The brainchild of Samuel Ryder, a wealthy seed merchant from St Albans, the Ryder Cup was a bi-annual British-American professional golf tournament that was first played for the trophy bearing his name in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1927. America won the match and gradually became the dominant force in the competition. During the 1960s the results were so one-sided that the Ryder Cup was expanded so that players from Ireland could compete for the British team. As the Americans continued to win comfortably, Jack Nicklaus led the movement to alter the teams so that European players were...