Samuel Ryder: The Seed Merchant Who Changed Golf Forever: History of the Ryder Cup (Part 1)
The story of the greatest golf tournament in the world doesn't begin on a golf course , it begins in a seed shop in Manchester, with a man who didn't pick up a golf club until he was 50 years old
History of the Ryder Cup: every great tournament has an origin. And the Ryder Cup , the tournament that in 2031 will arrive on the Costa Brava to be held at Camiral has one of the most fascinating and unexpected origins in world sport.
Because the man who changed golf forever was not a lifelong golfer, nor an aristocrat, nor a member of any exclusive club. He was a seed merchant from Manchester who took up golf at the age of 50 on his doctor’s advice, fell in love with the game and decided to do something nobody had done before: bring together the best golfers in the world in a competition of friendship between nations.
His name was Samuel Ryder. And this is his story.
The Origins: From Manchester to St. Albans
Samuel Ryder was born on 24 March 1858 in Walton-le-Dale, Lancashire, in the north of England. He grew up in Manchester in a family of grain merchants ,his father ran a corn business that young Samuel was destined to inherit.
But Samuel had other ideas. With an entrepreneurial spirit and a commercial vision ahead of his time, he proposed expanding the family business by selling garden seeds in small one-penny packets — the so-called “penny packets” delivered directly by post to homes across England, capitalising on the British passion for gardening.
His father said no. Samuel said goodbye.
In 1898, together with his brother James, he moved to St. Albans, about 30 kilometres north of London, where they founded the Heath and Heather Seed Company. The penny packets concept was a runaway success — the idea of making garden seeds accessible to every British family through a postal catalogue was revolutionary for the time. The business grew rapidly and Samuel Ryder became a prosperous, respected man with time to dedicate to new passions.
One of them was about to change the history of world sport.
Golf Arrives Late : But With a Vengeance
Samuel Ryder didn’t discover golf until he was 50 years old. It wasn’t out of vocation or family tradition — it was on medical advice. His frantic work pace had taken its toll and a friend, a preacher and golf enthusiast, suggested he get some fresh air and play. Ryder followed the advice without much enthusiasm.
What came next nobody expected.
He fell in love with the game absolutely and immediately. He became a member of the Verulam Golf Club in St. Albans — which would be the setting for many of the key moments of this story and dedicated himself to golf with the same intensity with which he had built his business. He even hired his own private teacher to improve his game.
That teacher’s name was Abe Mitchell , and his role in the history of the Ryder Cup is as important as that of Ryder himself.
Abe Mitchell: The Master Who Inspired the Trophy
In 1925, Samuel Ryder made an unusual decision even by the standards of the time: he hired Abe Mitchell, one of the best professional golfers in England, as his full-time personal coach. He paid him a monthly salary and covered all his expenses so that he could dedicate himself exclusively to golf ,and to teaching him.
Mitchell was an extraordinary golfer, considered by many to be the best English player of his generation who never won a British Open. The relationship between the two was far more than that of student and teacher , it was a genuine friendship that would shape the design of the most coveted object in world golf.
When Samuel Ryder commissioned the creation of the trophy that would bear his name, he specifically requested that the golfer figure crowning the cup be a portrait of his friend and mentor Abe Mitchell. And so it is the small golden figure that tops the Ryder Cup is, officially, Abe Mitchell in his address position.
A detail that very few people know, and one that makes the trophy something far more personal than it appears.
Samuel Ryder was not a professional golfer, nor an aristocrat, nor a member of any elite club. He was a seed merchant who took up golf at the age of 50. And yet his name is engraved forever on the most coveted trophy in world golf. The history of the Ryder Cup is, above all, the story of a man who loved golf with a passion that changed the sport forever.
The Wentworth Match That Changed Everything
The official birth of the Ryder Cup has a prehistory that begins in 1926. That year, at the Wentworth Club in Surrey, an informal match was organised between British and American professional golfers who had come to compete in the British Open.
Samuel Ryder was in the crowd.
What he saw fascinated him, the tension of match play, the pride of the players defending their respective countries, the excitement of a contest that went far beyond individual competition. According to the official story, at the end of the match he approached the players and said the words that would change golf forever: “We must make this official.”
The Wentworth match was won by the British (13½ – 1½) but remained unofficial. What mattered was that Samuel Ryder had made a decision.
1927: The Ryder Cup Is Born
Samuel Ryder commissioned the creation of the trophy from the prestigious British jeweller Mappin & Webb. A golden cup 43 centimetres tall and weighing nearly 2 kilograms, crowned by the figure of Abe Mitchell, valued at £250, the equivalent of around $21,000 today.
On 3 and 4 June 1927, at the Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts, the first official Ryder Cup in history was played. The United States defeated Great Britain 9½ – 2½. Samuel Ryder could not attend — he had a deep fear of sea voyages and the Atlantic was simply too much for him.
But he was present in 1929, when the tournament was held at Moortown Golf Club in Leeds and Great Britain won for the first time. It was Samuel Ryder himself who presented the trophy bearing his name to the British captain George Duncan. One of the most emotional moments of his life.
The Legacy of an Extraordinary Man
Samuel Ryder died on 2 January 1936 at the age of 77, with golf in his soul — literally. He was buried with his favourite 5-iron, the club he had loved most during his almost three decades of late-blooming passion for golf.
He never got to see the evolution of the tournament that bore his name: the inclusion of Ireland in 1973, the arrival of continental European players in 1979 thanks to Severiano Ballesteros, the epic contests of the 21st century, the Miracle at Medinah in 2012. He never got to imagine that in 2031, a golf course called Camiral on the Costa Brava in Spain would host the most exciting tournament in the world in front of 30,000 spectators.
But without his vision, without his generosity, without that afternoon at Wentworth in 1926 when he decided that this had to become something official — none of it would exist.
The seed merchant from Manchester who took up golf at 50 on his doctor’s advice left the world the greatest spectacle in the sport of the white ball. A legacy that every two years brings millions of people from across the globe together around a golden trophy crowned by the figure of his best friend.
That is the history of the Ryder Cup. And it starts here.
The Ryder Cup Comes to Spain in 2031
Since that first edition in Worcester in 1927, the Ryder Cup has grown to become the third most watched sporting event in the world, behind only the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup. In 2031, for the first time in the history of the tournament, it will come to Spain — specifically to the Stadium Course at Camiral, in the heart of the Costa Brava and the province of Girona.
Samuel Ryder dreamed of a tournament that would promote friendship between nations through golf. In 2031, that dream comes to our land.
Want to know more about the history of the Ryder Cup? Don’t miss Part 2 of this series: the early editions of the tournament (1927–1939) and the golden years of transatlantic golf.
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