Advanced
Site Search

Ted. It was to be his only appearance in the matches, but he lived to be the oldest Ryder Cup player. He passed away in 2003 at the age of 95. The year after the Muirfield Open Ted was appointed pro at the West Lancashire club, where he remained for 36 years.
Also unlucky in 1935 was Ted’s predecessor at Prenton - Bill Davies, who had moved to the nearby Wallasey club – the home of Stableford. Bill had played in the two previous Ryder Cups but had not shown much form that year until his victory in the Northern Professional Championship at Moortown – too late! It came after the team had been chosen, although the fact that he was now a few years past his fortieth birthday would have been another consideration. When the next Ryder Cup came around it was me who was to find form too late - in what was to be my best year.

The financing of the Ryder Cup still depended on donations and that July the PGA appealed for subscriptions to the fund. The newspapers reported that approximately £8/900 was still needed to send the team to America for the match at Ridgewood C.C., New Jersey. Fund raising events included a match, involving all the Ryder Cup players, at Alf Perry’s club – Leatherhead, in which Ernest Whitcombe partnered James Braid to beat his brother Charles Whitcombe and Sandy Herd. Competitors played the bigger American ball that was to be used for the match. The 1.68" diameter ball had been in use in the USA since 1932, but very few professionals on this side of the Atlantic favoured the American size and weight and forty years were to go by before the PGA finally adopted it for professional tournaments in this country.

The British 1.62" ball remained in use in the amateur game until the R & A ruled in 1986 that it would be illegal from January 1st, 1990 and, although over a decade has passed since the ‘big’ ball became mandatory, there are still some ‘small’ balls to be found on practise grounds.

The Ryder Cup was nothing like the big money spinner that it is nowadays, nor did they have Concorde to whisk them there and back. (Sadly nor will the 2004 team as the aircraft has just been withdrawn from service at the time of writing). The 1935 team was to sail on the Empress of Amsterdam in September and return five weeks later after competing in a series of exhibition matches. The Cup did not return with them – the Americans having triumphed by the margin of 8 to 2. As expected, the new Open Champion was not made captain and that honour went to Charles Whitcombe. Reg and Ernest were also in the team, the only time that three brothers have taken part. Charles and Ernest were the only winners in the foursomes, beating a pairing that sounded like a Vaudeville double act, Olin Dutra and Ky Laffoon. Tobacco chewing Laffoon was indeed a ‘theatrical’ character, whose eccentricities included tying his putter to the rear bumper of his car and dragging it to the next tournament ‘to teach it a lesson’.

NEXT