1933 Ryder Cup – Oh How Golf Has Changed

Born circa. 535 BC, the Greek Philosopher Heraclitus was known as ‘The Obscure’ due to his Cryptic pronouncements and his penchant for wordplay. He was the preeminent advocate of universal flux which was captured in his famous aphorisms:

‘everything flows and nothing stays’ & ‘no man steps into the same river twice’

His wisdom from over 2,500 years ago still resonates to this day as:

‘The only constant in life is change’

This article in our series ‘From the Nineteenth’ recalls the 1933 Ryder Cup between Great Britain and the United States which, in my humble opinion, perfectly illustrates Heractiles’ philosophy on change.

I have consciously refrained from using double exclamation marks and from using terms such as ‘compared with‘ and ‘unlike today‘ and simply just chronicled the events up to and including the Match.

Hope you enjoy.

Venue Selection

In 1929, Great Britain staged the 2nd Ryder Cup at Moortown Golf Club. In preparation for the match, the United States team practised at nearby Alwoodley Golf Club. The players were extremely impressed by the course, resulting in the American PGA asking Jack Gaudin, who was the Professional at Alwoodley from 1912 to 1946, to consider hosting the Ryder Cup in 1933. This suggestion was discussed at the next Alwoodley Golf Club committee meeting but was declined due to ‘a lack of accommodation in the clubhouse’.

The British PGA was actually responsible for selecting the venue for the 4th Ryder Cup. In November 1932 the hopes of St Andrews and Carnoustie were dashed when it was announced that the match would be played on a Southport course with dates to be confirmed. The seaside town of Southport was viewed as having a very enthusiastic golfing public which would (hopefully) guarantee the success of the 1933 contest.

Southport and Ainsdale

The choice of Southport was no great surprise, as since 1930 this town had been the location for the leading British professional tournament of the day, namely the Dunlop-Southport Tournament (also known as the 1500 guineas tourney), which was rotated around several Southport courses and was enthusiastically organised and financially supported by the Southport Borough Council.

Through this event, they gained much experience on what would be required to stage a major tournament such as the Ryder Cup and how to cater for the anticipated thousands of visiting spectators.

Four Southport courses were under consideration…Birkdale, Hesketh, Hillside & Southport and Ainsdale. In December 1932, the British PGA announced that the following years Ryder Cup would be played at Southport and Ainsdale.

The selection of Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club was due to the quality of the links course, the dunes provided natural vantage points, the frequency of the electric trains to Ainsdale Station (about 1/4 mile from the course) and the regular bus service dropping passengers off at the entrance.

Many holes were lengthened so that the course eventually measured just under 7000 yards, but without altering the overall character of the individual holes that were changed.

Date

The Dunlop-Southport tournament was scheduled to start on 8th May 1933 with The Open Championship at St Andrews scheduled to start on 22nd May 1933. The Ryder Cup was therefore expected to be played during the intervening week.

Hopefully, somebody can advise on why but The Open Championship was moved to start on 5th July. Thus, in December 1932 it was announced that the 4th Ryder Cup was to be played on the 26th and 27th June…this also allowed the United States Ryder Cup players to remain in the United Kingdom to participate in The Open.

Format

There had been murmurings that this renewal of the biennial contest would be reduced to 4 players per side, but that was rejected and it was agreed that each side would be represented by 8 players (though more on this later).

The matchplay format was unchanged from the previous three Ryder Cups, namely:

• Day 1 – 4 Foursomes Matches to be played over 36 holes (18 in the morning, 18 in the afternoon).
• Day 2 – 8 Singles Matches to be played over 36 holes (18 in the morning, 18 in the afternoon).

Great Depression

In the Autumn of 1929, the crash of the London Stock Exchange, quickly followed by the Wall Street Crash in New York, signalled the start of the Great Depression, triggering an alarming decline of the global economy from which several countries struggled to recover for many years…and the world of professional golf was not immune.

Despite several re-assurances from the secretary of the American PGA that the Ryder Cup would definitely go ahead and that all of the funding and first-class travel arrangements were in place, including $10,000 to cover the players’ expenses, it came as no surprise when in December 1932 speculation was rife in the newspapers that club professionals in the United States would be attempting to sell 500,000 surplus golf balls, with 50% of the gross profits to be allocated to the American PGA for the Ryder Cup.

Selection Process – Great Britain Team

A few years earlier, Great Britain had followed the approach adopted by the United States in that professionals must be native-born and resident in the country to be considered for selection. As a consequence, Henry Cotton, a golfing great, was overlooked as he had moved to work at the Waterloo Golf Club, near Brussels, Belgium.

In early February 1933, the British PGA formed a six-man committee to select the Great Britain Ryder Cup team. Later that month they nominated 22 players from which the team of 8 would eventually be selected, though they stated that:

‘at their discretion players would be added if deemed desirable to do so’

Three weeks before the match a team that blended youth and experience was announced:

• Percy Alliss
• Allan Dailey
• Bill Davies
• Arthur Lacey
• Abe Mitchell
• Alfred Padgham
• Alfred Perry
• Charles Whitcombe
• Syd Easterbrook (Reserve)
• Arthur Havers (Reserve)
• John Henry ‘J.H.’ Taylor (Non-Playing Captain)

There were several notable ommissions, in particular, George Duncan (the 1920 Open Champion), Archie Compston (possibly the best match-play golfer of his generation) and Ernest Whitcombe (runner up to Walter Hagen at the 1924 Open Championship).

This was the first Ryder Cup where one of the captains would not play in the match…much more about the non-playing captain and the reserves as this article unfolds.

Selection Process – United States Team

Prior to 1933, the United States Ryder Cup team had been selected by various methods…by the captain, by committees and by playoff elimination matches. For the 1933 Ryder Cup, each of the 25 American PGA districts was canvassed to nominate their twelve candidates. Their nominations were combined with the nominations from each member of the 9 man PGA Executive committee so that the players receiving the most votes (possible maximum of 34) were selected…effectively picking the team by consensus.

Late February 1933, four months before the Ryder Cup was to be played, the nominations were counted and the team was announced as follows:

• Leo Diegel
• Ed Dudley
• Olin Dutra
• Walter Hagen (Playing Captain)
• Paul Runyan
• Gene Sarazen
• Densmore Shute
• Horton Smith
• Craig Wood
• Winner of the 1933 US Open (if native-born and not already selected)

Thus 9, possibly 10 players would represent the United States against a Great Britain Team comprising 8 players and 2 reserves…as I stated in the introduction I have refrained from using double exclamation marks in this article but it was incredibly hard not to at this point.

The opinion of commentators in Great Britain when the United States team was announced was that:

“It is strong but not invincible”

My favourite quote in reaction to the names of the United States team being released was from none other than J.H.Taylor, before his appointment as non-playing captain when he said (and I paraphrase):

“Densmore Shute’s father was a friend of mine at Westward Ho before he emigrated to America so I shall be very interested in how Densmore plays…after all he is half-Devonian”

(By the end of their respective playing careers, 8 members of the United States team had won at least two major championships and only Ed Dudley failed to win a major)

Dissonance

Pandora’s box was certainly opened when the United States Ryder Cup team was announced.

Gene Sarazen, who was the reigning US and British Open champion, openly criticised the American PGA, claiming they had made a big mistake by not selecting Billy Burke, who was US Open Champion in 1931 and who won both of his matches as a rookie at the 1931 Ryder Cup. Sarazen also said he would take a $100 cut in his expenses if the other selected players followed suit to make a place for Burke and to cover his expenses.

Two days later…according to the Associated Press, Billy Burke himself said he didn’t think he should have been left out of the team and that if (Ryder Cup) records count for anything then the United States team had been poorly picked.

Only a further three days elapsed before the American PGA was embarrassingly left with no option but to publicly disclose the vote…Hagen, Sarazen, Dutra and Shute all received the maximum 34 votes whilst Billy Burke was joint 10th with 18 votes. On the same day, three-time major winner Tommy Armour thought that Billy Burke’s exclusion was one of the outstanding disgraces of golf…he then proposed that no American should be permitted to play in more than two Ryder Cup matches.

Final Selection

The 1933 US Open was played at North Shore Country Club, Glenview, Illinois and was won by American amateur Johnny Goodman. He was the only player to finish under par and hitherto the last amateur to win the US Open…as an amateur he was ineligible to be selected for the Ryder Cup so the criteria for the 10th and final berth on the United States Ryder Cup team was not met.

Billy Burke finished T33…but the American PGA executive and tournament committees decided that he should, after all, be awarded a place on the team…which he accepted.

More on Billy Burke later…

The Captains

Walter Hagen was one of the greatest golfers of all time. His tally of eleven (professional) major championships has hitherto only been bettered by Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. He was the playing captain in first three Ryder Cups (1927, 29 & 31). In 1933 it had been widely expected that Gene Sarazen rather than Walter Hagen would be the appointed as the playing captain, due to his victories the previous year in the US Open and The Open. Hagen would also be the playing captain in 1935 and the non-playing captain in 1937.

John Henry ‘J.H.’ Taylor is rightly recognised as one of the pioneers of modern-day golf. He won The Open on 5 occasions, all before WW1. He still holds the distinction of being the only Ryder Cup captain (GB, Europe or the United States) to have never played in any Ryder Cup matches. He was a surprise choice as it was expected that George Duncan would be the non-playing captain when he did not make the team as a player (Duncan had been the victorious playing captain when the Ryder Cup had first been played in Great Britain in 1929 at Moortown).

Setting Sail

The 1933 US Open championship finished on 10th June and the team was finalised with the selection of Billy Burke. Before setting sail from New York at midnight on 14th June on the RMS Aquitania, a British ocean liner of the Cunard Line, the United States Ryder Cup team:

• played a match on 13th June at the Metropolis Country Club, White Plains where Paul Runyan was the Professional against a team of metropolitan amateurs to raise funds for the unemployment benevolent fund of the American PGA…the Metropolis Club also donated $500 to the fund as well as proceeds from paying spectators. For the record, the Ryder Cup team won by 4 matches to 1.
• attended a gala dinner on 14th June which was held at the Hotel Roosevelt to honour the team before they left to board RMS Aquitania. For the journey, Horton Smith was appointed as the Secretary/Treasurer and each player received £200 cash for the journey.

A week later (on 21st June), the RMS Aquitania docked at Southampton. The players then travelled by train to London Waterloo Station where they were greeted by an enormous crowd. Upon accepting the formal welcome, captain Walter Hagen said:

“I think we are in for the biggest fight of our career against your youngsters”

So large was the crowd that the police had to hastily erect barriers to allow the players to make a quick getaway.

Preparation – United States Team

Within an hour of leaving Waterloo Station, the United States team were practising at Addington Golf Club, located just outside London.

The following day (22nd June), at Trent Park (the home of Sir Phillip Sassoon), Walter Hagen and other members of the team played golf with the Prince of Wales (who became King Edward VIII but abdicated due to his relationship with divorcee Wallis Simpson) and Prince George (who became King George VI following the abdication of his brother). The team spent most of the day practising at these private links.

On 23rd June (only 3 days before the start of the 4th Ryder Cup), Gene Sarazen travelled to Exeter where he lost 5&4 against Archie Compston in the first of a series of five 36 hole exhibition matches (I don’t know when the other four matches were played but possibly before and after The Open Championship). The rest of the team commenced practice at Southport and Ainsdale.

Preparation – Great Britain Team

Brigadier-General Alfred Cecil Critchley, in addition to being a military commander, politician and entrepreneur, was a leading amateur golfer and he devised a plan to improve the chances of the Great Britain team to defeat their American counterparts…he thought the only way they could win was for the professional golfers who were in contention for a place in the team to devote much more time to play competitive golf during the winter months. As he said:

“We have many beautiful days during the winter when courses are relatively quiet and potentially at our disposal”

So he arranged a series of matches in an attempt to offset the potential advantage of the United States team whose players played in tournaments throughout the winter months in America.

On 10th June, the Great Britain team, apart from Bill Davies, played in a 36-hole strokeplay competition to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Richmond public golf course.

On 20th June, the Great Britain team commenced practising at Southport and Ainsdale, with the first two days dedicated to playing the most difficult holes, in particular, practising every possible shot into the greens…the remainder of the week matches were played in the mornings and afternoons, all under competitive conditions.

One of the reasons why J.H.Taylor was appointed as non-playing captain was his stern schoolmaster disciplinarian approach with a remit of improving the professionalism of the team to match the high professional standards of the Americans…thus in addition to the focused practice sessions as outlined above, all of the players were out running and working out on the beach at Southport long before breakfast and ‘early nights’ were imposed.

Order of Play – Foursomes

The captains had arranged to meet on the evening of Friday 23rd June to agree on the order of play for the Foursomes matches on Monday 26th June. However, Walter Hagen informed J.H.Taylor that he had not had the opportunity to see all of his players in action on the Southport and Ainsdale course and to evaluate their form and thus he would be unable to name his pairings for the Foursomes.

After a lengthy discussion of the situation with Hagen, Taylor agreed to postpone announcing the order of play by 24 hours. Taylor had his pairings on a piece of paper in his pocket but he had no issue with the reasons provided by Hagen requesting a delay. The following evening the pairings for the Foursomes were finally published:

1. Alliss/Whitcombe vs. Sarazen/Hagen
2. Mitchell/Havers vs. Dutra/Shute
3. Davies/Easterbrook vs. Wood/Runyan
4. Padgham/Perry vs. Dudley/Burke

Interestingly…Great Britain reserves Easterbrook and Havers were selected to play in the Foursomes as was Billy Burke for the United States.

Carnival of Sport

On the eve of the Ryder Cup, several Sunday Newspapers were unable to curb their enthusiasm about the ‘carnival of sport’ during the forthcoming week in Britain which would ‘bring much excitement to the general public’.

In addition to the Cricket Test Match and the Greyhound Derby which were already underway, there was also the start of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships and the Ryder Cup Golf Match…as well as Boxing, Speedway and Horse Racing.

Day 1 – Foursomes

An abridged summary of the first days’ foursomes matches:

Match 1

In the morning 18 holes, Alliss and Whitcombe outplayed the star pairing of Sarazen and Hagen in the top match to lead 3up. Despite improved play in the afternoon from Sarazen and Hagen, they went 4 down at the 26th…but several putting lapses from the British team allowed the Americans to fight back so that the match was A/S with 2 holes to play. Displaying great resilience, Alliss and Whitcombe won the 35th to be dormie 1 but on the final hole Alliss missed a putt from about 18 inches and the match was halved.

Match 2

The Great Britain pairing of Mitchell and Havers played very steady foursomes matchplay golf to be 4up at lunch. In the afternoon Mitchell and Havers remained in control of the match and their healthy lead was never really threatened by Dutra and Shute, eventually winning the match 3&2…though one shot was of particular interest…on the 25th Mitchell laid Dutra a stymie to win the hole.

Match 3

This match was by far the closest during the morning exchanges…very much ‘nip and tuck’ to be A/S after 18. Davies and Easterbrook started the afternoon in superb fashion with a birdie 2 at the 19th to go 1up, but their lead was short-lived when Wood and Runyan won the 20th. But the British pair quickly went 2up after 24 and although the Americans halved the deficit at the 27th, Davies and Easterbrook were not to be denied, eventually winning the match 1up.

Match 4

In the final match, the United States team of Dudley and Burke were 1up after 6 but then Padgham and Perry took control to be 4up with 18 holes to play. However, after lunch, their lead quickly dissipated so that the match was back to A/S by the 23rd. The best match of the day continued to ebb and flow with the British team holding a hole advantage with 3 holes to play. But Dudley and Burke finished the strongest, birding the 16th and the 17th and halved the 18th to win 1up…they shot an impressive 69 in the afternoon.

Thus at the end of the opening day, Great Britain held a narrow lead by 2&1/2 points to 1&1/2 points.

Bernard Darwin, the doyen of golf writers, thought the United States team were not fully acclimatised…in particular with the challenges presented by the fast, bare greens on the links course. He also observed that the crowd was massive for the foursomes and that the crowd would be colossal for the singles when the Prince of Wales would also be in attendance.

Order of Play – Singles

Even though Ed Dudley and Billy Burke playing magnificently to secure the only win for the United States in the Foursomes, they were both surprisingly dropped from the singles. For Great Britain, Arthur Lacey replaced Alfred Perry which meant that Allan Dailey was the only player from either team not to play in a single match. The order of play for the deciding singles matches was:

1. Padgham vs. Sarazen
2. Mitchell vs. Dutra
3. Lacey vs. Hagen
4. Davies vs. Wood
5. Alliss vs. Runyan
6. Havers vs. Diegel
7. Easterbrook vs. Shute
8. Whitcombe vs. Smith

Day 2 – Singles

An abridged summary of the deciding days’ singles, sequenced in the order (I believe) the respective matches finished:

Match 1

In the top match, Gene Sarazen was comfortably in control throughout. After the morning round, he was 2up and in the afternoon he gradually extended his lead…his putting was extremely impressive and he closed out the match 6&4.

Match 2

In the second match, Oli Dutra went out in 35 and by the 10th hole he was 3up against Abe Mitchell (who was now 46 years of age and deemed a veteran)…it very much looked likely that Dutra would secure another point for the United States…Mitchell had other ideas and proceeded to win the next 8 holes to be 5up at lunch, which included a stymie on the 18th. Dutra attempted to chip over Mitchell’s ball but ended up knocking his opponents ball into the cup. Mitchell eventually won the match 9&8, a remarkable turnaround.

So after the first 2 singles matches, Great Britain still led by one point.

Match 3

Arthur Lacey, who had not been selected for the previous days’ foursomes was up against the United States playing captain Walter Hagen, but after the first 18 holes, he held a slender 1 hole advantage. In the afternoon Hagen was determined to maintain his excellent Ryder Cup record and was soon 2up. Although Lacey managed to pull the match back to A/S, Hagen’s experience proved to be the deciding factor and he eventually won 2&1.

Match 4

At lunch, Davies and Wood were A/S and the match was very much in the balance…in the afternoon Craig Wood played some fine golf to win by 4&3 and secure another point for the United States.

So after the first 4 singles matches the United States now led by one point.

Match 5

In the fifth match, Percy Alliss displayed no visible signs of his costly missed putt on the 36th hole during the foursomes…he would have been much more than just 1up after the morning round if it had not been for Paul Runyan ‘holing everything’…but Alliss was not to be denied and won 2&1.

Thus, with 3 matches remaining, the scores were level.

Match 6

In another tight match, Arthur Havers and Leo Diegel were A/S after 18 holes…but inspired by the home crowd support, Havers took control of the match in the afternoon to secure another point for Great Britain by 4&3.

With only 2 matches to finish, Great Britain led again by a single point (5&1/2 to 4&1/2).

Match 8

Horton Smith (who won the following years inaugural Masters) had not been selected for the Foursomes…this did not prevent him being 5up at halfway. Although Charles Whitcombe fought back in the afternoon, Smith won comfortably by 2&1…match scores now level, so…

Match 7

…all down to the final match out on the links between Syd Easterbrook and Densmore Shute…where does one start? Shute won the first 3 holes. Easterbrook won the 4th and took the lead for the first time at the 11th when Shute played a weak bunker shot. Shute quickly made up for this error and by the end of the first 18 holes, he was 1up. The afternoon saw a tremendous ding dong battle with neither player being more than 1 hole ahead and thus when they reached the 36th and final hole the match was A/S. Under enormous pressure, both players took 3 shots to reach the final green and both missed their putts. Shute then had a 4-foot putt to effectively halve the match, which would mean the United States retaining the Ryder Cup as holders of the Trophy…but he missed…and up stepped Easterbrook to knock in a short, victorious putt.

Great Britain had won a titanic match by 6&1/2 points to 5&1/2 points…the Prince of Wales, as patron of the British PGA, presented the trophy to the winning captain J.H.Taylor who in his acceptance speech was very gracious as always:

“I would like to thank the Americans for sending over such a strong and representative golfing team to play in this contest. Also, I would like to thank the members of the American Ryder Cup team for their sporting attitude on this occasion”

In response, Walter Hagen started his equally gracious response with:

“We are a trifle disappointed that we are not taking the Cup back with us. We did tell the fellows on the Aquitania to reserve a place for it for the return journey…it has been a wonderful victory (for Great Britain) but we do not feel downhearted. We have lost to very good golf against us…” 

Prince of Wales

Despite the enormous crowds, the Prince of Wales watched at least one hole of every singles match during the afternoon’s play. In fact, during Walter Hagen’s match against Arthur Lacey, he made his way to the front of the enormous crowds at what was the 30th hole of their match…he was spotted almost immediately by Hagen who proceeded to walk over to him and shake hands.

When interviewed the Prince of Wales repeatedly spoke about his impartiality as to which team he would present the cup but when the match was over he was said to have been pleased that the British team had won.

Easterbrook, Havers & Burke

Easterbrook, Havers & Burke sounds like a great name for a firm of Solicitors…

Syd Easterbrook and Arthur Havers were only named as reserves for the Great Britain team…yet they ended up playing in the foursomes and the singles and winning all their matches…and as you have just read, Easterbrook holed the match-winning putt.

Billy Burke was controversially not selected…and then he was selected at the 11th hour, again not without controversy…yet on the first day he was the hero of the American team in winning his foursomes match in partnership with Ed Dudley to maintain his 100% record in the Ryder Cup…and then he was dropped for the singles.

Miscellaneous

Continuing with the theme of change…whilst researching this article I also discovered that at the 1933 Ryder Cup:

• Loudspeakers were used to provide instructions on correct behaviour, such as ‘don’t applaud until both players have completed the hole’.
• Stewards used long canes (with red flags on top) to marshall the crowds.
• Leading Amateur Golfers officiated as match referees.
• Each players caddy wore an armband, numbered according to the printed programme, thus enabling the spectators to easily identify ‘who was who’.
• Advance caddies were positioned at each hole to spot where a players’ ball came to rest and to mark the spot with a pole, with the Union Jack or the Stars and Stripes flag attached.
• The BBC had planned to broadcast an eyewitness account at the end of the second day by Bernard Darwin…plans were made to broadcast from the Southport and Ainsdale course but in the end, this was not possible so a Southport Hotel was used.
• Both teams were supplied with the latest weatherproof jackets from Dunlop, which had patented freedom sleeves.

British Pathé

Pathé News was founded by Charles Pathé, one of the pioneers of moving pictures during the silent era. British Pathé produced newsreels and documentaries. I hope you can all access YouTube, as I found an absolutely fantastic (2 min 44 sec) black and white newsreel of the 1933 Ryder Cup which includes snippets of:

• Walter Hagen nearly hitting J.H.Taylor, albeit accidentally, whilst warming up on the 1st Tee…if looks could kill.
• The laying of a stymie and the subsequent attempt to escape.

To watch please click British Pathé 1933 Ryder Cup Newsreel

Epilogue

And finally, finishing up at the nineteenth…

• Three days after the Ryder Cup, the United States team played a medal competition against a team of leading Scottish amateurs at Whitecraigs Golf Club, before a gallery of about 4,000 spectators…the Professionals beat the Amateurs by a combined score of 701 to 723…Horton Smith shot a course record 65, whilst 5 other members of the Ryder Cup team broke 70.
• The following week, Densmore Shute won The Open Championship at St Andrews. He had finished T1 with fellow Ryder Cup player Craig Wood but won the 36-hole playoff by 5 shots…the first prize was £100 whilst Wood received £75 as runner up.
• The R&A rules were eventually updated in 1952 to remove the Stymie from golf.
• John Henry ‘J.H.’ Taylor never captained the team again and Great Britain went a further 24 years before winning the Ryder Cup, this time at Lindrick in 1957…though I am sure he took great pride in the half-Devonian Densmore Shute winning the Claret Jug.

This article was great fun to research but by the end, I was exhausted attempting to count all of the changes that have occurred in the intervening years, not only in the Ryder Cup but in golf and in life.

I hope you have enjoyed reading.