Ryder has the name and now he’s got the game
WAS THERE ever a golfer with a name more suited to his profession than PGA Tour rookie Sam Ryder?
‘Shouldn’t you be getting an honorary wild card to play in Paris in September?’ said his fellow pro James Driscoll, smiling, ‘the Ryder Cup is named after you.’
As you can imagine, Ryder gets asked rather a lot whether he’s related to a certain St Albans seed merchant who donated the famous gold trophy for competition between the US and Britain and Ireland in 1927.
‘you’re the first to ask today, though, bud,’ the 28-year-old from orlando said cheerfully, when we met at the Houston open recently.
For the record, he’s just the latest Samuel Ryder in a Florida-based family full of them, but none are related to THe Samuel Ryder. There’s every hope, though, that he will continue to progress and fulfil his destiny one day.
Given he didn’t play in any competitive tournaments until he was 16 — he was more interested in the beach, basketball and baseball growing up — it’s hardly surprising the tall, athletic Ryder is a relative latecomer to the PGA Tour.
His is a classic story of progressing through the mini-tours with barely two cents to rub together, then on to the PGA Tour Canada before progressing to the web.com Tour that sits one level below paradise. A victory on that circuit last year, leading to an eighth-place finish overall, meant the promotion he always dreamed about.
It was in Houston that Ryder showed signs he’s already finding his feet at the highest level. He led after the first round, eventually finishing a hugely creditable fifth to give the winner Ian Poulter some competition when it came to the broadest smile in the clubhouse. His winnings from his first three months add up to just shy of $400,000.
As for the Ryder Cup, he wasn’t really aware of it growing up. ‘I was 16 playing in one of my first junior events when an official said to me, “you have to make it as a pro given you’ve got such a great name”,’ said Ryder. ‘now, of course, I get asked about it all the time and particularly in a Ryder Cup year.
‘I want to play in it, 100 per cent. every American golfer I know dreams about playing in it. I have a lot of passion for it and how cool would it be to see a Sam Ryder taking part one day?’
It might have taken him a while but he’s got the idea now.