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.

Francis Bacon School is to be re-named the ‘Samuel Ryder Academy’ when it re-opens in September 2012 as an ‘all-through’ school.

The name was chosen because it reflects the desire to make it a school that is very much at the heart of the St Albans community.  Samuel Ryder was completely committed to the city, bringing business and employment to the locality but also getting fully involved in St Albans’ public life. He played a key role in the civic, commercial and community activities of St Albans not least through his time on the council and as Mayor. 

The values of innovation and hard work that he showed in his life will be key values of the new academy too. His creation of the Ryder Cup, and his love of golf, show that he also appreciated the importance of a healthy lifestyle and of extra-curricular interests – which will also be central to the new academy.

Bryan Hanlon from the Samuel Ryder Foundation said:

“The Samuel Ryder Foundation is delighted to be associated with the new Samuel Ryder Academy. Apart from donating one of the world's most prestigious sporting trophies, Samuel should be remembered for his achievements in business, horticulture, public service and philanthropy. For him, St Albans was "the centre of the kingdom.”

Sir John Lawes School (SJL) in Harpenden are the lead sponsors of the new Academy which will become part of the wider Sir John Lawes’ Educational Trust which will sit over the top of both schools monitoring standards and performance. 

Sir John Lawes Headteacher, Claire Robins said:

“Our key objectives over the next couple of years are to create a school that inspires confidence from its whole community and which enables its students to achieve more than they might ever have believed possible.  We want to create a school where students are educated to play an active role in an ever-changing world and where they are given the skills to make a valuable contribution, locally, nationally and globally.”

Francis Bacon Chair of Governors Mary Braham said:

“The Governors of Francis Bacon support the name Samuel Ryder for the new academy enthusiastically. Though most people connect him with Golf he was much more than that as a modern man for St Albans, an entrepreneur, politician and churchman he had vision and community values for the people of St. Albans. He was dedicated to the improvement and the quality of his local community and worked tirelessly to develop that ethos.  These are values the Samuel Ryder Academy will aspire to and promote.”

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.

On 15th May 2011 two of our trustees, Bryan Hanlon and Dave Holwell, together with Peter Fry - Samuel Ryder's biographer - attended a service to celebrate the 100th "birthday" of the present Citadel building in St Albans.

Samuel's foundation stone is to the left when you enter through the main doors , and our president Mary Moore remembers that William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, stayed with Samuel and his wife at Marlborough House when he was in the city.

Dave gave a presentation upon Samuel's life, work and religious beliefs, and The Foundation mounted a display expanding on these in the entrance foyer. It was particularly gratifying that one of the congregation (now 85 years of age!) used to work part-time in the Ryder Seed Hall on Holywell Hill in St Albans, when a schoolgirl during WW2.

At a full Cabinet meeting on 5th April 2011, St Albans City and District Council debated, and fully endorsed, the Foundation’s proposal for a statue of Samuel Ryder to be erected in the very heart of the city.   This is to be the first phase of the implementation of  a Heritage Sculpture Trail, to  be used as a way of raising the profile of art, culture and heritage in the city.

The St Albans Review said today:

“The £150,000 project, which will be funded by the Samuel Ryder Foundation, earned the enthusiastic backing of cabinet members at a meeting last night after they viewed a slick promotional video in which leading figures form the world of golf (including commentator Peter Alliss and former US Masters champion Ben Crenshaw) gave their backing to a ‘fitting tribute’ for a remarkable man”.

We warmly welcome this decision. The ball is now very firmly our court to raise the necessary funding for this major project to commemorate a man whose name is so widely known throughout the world.

On Sunday 2nd Jan 2011. Trustees of The Foundation joined with Members of the Verulam Golf Club to honour the memory of Samuel, at his graveside in Hatfield Road Cemetery St  Albans, on the 75th anniversary of his death. Flowers were laid and tributes were read by VGC captain Brian Pierson. Patricia Fulton read the tribute on behalf of the Foundation, written by Mary Moore (Samuel’s granddaughter).

Afterwards trustees of The Foundation were invited to the club house. A  small celebration took place in recognition of the work of two of the members in tracking down some missing photographs from their past captains gallery. After the captain had put the photos in there rightful place, glasses were raised to toast the achievement.

We are delighted to announce that St Albans City and District Council have confirmed their support for the Foundation's efforts to promote the legacy of  Samuel Ryder within his adopted city and worldwide, with a financial donation to help fund our activities.

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.