The Rough and the Fairway: Processes and Problems in Ryder Cup Team Selection 1927-2006

Abstract

Introduction Competed for by European and American golfers, the Ryder Cup is unusual in professional sport as the participants play without financial reward using a team format in a game normally associated at the their level with individual rivalry. This paper will outline the history of the competition, examine implications of the selection policies and procedures and discuss the issue of identity, particularly when the non-American opposition switched from being British to European. It will also add to the relatively sparse coverage of golf in academic literature. What has been written has focused on the gender divide, the economics of the sport and, more recently, the environment. The Ryder Cup itself, whilst the subject of several popular works, has had only one academic article devoted to it on this side of the Atlantic.