The Samuel Ryder Foundation are proud and delighted to announce that Jack Nicklaus the greatest ever golfer has become a patron. Media Officer for The Foundation Patricia Fulton said “ we are honoured to have Jack on board with us. He has played a huge part in the history of The Ryder Cup and was instrumental in the change whereby Great Britain & Ireland became Europe which resulted in the matches becoming more competitive and are now one of the worlds great sporting events”

_It was announced on the 15 December 2011 at a press conference in London given by The World Golf Hall of Fame, Peter Alliss, patron of The Foundation and one of the most respected figures in golf, is to be inducted into The Hall of Fame in The Lifetime Achievement Category. The ceremony will take place on May 7th 2012 at The World Golf Hall of Fame Florida USA.

Trustees of the Foundation were delighted to meet patron Peter Alliss before he went on stage in the Alban Arena last Wednesday for his one man show An Evening with Alliss.

The Samuel Ryder Foundation is proud and delighted to announce that Lord Charles Cecil the current High Sheriff of Hertfordshire has taken the position of patron. He joins our other patrons Bernard Gallacher OBE, Peter Alliss, Tony Jacklin CBE, Colin Montgomerie OBE of the UK along with Ben Crenshaw of the USA. All are committed to furthering the aims and objectives of The Foundation.

The Cecil family have lived and been part of Hertfordshire life for over 400 yrs.

The legendary Tony Jacklin, Europe's greatest Ryder cup captain, has become a patron of The Samuel Ryder Foundation. In accepting the invitation to become a patron, Tony said “the Ryder Cup has been a great part of my life, it is an honour to be a patron, I will do everything I possibly can to help The Foundation achieve its aims and objectives”.

The first Ryder Cup was played in 1927, and up until 1985 the Americans won all but 3 matches. Tony's record as captain is :-

1983 Europe lost by 1 point.
1985 Europe won - the first time since 1957
1987 Europe won - the first time on American soil
1989 Match drawn - Europe retained the Ryder Cup.

The officers and trustees of The Samuel Ryder Foundation are thrilled and proud that Tony has accepted this position. Mary Moore, Samuel Ryder's only surviving grandchild and The Foundation's President, said, “Tony Jacklin played a huge pivotal role, in turning Europe's fortunes around.”

The Foundation is proud and delighted to announce that Lord and Lady Verulam have taken the position of patrons. They join our other patrons Bernard Gallacher OBE, Peter Alliss and Colin Montgomerie OBE in the UK along with Ben Crenshaw of the USA. All are committed to furthering the aims and objectives of The Foundation.

Their family has many strong links with St Albans dating back over 350 years. Their Gorhambury estate included the land on which Verulam Golf Club is now situated. Lord Verulam is president of the Club, where Samuel Ryder was a member until his death in 1936.

Lady Verulam also a golfer, is The Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire.

The Foundation is delighted and honoured that Colin has become a patron. All the more so in view of his playing schedule, golf course design commitments and his close involvement with the charity that bears his mother’s name.

Colin was born in Glasgow on the 23/06/1963. It would be tempting to say that the record Colin set in winning The European Tour Order of Merit, for seven consecutive years (1993 – 1999), will never be broken. During this seven year period he was consistently accurate from tee to green, always leaving himself with a makeable putt. Colin also won The Volvo tournament (now the BMW), the European Tour’s flagship event, three years running. He won an eighth Order of Merit in 2005.

In 2000 The Colin Montgomerie Links Golf Academy was launched at Turnberry. This is a state of the art teaching facility which caters for golfers of all levels.

It is his achievements in The Ryder Cup for which he will be ultimately remembered. He lies second in the overall points league, however the points were accumulated in fewer matches. In singles he has never lost. In his first singles match he was 4 down with 4 to play but he won the next four holes to halve the match. Some of those singles matches were tight; Colin was always able to come up with something special to close out a match.

In 1997 at Valderrama he was in a position to win his match against Scott Hoch and the Ryder Cup for Europe. Under instruction from his captain Seve Ballesteros the match was halved.  This still gave Europe a winning margin. They were destined to meet again!

In 1999 at Brookline, in a match played in testing circumstances, Colin delivered 4 points from a possible 5.

It was in 2002 at The Belfry that for three days he played at a level very few have achieved taking 4 1/2 points from a possible 5. The golfing gods decreed that in the singles he would play Scott Hoch. Going out first in the singles a totally fired up Monty crushed Hoch 5 and 4, and the first splash of blue was on the scoreboard.

In 2004 at Oakland Hills Bernhard Langer's first pair out was Padraig Harrington and Colin - match 1 to Europe. In the Friday afternoon foursomes at the eighth green Colin played a chip shot of exquisite beauty. The key to this was the ability to visualise the shot. Lying on the fringe of the green (an impossible putt) he chipped the ball into the longer grass of a slight slope, the force of the shot was stunned and coming out at 90% it rolled to within 6 inches of the hole.

On Sunday afternoon he holed the winning putt and completely justified Bernhard Langer's faith in him as one of his two wild card selections.

The statistics do not give us the full story of his part in Ryder Cup history. When he had become a more senior member of the team he was regarded as the on course leader, relied upon to steady the ship and get that all important blue on the scoreboard.

The most important aspect of The Ryder Cup is that it is a team event; all egos are left in the car park. For one week every two years only the team matters and as Colin has explained many times publicly, he is a true team player.

Colin was named Ryder Cup captain for the 2010 match at The Celtic Manor Resort, Wales. On the afternoon of Monday October 4th 2010 he held the coveted gold trophy aloft. Samuel Ryder, another great team player, would have been very proud.

We are honoured and delighted that Ben Crenshaw has agreed to become the Foundation's US patron. Ben was born Austin Texas in 1952, attended and played golf at Austin High School and the University of Texas, turning professional in 1973. He was runner up in Major Championships on five occasions before he won The Masters in 1984 and again in 1995. He is regarded as one of the best putters of all time.

In 1999 Ben was the captain of the US Ryder Cup team. At the end of the second days play the US team were losing by  10 - 6  and facing a heavy defeat. He was possibly the only person on the planet who did not see defeat coming! On the Saturday evening an emotional Ben said “I am a great believer in fate and have a good feeling about this”. He inspired his team to the greatest comeback in Ryder Cup history, taking 8½  points from a possible 12 to reach the magic 14½ and a most unlikely victory.

Ben currently plays on The Champions Tour and is a partner in Coore and Crenshaw a company in golf course design. He is married to Julie,  they have three children and live in Austin.

Ben said: “I am most flattered that you would request my involvement with the  Samuel Ryder Foundation, not only in conjunction with the Ryder Cup itself, but  also due to his innumerable community involvements.

Obviously, this is a high honor for me to be asked to become a Patron  for the Samuel Ryder Foundation, and I want you to know that I do not  consider this matter lightly.

I wish you complete success in your fundraising activities and in your  efforts to honor such an outstanding citizen”.

The Foundation is proud and delighted to welcome Peter Alliss as a new patron, alongside Bernard Gallacher (former Ryder Cup captain). Peter is the BBC's face of golf and one of the most familiar names and voices in the sport. He is of course commentating the 2010 Ryder Cup as this news is announced.

Born in 1931 in Berlin, the son of Percy Alliss, one of the foremost British professionals between the wars, Peter followed in his father's footsteps, turning professional in 1946 at the age of 15. He played in his first Open a year later.

Peter won 20 titles between 1954 and 1969, including the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese Opens in the space of three weeks in 1958. His first appearance in the Ryder Cup was in 1953 and he represented Great Britain and Ireland in the event until 1969.

Following retirement from international golf he joined the BBC commentary team in 1961 and has become known to millions of viewers in the USA, Canada and Australia as well as the UK. He enjoyed a legendary commentating partnership with the late Henry Longhurst and also hosted the popular Pro-Celebrity Golf programmes and Around With Alliss.

Peter is an accomplished writer whose credits include the series of Bedside Golf books, Peter Alliss – An Autobiography, The Who's Who Of Golf, Peter Alliss' Golf Heroes and a novel published in 1983 - The Duke. His definitive autobiography, My Life, was published in October 2004. Among the golf courses Peter has designed and constructed in partnership with David Thomas is The Belfry at Sutton Coldfield, national headquarters of the PGA and a Ryder Cup venue.

We are delighted and honoured to announce that Bernard Gallacher is now a patron of the Samuel Ryder Foundation.

Bernard was born on the 9th of February 1949 in Bathgate Scotland and at aged 20, became the youngest player to represent GB&I. He went on to play in 8 Ryder Cup matches from 1969 – 1981. He was captain for Europe in 1991, 93 and 95, each of the matches were extremely close and he was successful at the 3rd attempt. This match was played at the Oak Hill USA and was only the second time that USA were beaten at home.

Lee Trevino said “ In the Ryder Cup Bernard was the only player to get the better of him” - this he did 5 times.

Bernard turned professional in 1967 and accumulated 22 wins. He also represented Scotland in 1969, 71, 74, 82 and 83 in the World Cup.  He was appointed professional at the Wentworth Club, Surrey, England, holding this position for 25 years, retiring at the end of 1996. There is a statue of Bernard on the first tee.