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This past weekend the world watched the biennial golf match between the best professional golfers from the United States and their opponents from Europe. Each day roughly 40,000 spectators attended the matches held this year at Oakland Hills in Michigan. The worldwide television audience exceeded 100 million. Given the worldwide marketing, national fervor and hoopla of this event, some fans of the Ryder Cup might be surprised to learn that as recently as twenty years ago, the Ryder Cup was on the verge of extinction as a golfing event.
US AGAINST THEM: An Oral History of the Ryder Cup, by Robin McMillan, follows the history of the matches from inception in 1927 to the most recent match in 2002. This year's match concluded last Sunday with the Europeans capturing a resounding victory. As in previous years, it was a hard fought and tenacious contest. But the recently concluded contest can only be appreciated by referencing the previous battles for the cup donated many years ago by Samuel Ryder. McMillan traces the history of the Cup through a series of interviews with participants, organizers and Ryder Cup captains, perhaps the most revered position in professional golf other than major tournament champion. The saga is both informative and entertaining.
The actual commencement of the Ryder Cup matches is shrouded in some confusion. What is known is that Samuel Ryder, a British businessman, established the groundwork for the matches that formally began in 1927. Prior to that year, Ryder had arranged matches between English and American professionals, but the method of choosing the teams was informal and there was no actual involvement by the Professional Golf Association of the United States. As an oral history, US AGAINST THEM suffers because very few of the originators of the Ryder Cup remain alive today to discuss the formative years. Interestingly, Peter Allis, current ABC golf commentator and eight-time Cup participant, offers history through the reminiscences of his father, Percy Allis. Despite that source of information, it is fair to say that information of the early Ryder Cup years is not the strength of this book.
If there is a shortcoming to this oral history it comes from two sources, both beyond the author's control. Obviously, many of the Ryder Cup participants from the years immediately after World War II, when interest in the transatlantic battles began to grow, are no longer available to be interviewed. Thus, there are no recollections from Hogan, Snead, Henry Cotton or Dai Rees, all frequent Cup opponents in the '40s and '50s. Many of the golfing greats from more recent Ryder Cups --- Nicklaus, Palmer, Woods, Montgomerie and Garcia --- apparently declined to be interviewed for this book. But those who agreed to be interviewed have much to offer about the matches on the course and some behind-the-scenes battles as well. In 1975, Arnold Palmer was U.S. Captain at Laurel Valley Golf Club, Arnie's home course. The club had a strict policy against women in the dining room. Jack Nicklaus told Palmer what he thought of that rule. "Never mind the rules and all that crap, Arnold. If my wife is not sitting down to have lunch with me tomorrow, I'm going home." The rule was relaxed to allow women to dine between 11 am and 1 pm.
By the late 1970s, the Cup matches had become so one-sided that interest had waned substantially. In 1977, American Tom Weiskopf chose to go hunting rather than participate. But a man whose name most American golfers would not even recognize, Colin Snape, the executive director of the British PGA, saved the Cup from extinction by bringing European professionals into the matches. The struggles of the '80s and '90s made golfing history with closely fought matches and strong patriotic fervor ringing from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The battle for the Ryder Cup is now an eagerly anticipated event.
This year's Cup battle is now completed. If this was the first year you followed the match and wish to learn more about previous Ryder Cup battles, then US AGAINST THEM is for you. If you are a Ryder Cup or golfing fan in general, you will enjoy this well-written history of one of golf's premier events.
--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman
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