That Mark James has revised his self-imposed timetable apparently has some chronic worriers agonising again. A few weeks ago the European Ryder Cup skipper had promised to reveal his decision on whether he would step down as captain at the K Club this weekend, but the fact that James has deferred the announcement until he has formally qualified ought to tell you everything you need to know.
When his 1999 European Tour results insinuated his name into contention on the Ryder Cup table, James began to entertain the possibility of assuming a participant's role. Almost immediately some began to fret that were he to do so, James would certainly have to resign his captaincy. Now there are people, who are alarmed that by postponing the decision, James will leave his successor (certain to be one or both of his two deputies, Sam Torrance and Ken Brown) scant time to appoint his wild-card selections before the matches commence at The Country Club in Brookline this September.
That James could remain as captain while handing over the day-to-day running to Torrance/Brown seems to have occurred to no one, although there is ample precedent for this. You may rest assured that had either Tom Watson in 1991 or Tom Kite in 1997 qualified for the American team, they would have played - and neither would have resigned as captain. In point of fact, both Walter Hagen and Ted Ray, the respective captains, played in the first Ryder Cup matches, which were contested in 1927 at the Worcester Country Club.
Moreover, the inaugural matches also saw the last-minute replacement of one team's captain: Abe Mitchell, who was to have captained the British and Irish side, was taken ill just before the team boarded the Aquitania for the crossing, and remained behind. Mitchell had been made captain at the behest of Samuel Ryder. Ray was named captain in Mitchell's stead, while his place as a player was taken by Herbert Jolly, who sailed four days later. There were no Ryder Cup tables in those days. The British and Irish team had been selected by Harry Vardon, James Braid, and J.H. Taylor, who had been appointed as selectors by the British PGA. The American selection process was less formal. "Hagen just picked the team from among his golfing buddies," Gene Sarazen, who played for the US in the Worcester matches, recalled a few months before his death this spring. "Most of us who played on the team that first year were friends and continued to be friends on and off the course." Joining Hagen on the American side were Sarazen, Bill Mehlhorn, and Al Watrous, along with Leo Diegel, Johnny Farrell, Johnny Golden, and Joe Turnesa. Al Espinosa was also named to the American team, but did not play in a match. The Worcester Country Club was established in 1900, but only officially opened in September of 1914, in a dedication ceremony presided over by a former President of the United States, William Howard Taft. " it".
Two years earlier the venue had been the site of the U.S. Open, where Willie McFarlane defeated Bobby Jones in a playoff. The two had finished tied only because Jones had assessed a penalty stroke against himself when his ball moved slightly at address in the rough. Although no one else could possibly have seen the infraction (and although it cost him what would have been a record fifth US Open title), Jones disdained congratulations for the display of honesty by saying "you might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank." Upon arrival the visitors were impressed with the course. George Philpot, the British and Irish team manager, said that it reminded him of St. George's Hill in Surrey. "Everywhere we went we were submerged by hospitality and kindness," Arthur Havers would recall later.
On the eve of the matches, a delegation from the American PGA met with Ray and Philpot with four proposals to amend the rules of competition. The original understanding of the rules, as formulated by Ryder, had called for the matches to follow the format of the Walker Cup, which had begun some five years earlier. The Americans, however, wanted to substitute four-ball matches for foursomes. The hosts also proposed that any match finishing all-square continue to sudden-death result, that two points instead of one be awarded for victories in two-man team events, and that both teams should be allowed to substitute a player in singles on the second day.
The visitors conceded only on the last point, for both captains had reason to anticipate that some line-up-juggling might be in order. George Gadd had become so violently seasick on the crossing that he had never fully recovered his form. The Americans feared that Watrous might be similarly indisposed. Al, however, was a quick healer: He not only played but won in both foursomes and singles. The first day's play saw Watrous team up with Sarazen to win their foursomes match against Havers and Jolly, 3 and 2, while a closer match involving both captains saw Hagen and Golden defeat Ray and Fred Robson, 2 and 1, as the Americans came from three down in the morning session.
Farrell and Turnesa fairly hammered George Duncan and Archie Compston 8 and 6, while the invaders' lone consolation came from Aubrey Boomer and Charles Whitcombe, who between them scored at level fours for the 31 holes it took them to finish off Diegel and Mehlhorn, 7 and 5.
"One of the chief reasons for our failure was the superior putting of the American team," Ray told the Worcester Telegram after the first day's play. "They holed out much better than we did. If the same number of holes had required brassie shots to reach the green, I would certainly look more favourably on our chances."
The following morning, after Mehlhorn edged Compston, 1-up, the next three matches were runaways, as Farrell defeated Boomer 5 and 4, Golden walloped Jolly 8 and 7, and Diegel crushed the British captain by a 7 and 5 score. Only Duncan, who came back from two down with nine holes to play to catch Turnesa on the seventeenth and then birdie the final hole for a one-up win, and Whitcombe, who halved the day's last match with Sarazen, salvaged points for the visitors. The other two matches saw Hagen post a 2 and 1 win over Havers and Watrous beat Robson 3 and 2 for what proved to be a 91/221/2 triumph in the first-ever Ryder Cup.
The hometown press was somewhat smug in victory. In the following morning's "Telegram & Gazette, cartoonist Al Banx depicted Hagen as a Big Game Hunter, dangling the pelt of the British lion from his mashie," above the gloating caption "Brittania rules the world, but what about the fairways?"
