The Other Rite Of Spring

SUNNINGDALE, ENGLAND | The year 1934 was important in the history of the game.

It was then that Horton Smith beat Craig Wood by one shot to win the inaugural Augusta National Invitation Tournament, which would later become known as the Masters.

Also that year, thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, the Sunningdale Foursomes was born.

For years, before the advent of the wraparound season, the Masters was widely regarded as golf’s rite of spring. But not by a prominent group of British amateurs and professionals who elected instead to begin their seasons in what was, and still is, a quintessentially British tournament staged on arguably two of the finest inland courses anywhere in that country.

“The Sunningdale Foursomes was the curtain-raiser for the season,” recalls 88-year-old Peter Alliss, the veteran Ryder Cup player and TV commentator, who won the event twice in 1958 and 1961 with Jean Donald (later Jean Anderson) and who still attends the annual past champions lunch held on the final day of each ye...