LOOKING BACK
Humble
Beginnings The glorious Perthshire resort hosted the first ‘Ryder Cup’-style match against the United States over nine decades ago. Some say that it can even lay claim to be its spiritual home … if only that first encounter had not gone quite so badly! Story by Dale Concannon. Pictures courtesy of Old Golf Images
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Courtesy of Old Golf Images
he eyes of the golfing world will be on Gleneagles this month as Ryder Cup gets underway. What few people know is that six years before St Albans seed merchant Samuel Ryder put his name to the bi-annual slug-fest between professionals from Britain and America, this quiet corner of Perthshire played host to a similar match. 66
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Long forgotten to all but the Right Honourable Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland, he made reference to it in a speech prior to the memorable 2012 match at Medinah Country Club near Chicago. In it he described how much he looked forward to the match returning to its “spiritual” home of Scotland two years later. “For it was in Gleneagles in 1921,” he proclaimed with fervent nationalistic passion, “that the first international match was played HKGOLFER.COM
that inspired the Ryder Cup ...” What Mr Salmond failed to mention is what a complete and utter calamity it proved and how it would be many years before someone felt brave enough to reintroduce the format we enjoy today. Not so much the “Miracle of Medinah” but more the “Curse of Gleneagles,” the story of that first match involved a half-built hotel, railway carriages substituting as sleeping quarters and a barely playable golf course. No wonder it took another six years before Old Sam Ryder uttered those immortal words: “we must do this again ...” Details are sketchy but most historians credit Ohio businessman Sylvanus P Jermain with coming up with original idea for an international match for professionals. Instrumental in getting British stars Harry Vardon and Edward Ray to compete in the 1920 US Open at his home Club of Inverness, he even commissioned a silver trophy in the hope it would happen one day. That dream became reality in February 1921 when the PGA of America received a surprise invitation from the owners of the new Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland. Advertised as “The Palace in the Glens” and “The Eighth Wonder of the World,” the Caledonian Railway Company cordially invited them to send a representative group of professionals to play in their Glasgow Herald-sponsored ‘1,000 Guinea Golf Tournament.’ Scheduled for the first week in June, they even penciled in a ‘GB versus USA International Challenge Match’ for the 6th – the day preceding the main event. HKGOLFER.COM
The story of that first match involved a half-built hotel, railway carriages substituting as sleeping quarters and a barely playable golf course.
Clockwise from above: 1921 map of the course; Gleneagles poster from 1924; the competitors’ medal; the British team for the match, including Harry Vardon and Abe Mitchell
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Courtesy of Old Golf Images
Described in the cablegram as: “a massive handsome affair and quite suitable to represent the championship of the world,” the invitation was enthusiastically accepted along with another from the British PGA to play in the Open Championship at St Andrews two weeks later. The only problem now was finding the money and while Mr Jermain took no part in the actual organization, he did donate a sizable sum to “The British Open Championship Fund” set up by James Hartnett, Circulation Manager of Golf Illustrated magazine, to cover travel expenses. Setting sail from New York on 23 May onboard RMS Aquitania the American ‘team’ landed in Southampton ten days later. It was not an auspicious start. Taking the sleeper train from Southampton to Glasgow many arrived in Scotland still struggling to overcome the effects of sea-sickness. Not that it made much difference to the quality of the side. Established players like Jim Barnes and Gene Sarazen had refused the trip and apart from Walter Hagen – who still had to make his mark in Britain despite being a two-time US Open champion – the group included a motley bunch of inexperienced pros like Clarence Hackney, ‘Wild Bill’ Mehlhorn and Tom Kerrigan. Indeed, the nearest the ‘American’ side came to star players were Scottish exiles Jock Hutchison (who went on to win the Open at St Andrews two weeks later) and the 1908 US Open champion, Fred McLeod, who later declared that he only wanted to return to Scotland to visit his elderly mother. Lying in wait at Gleneagles was a British side that included the legendary ‘Triumvirate’ of Harry Vardon, JH Taylor and James Braid. No longer the players they once were at least they were joined by reigning US Open champion Edward Ray and the 1920 Open winner, George Duncan. Along with rising stars Abe Mitchell and Arthur Havers, it definitely looked a touch one-sided with veteran Scottish professional Andra Kirkaldy predicting a complete whitewash saying, “Those Yanks haven’t got a chance in hell.” Considering the conditions that greeted them on their arrival at Gleneagles the ‘Sage of St Andrews’ may well have been right: despite being described as 68
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“pretty as a picture” by Hagen, the James Braiddesigned King’s Course had only been open for play since 1919. Rubbished in the press for its ragged fairways and unkempt greens, Bernard Darwin of The Times even mentioned how: “The sand used in the bunkers is of the wrong type being far too gritty and full of shells.” Sadly that was small beans compared with the state of the so-called luxury Gleneagles Hotel. Faced with little more than a massive building site, it wasn’t scheduled to open its doors to the paying public for another two years! Even James Gourlay, Chairman of Outram & Co, referred to it as: “Rather a blot on the landscape.” Accommodation was obviously a big problem. A story even went out that rooms set aside for the American team had been hit by lightning just weeks before which had destroyed the roof above where they planned to sleep. Adding to the rumour that the hotel was somehow cursed, it was more likely that it simply did not have a roof ready in time! Either way it was a far cry from the description which said how Gleneagles was: “admirably suited to such an international contest ...” Without a bed for the week American team members were shuttled off each evening to a railway siding at nearby Gleneagles Station. Forced to hunker down in five sleeping carriages they were even forced to fetch and carry their own water to the washrooms each morning. This HKGOLFER.COM
included Hagen, who often employed an Indian manservant to run his baths for him in America. Unlike the Brits who were comfortably lodged in a local hotel, food was also an issue. Spending most evenings trawling around Auchterarder High Street searching for something more appetizing than boiled beef or haggis, at least they were able to enjoy a dram or two of whisky – something denied to them in the Prohibitionhit United States. The match when it finally took place proved a big disappointment as Britain thrashed America 10½ to 4½. Losing three of the opening fourball matches and six of the individual ties, it was not even close. The 1,000 Guineas Tournament also offered little consolation as Englishman Abe Mitchell beat Australian pro Joe Kirkwood to take the honours and the £160 cash prize. Maybe the Gleneagles Curse had got its way after all? Heading home it was certain that neither team saw themselves as pioneers. Sam Ryder’s cup was six years distant and nobody in America – especially Walter Hagen – was keen to risk another thrashing at British hands. After the international match, commemorative gold medals were presented to all the players courtesy of the Glasgow Herald but no one suggested that it become a regular event. Or if they did, no one listened. Put simply, the experiment had failed. Considered little more than a crude exhibition HKGOLFER.COM
Clockwise from above: Competitors for the 1,000 Guinea Tournament; the Hotel in 1944; Harry Vardon, Ted Ray, James Braid and JH Taylor
match, crowds were sparse and the atmosphere muted. The teams hardly socialised and even the course at Gleneagles had come in for harsh criticism. There was talk of gamesmanship and double dealing but like the actual match, it was quickly forgotten; even more so when the Ryder Cup finally took hold on the public imagination. As for the so-called ‘Gleneagles Curse’ we can only hope it doesn’t return to haunt either team at the 2014 Ryder Cup but that’s the thing about curses: you simply never know. HK GOLFER・SEP 2014
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