The Ryder Cup

        Every decade or so, a piece of memorabilia becomes available that truly captivates the golf community. In the late 90's, it was the auctioning of Bobby Jones' Green Jacket; Last decade it was the sale of the Jeff Ellis golf club collection; before that, it was the historic sale of a putter personally used by Old Tom Morris. Presented here is the next great piece of golf history - The Ryder Cup.Ryder Cup.

        The Ryder Cup is certainly one of the most iconic trophies in golf, if not all of sport. Nothing quite embodies the spirit of international competition quite like this great, understated trophy. Several original Ryder Cup trophies exist. Most well-known are the two full-sized Ryder Cup trophies that are owned (or rather, shared) by the Royal & Ancient and the PGA of America. The first Ryder Cup was produced in 1927 and is reportedly resting in a vault in England. That Ryder Cup was replicated in full-size duplicate, which is the one traded between the R&A and the PGA of America, depending on whether Europe or the United States is the reigning Ryder Cup champion.

        In addition to those two trophies, a handful of other Ryder Cup trophies exist. All such trophies are believed to be in the possession of either museums, courses that have hosted the Ryder Cup Matches, and some winning team members. Similar, if not exact, trophies to the one presented here are currently in the possession of the World Golf Hall of Fame, the British Golf Museum, the USGA Museum, and the Brandenburg Historical Golf Museum.

        This particular trophy is 75% of the size of the original Ryder Cup. This is typical of all duplicate major golf trophies. For reference, the USGA allowed U.S. Open champions to purchase trophies reproduced at 60% size until 1996, at which time 75% duplicates were allowed. Interestingly, the USGA did not allow champions of earlier U.S. Opens to replace their trophies with the larger 75% versions. (Golf Digest, July 2001, J. Hawkins). This was a particularly odd situation for Lee Janzen, who currently owns one 60% duplicate trophy from his 1993 U.S. Open victory, and one 75% duplicate from his later 1998 U.S. Open win. "I asked if I could get my first one done over and [the USGA] said no." (Golf Digest, July 2001, J. Hawkins). The R&A historically has allowed champions to purchase duplicate Claret Jugs at 70% scale. John Daly has been quoted as saying he had to pay $6,000 in 1995 for his personal 70% scale Claret Jug. (Golf Digest, July 2001, J. Hawkins)  In 2000, the R&A decided to allow champions to order Claret Jugs reproduced at 90% scale and, in contrast to the USGA's strict anti-reorder stance, has allowed past champions to have their trophies enlarged.

        These two examples were provided to give context and to demonstrate why this particular trophy, like all duplicate Ryder Cup trophies, was produced at 3/4 scale. Amazingly, many players that have participated in the Ryder Cup do not ever have this trophy.  Ryder Cup participants generally only own smaller keepsake Ryder Cup replica trophies that are frequently given out as player gifts by the team captain of each tournament. Only recently have some players been able to order this 75% duplicate trophy - and only those that were members of a winning Ryder Cup team.  The winning bidder in this auction may be one of the only individuals in the world with an authentic, authorized Ryder Cup trophy on their mantle.

        The prominent owner of this particular Ryder Cup trophy wishes to remain anonymous, but will be known to the winning bidder. However, we can tell you that it was most-recently on loan to the Augusta Museum of History, and was only retrieved in order to be offered in this auction. It's one thing to describe an item as museum-quality; it's yet another thing to offer a piece so exceptional that some of the only other examples in existence reside in museums, and that its most recent home was in a museum.

        This gold-plated trophy measures approximately 13" high, and was produced by the world-famous Asprey in the United Kingdom. The trophy comes in its spectacular, original trophy case.

**UPDATE (March 26)**

        Asprey has confirmed that they produced this Ryder Cup trophy at 75% scale of the original Ryder Cup trophy.  After notifying their public relations department about the auction, we were contacted by a Corporate Manager for Asprey, who provided additional details about the trophy.  The Ryder Cup trophies had been produced by Garrard for decades.  Garrard is obviously best-known as the Crown Jewelers, and also crafted the U.S. Amateur trophy, soccer's Premiere League championship trophy, and the oldest active trophy in sports, sailing's America's Cup.  Two of the oldest and most distinguished jewelers in the world then joined forces in 1998, when Asprey famously purchased Garrard.  At that time, Asprey began producing trophies for the Ryder Cup, which continued through the 2007 Ryder Cup Matches.  The trophies were only allowed to be ordered by the entity that puts on the tournament, Ryder Cup, Ltd.  Trophies were only given to "the players and associated officials of the winning team."  For example, 21 of these trophies were produced for the 2007 Ryder Cup - one for each of the 12 winning team members, and one can presume the remaining 9 trophies went to the Captain of the winning team, his co-captains, the host club, and either the PGA of America or R&A.  Email