and the PGA European Tour and is played alternately on European and American courses.
This competition has its origins in an exhibition match which took place in 1926 between two professional teams, an American and a British, on the Wenworth Club course in the United Kingdom. The first real Ryder Cup was played in 1927 in the United States.
The first meetings between the two teams were very close. After the Second World War, the American team continually dominated the British team, so it was decided to integrate Irish players into Great Britain (1973), then golfers from across the European continent (1979).
This change was made possible by the emergence of a new generation of Spanish golfers, such as Severiano Ballesteros. Since then, Danish, French, German, Italian, Swedish, Belgian, Austrian and Norwegian players have come to defend the colors of the European team.
Opinions differ on who came up with the idea for the Ryder Cup. James Harnett, a journalist for Golf Illustrated magazine, appears to have first proposed the idea to the PGA of America on December 15, 1920, but was unsuccessful in finding sponsors.
The idea emerged the following year under the leadership of Sylvanus P. “SP” Jermain, president of the Inverness golf club. The first unofficial match took place in 1921, won 9–3 by the British, and another in 1926, won 13½ – 1½ again by Great Britain1.