Abe Mitchell’s life didn’t get off to the best start.
But Mary’s illegitimate son, born in a workhouse in East Grinstead in Victorian England, would become one of the highest-paid sportsmen of his era and be immortalized as the figure who sits atop the Ryder Cup.
The story of “Cantelupe Crack” is truly a rags to riches story.
As a child, he carved his own clubs from branches cut from trees to hit balls found in the undergrowth. He was pilloried as an artisan golfer, a “laborer” infiltrating a gentleman’s estate, after winning his first significant title in 1910.
He served on the front line during World War I and would later suffer from anxiety during the course. Unfortunately, he would never win a major tournament, eventually being dubbed “the greatest player to never win the Open” by five-time champion JH Taylor.
Mitchell was born in January 1887 and his golf journey began at the age of three, when he wandered the fairways of Royal Ashdown Forest, which itself was in its infancy, having been founded only a year after his birth in 1888.
The course, carved from common land owned by the seventh Earl De La Warr on the edge of the village of Forest Row in East Sussex, was not to everyone’s taste. This attracted walkers who refused to give up their right of way, while small operators damaged the greens.
To negotiate peace, the wealthiest members of the golf club voted unanimously to try to rally these commoners. The result was the creation in 1892 of the Cantelupe Artisan Club – named after Viscount Cantelupe, the count’s son.
It is now England’s oldest craft section and current Cantelupe captain Max Pearson told BBC Sport: “It was a club for local people, who had to live within a radius eight kilometers around the village, although today it is less than eight kilometers from the village. four miles from the church tower.
“Artisans were recruited as original putting greens and were rewarded with free golf.”
It was perfect for Mitchell and his loved ones, whose humble beginnings would have kept them from playing at their local course. He was one of four brothers and seven cousins and uncles who started as members of Cantelupe, and all became greenkeepers or professionals.
“They could form a Mitchell team and massacre university teams from Oxford or Cambridge,” says Colin Strachan, a member of Royal Ashdown Forest since 1978, who has written a book detailing the club’s rich history – Fair Ways in Ashdown Forest .
“At the age of eight, Abe was making his own clubs from beech branches to hit balls he found on the course.
“At the age of 12, he was playing and beating adults.”
Pearson said that in 1910 Mitchell had been “recommended into the England team to face Scotland by AG Hutchinson, a man he had beaten four times in annual matches between the craftsmen and the club members” .
It would cost Hutchinson his spot on the team, and Golf Illustrated called Mitchell’s selection “the advent of the laborer of the ancient and honorable vocation of gardener.” The publication also sniffily suggested that the match featured “the cream of gentlemen golfers and Abe Mitchell.”
He would further defy his critics that same year, winning the prestigious Golf Illustrated Gold Vase at Sunningdale, and again in 1913 at Walton Heath, as his stock rose in the game.
Golf Illustrated was again derisive in its reporting, describing Mitchell as “a groundskeeper for a workingman’s golf company with greening rights at Royal Ashdown”, adding that he had “never seen a workingman play before “.
This led Mitchell to say that “golf is the class game in England and I have a just belief that craftsmen are not in demand”.
But his exploits had brought him to the attention of Sir Abe Bailey, a South African diamond merchant and sports fan, who played an important role in the formation of the International Cricket Council.
Bailey owned a huge house overlooking Forest Row and closely monitored Mitchell’s progress. He paid her a retainer to be his gambling partner, thus benefiting from winning money from betting matches, while also employing her as a gardener and driver.
Mitchell would enjoy his joint best result at an Open Championship in June 1914, finishing tied for fourth at Prestwick as the legendary Harry Vardon completed his record sixth triumph in golf’s oldest major tournament.
But the outbreak of the First World War the following month cruelly interrupted his career.
“Abe spent much of the war on the front line in northern France, pulling horses which, in turn, pulled huge cannons through the mud,” says Strachan.
“Golf courses were turned into trenches serving as training grounds for the Somme, and remnants can still be seen at Royal Ashdown.
“The soldiers’ training usually lasted a fortnight, then they all went to church on Sunday before being loaded onto cattle trucks. The whole village of Forest Row would gather to see them off down the hill from the club.
“Abe was strong as an ox and was one of the lucky ones who survived.”
Mitchell was renowned as one of the longest and straightest hitters and when the Open returned in 1920 at the Royal Cinque Ports in Kent he took a six-shot lead after the first two rounds on June 30.
But he struggled in the third round the next morning, posting an 84 as his lead evaporated and he would eventually finish fourth, four behind Scot George Duncan.
His friendship with Duncan would prove lucrative, however. In 1922, the two men embarked on a whirlwind tour of the United States and Canada that earned them at least $25,000 each, worth about £370,000 today.
Details on how long the trip lasted are a little hazy, but Strachan believes it would have lasted about three months.
“They were playing for literally a lot of money,” he says. They played two rounds a day and spread out over 84 rounds, playing as far north as Winnipeg in central Canada, to Florida in the south and visiting places in between like Kansas, Milwaukee and New York.
“They won 51 matches, losing a few times to the great Walter Hagen (who won 11 major titles) and a few times to the emerging Gene Sarazen (who would win seven major titles).
“They returned in 1925, with Hagen as backer and received again $25,000 each and certainly supplemented this by winning bets on the matches.”
By this point, Mitchell had met Samuel Ryder, the wealthy seed merchant who would go on to found the transatlantic tournament that bears his name.
Ryder, who only took up golf aged 50 following medical advice to seek more fresh air and exercise, lived in St Albans, just north of London.
He joined the town’s Verulam Golf Club and sponsored golf tournaments, leading him to meet and employ Mitchell as his personal trainer, paying him a salary of £500 a year and covering his expenses for participating to other tournaments.
Mitchell was scheduled to compete in the inaugural 1927 Ryder Cup at Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts, but reports at the time indicated he was unable to make the trip due to appendicitis.
Strachan disputes this claim, saying: “I believe it was a manifestation of his anxiety that prevented him from traveling. »
Mitchell would go on to appear in the next three Ryder Cups, helping Great Britain defeat the United States in their first appearance in 1929 at Moortown in Leeds and again at Southport & Ainsdale in their final outing in 1933.
The 17-inch-tall gold trophy that the teams still play for was donated by Ryder, and to thank Mitchell for teaching him the game, he had a figurine of his coach placed on top.
“I owe a lot to golf,” Mitchell said. “What you have done, in placing me at the top of the cup, is more distinction than I could ever deserve.”