1929 Ryder Cup
The 2nd Ryder Cup Matches were held at the Moortown Golf Club in Leeds, England. It was very cold, with hail and at one point heavy snow on the greens. About two thousand spectators saw America gain a narrow lead after the foursome matches before the Great Britain team won singles on the final day and thus the competition by a score of 7–5 points. George Duncan of Scotland became the first of only three British captains to lift the Ryder Cup which was given to him by Samuel Ryder who was in attendance after missing the 1927 matches. Format The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. From 1927 through 1959, the format consisted of 4 foursome (alternate shot) matches on the first day and 8 singles matches on the second day, for a total of 12 points. Therefore, 6 points were required to win the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 36 holes. Teams Source: In late 1928, it was announced that a selection committee of five professional golfers would choose the Great Britain team for the 1929 Ryder Cup. This committee consisted of James Braid, Sandy Herd and J.H. Taylor together with James Batley and Bob McKenzie. In January 1929, the team of 10 (as below) were selected with Duncan as captain. The American team sailed on the Mauretania and arrived in Plymouth on 16 April and travelled to London the same day. Diegel celebrated his 30th birthday on the second day of the match. It was originally planned that, as in 1927, only eight players should be used by each team. However, Hagen wished to use all 10 of his players. This was agreed to, although Duncan announced that he would only select eight as originally intended. Alliss and Burns were left out. The Americans stayed in Europe to play in a number of tournaments and exhibition matches. The 1929 Open Championship played from 8 to 10 May was dominated by Americans. Hagen won with Farrell second and Diegel third. Two more of the American Ryder Cup team were in the top 10 which also included three more golfers then resident in the United States but born in the UK. The whole team played in the Yorkshire Evening News One Thousand Guineas Tournament at Moortown from 14 to 18 May which was won by Joe Turnesa. Horton Smith then won the French PGA Championship at St. Cloud on his 21st birthday. Smith had a 12 shot lead after the first day and although a third round 61 by Aubrey Boomer reduced his lead to five, Smith won the tournament by five strokes. Smith, Farrell and Hagen finished second, third and fourth in the German Open, a tournament won by Percy Alliss. It was not until 2 June that Hagen, Farrell, Turnesa, Dudley and Smith sailed from Southampton to return to New York. Friday's foursome matches An unusual feature of the Moortown course was that all the five