1955 Ryder Cup

The 11th Ryder Cup Matches were held November 5–6, 1955, at Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. The United States team won its seventh consecutive competition by a score of 8 to 4 points.^[1][2][3]

11th Ryder Cup Matches

Dates	November 5–6, 1955
Venue	Thunderbird Country Club
Location	Rancho Mirage, California
Captains	Chick Harbert (USA) Dai Rees (Great Britain)
8 4
United States wins the Ryder Cup
← 1953 1957 →

Thunderbird CC

Location in the United States

Thunderbird CC

Location in California

Format

The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point. From 1927 through 1959, the format consisted of 4 foursome (alternate shot) matches on the first day and 8 singles matches on the second day, for a total of 12 points. Therefore, 61⁄2 points were required to win the Cup. All matches were played to a maximum of 36 holes.

Teams

Source: ^[4]

Team USA
Name	Age	Previous Ryder Cups	Matches	W–L–H	Winning percentage
Chick Harbert – captain	40	1	1	1–0–0	100.00
Jerry Barber	39	0	Rookie
Tommy Bolt	39	0	Rookie
Jack Burke Jr.	32	2	4	4–0–0	100.00
Doug Ford	33	0	Rookie
Marty Furgol	39	0	Rookie
Chandler Harper	41	0	Rookie
Ted Kroll	36	1	2	1–1–0	50.00
Cary Middlecoff	34	1	2	1–1–0	50.00
Sam Snead	43	5	9	7–2–0	77.78

Seven members of the British team were chosen from the Order of Merit after the 1955 Open Championship. To qualify players had to play in 5 of the 6 qualifying events. The qualifying events were all stroke-play tournaments played in Great Britain from the Spalding Tournament ending on 22 April to the Open Championship ending on 8 July. The last three places were chosen by the seven players already selected and the four members of the PGA tournament sub-committee.^[5][6] The seven who qualified after the Open were: Rees, Bradshaw, Scott, Weetman, O'Connor, Bousfield and Jacobs.^[7] Later in July, Rees was chosen as captain.^[8] The three remaining players, Brown, Lees and Fallon, were chosen at the end of the Dunlop Masters in September. Brown had recently lost in the final of the News of the World Match Play where Lees was a losing semi-finalist. Fallon was runner-up in the Open Championship.^[9]

Team Great Britain
Name	Age	Previous Ryder Cups	Matches	W–L–H	Winning percentage
Dai Rees – captain	42	5	8	2–5–1	31.25
Ken Bousfield	36	2	2	1–1–0	50.00
Harry Bradshaw	42	1	2	2–0–0	100.00
Eric Brown	30	1	2	1–1–0	50.00
John Fallon	42	0	Rookie
John Jacobs	30	0	Rookie
Arthur Lees	47	3	6	3–3–0	50.00
Christy O'Connor Snr	30	0	Rookie
Syd Scott	41	0	Rookie
Harry Weetman	35	2	3	1–2–0	33.33

Saturday's foursome matches

	Results
Fallon/Jacobs	1 up	Harper/Barber
Brown/Scott	5 & 4	Ford/Kroll
Lees/Weetman	1 up	Burke/Bolt
Bradshaw/Rees	3 & 2	Snead/Middlecoff
1	Session	3
1	Overall	3

18 hole scores: Harper/Barber: 2 up, Ford/Kroll: 3 up, Lees/Weetman: 1 up, Bradshaw/Rees v Snead/Middlecoff: all square.

Sunday's singles matches

	Results
Christy O'Connor	4 & 2	Tommy Bolt
Syd Scott	3 & 2	Chick Harbert
John Jacobs	1 up	Cary Middlecoff
Dai Rees	3 & 1	Sam Snead
Arthur Lees	3 & 2	Marty Furgol
Eric Brown	3 & 2	Jerry Barber
Harry Bradshaw	3 & 2	Jack Burke Jr.
Harry Weetman	3 & 2	Doug Ford
3	Session	5
4	Overall	8

18 hole scores: Bolt: 3 up, Harbert: 6 up, Middlecoff: 2 up, Snead: 5 up, Lees v Furgol: all square, Brown: 3 up, Bradshaw v Burke: all square, Ford: 1 up.

Individual player records

Each entry refers to the win–loss–half record of the player.

Source: ^[4]

United States

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes
Jerry Barber	0	0–2–0	0–1–0	0–1–0
Tommy Bolt	2	2–0–0	1–0–0	1–0–0
Jack Burke Jr.	2	2–0–0	1–0–0	1–0–0
Doug Ford	2	2–0–0	1–0–0	1–0–0
Marty Furgol	0	0–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–0
Chick Harbert	1	1–0–0	1–0–0	0–0–0
Chandler Harper	0	0–1–0	0–0–0	0–1–0
Ted Kroll	1	1–0–0	0–0–0	1–0–0
Cary Middlecoff	1	1–1–0	0–1–0	1–0–0
Sam Snead	2	2–0–0	1–0–0	1–0–0

Great Britain

Player	Points	Overall	Singles	Foursomes
Harry Bradshaw	0	0–2–0	0–1–0	0–1–0
Eric Brown	1	1–1–0	1–0–0	0–1–0
John Fallon	1	1–0–0	0–0–0	1–0–0
John Jacobs	2	2–0–0	1–0–0	1–0–0
Arthur Lees	1	1–1–0	1–0–0	0–1–0
Christy O'Connor	0	0–1–0	0–1–0	0–0–0
Dai Rees	0	0–2–0	0–1–0	0–1–0
Syd Scott	0	0–2–0	0–1–0	0–1–0
Harry Weetman	0	0–2–0	0–1–0	0–1–0

Ken Bousfield did not play in any matches.