Still, with the competition's resumption after the Second World War, repeated American dominance eventually led to a decision to extend the representation of "Great Britain and Ireland" to include continental Europe from 1979.

[17] A team of 11 sailed from New York on the RMS Aquitania on 24 May 1921 together with James Harnett, Harry Hampton deciding at the last minute that he could not travel.

The American team was: Emmet French (captain), Clarence Hackney, Walter Hagen, Charles Hoffner, Jock Hutchison, Tom Kerrigan, George McLean, Fred McLeod, Bill Mehlhorn and Wilfrid Reid.

Gold medals were presented by Katharine Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl, to each member of the teams at the conclusion of the Glasgow Herald tournament on Saturday afternoon.

[25] In mid-April, it was announced that "A golf enthusiast, who name has not yet been made public" was ready to donate a cup for an annual competition.

While all ten of the British players subsequently played in the Ryder Cup only three of the Americans did (Hagen, Mehlhorn and Watrous).

Armour, Barnes, Kirkwood, McLeod and Walker were excluded by the policy of requiring players to be born in the USA while French and Stein were never selected.

A Ryder Cup "Deed of Trust" was drawn up formalising the rules of the contest, while each of the PGA organisations had a selection process.

As of 2023, per International Golf Federation standards, golfers from fifty countries are eligible to compete for Europe at the Ryder Cup.

In the early contests the teams were generally decided by a selection committee but later qualification based on performances was introduced.

The qualifying period was also extended because the Olympic Games had moved the timeslot for the 2016 PGA Championship which took place already at the end of July.

[38] With the United States and Great Britain tied at 15+1⁄2 each, Jack Nicklaus led Tony Jacklin by the score of 1 up as they played the 17th hole.

This gesture of sportsmanship by Nicklaus caused controversy on the American side, some of whom would have preferred to force Jacklin to attempt the putt for the small chance that he might miss, which would have given the United States team an outright win.

The match continued in a contentious fashion, culminating in Ballesteros unusually contesting whether Azinger took a proper drop after hitting into the water on the 18th hole.

The second video was a welcoming address by then-United States President George H. W. Bush in which he closed by cheering on the American side.

On the first morning of the competition, Azinger and Chip Beck were paired against Ballesteros and José María Olazábal in a foursomes match, an alternate shot event.

For his part, Corey Pavin caused controversy by sporting a Desert Storm baseball cap during the event in support of the U.S. and coalition war effort in Iraq.

A remarkable comeback by the American team helped propel the U.S. to a 141⁄2–131⁄2 victory after trailing 10–6 at the start of the final day.

Sam Torrance branded it "disgusting", while European captain Mark James referred to it as a "bear pit" in a book recounting the event.

At the end of day two, Ian Poulter made five birdies on the final five holes to give him and Rory McIlroy the point over Jason Dufner and Zach Johnson.

The 1939 Ryder Cup was planned for 18–19 November at Ponte Vedra Country Club in Jacksonville, Florida; Walter Hagen was chosen as non-playing captain of the U.S. team.

"[51][52] The Ryder Cup was not played in these scheduled years due to World War II; by the fall of 1945, many members of the British team were still in the military.

In July 2020, the Ryder Cup, scheduled to be held at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, was postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 1973, the official team name was changed to "Great Britain and Ireland,” but this was simply a change of name to reflect the fact that golfers from Ireland had played in the "Great Britain" Ryder Cup team since Harry Bradshaw in 1953, while Northern Irish players had competed since Fred Daly in 1947.

[62] The Ryder Cup matches were always covered by the BBC, whether in Britain or in the United States, even prior to the British team's merger with Europe.

The success of the 1991 matches led to a contract extension with USA and NBC through 1997, marking a turning point in the competition's popularity.

In 2006, ESPN was sub-licensed rights to Friday coverage, as part of a larger transaction between NBC and Disney that also resulted in ABC Sports personality Al Michaels moving to NBC to join their then-upcoming Sunday-night NFL games, ESPN gaining expanded access to highlights from events whose rights are owned by NBC, and Disney acquiring the rights to the cartoon character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (who was created by Walt Disney in 1927 for a series of animated shorts distributed by Universal Pictures).

[69][70] Sources[71][72][73] If one of the golfers is injured and cannot play his singles match, the opposing captain can select one player from his team that he would like to not compete.

The "envelope rule", as it has known, has come into play three times since 1979, including most recently in 1993 when Europe's Sam Torrance suffered a sore left foot.

Lanny Wadkins offered to be the player that American captain Tom Watson placed in the envelope, and their match was recorded as halved.