THE family who gave birth to one of golf's most iconic characters has been honoured.

The parents of famous Sam Ryder, Sam senior and Elizabeth are buried in the graveyard of St Martin's Church, close to Ashton-on-Mersey Golf Club.

On the eve of the biennial match between the Europe and the United States at Gleneagles, golf club members laid flowers at the grave to mark the family's involvement in creating what was to become golf's biggest team competition.

Sam Jnr was born in 1858 in Walton-Le-Dale in Lancashire, but by 1881 the census showed he was living with his parents at Whalley Avenue, off Broad Road, in Sale.

His father, who was a gardener, ran a company selling packets of seeds.

Sam Jnr trained as a teacher at Owens College, now Manchester University, but did not graduate due to ill health and worked initially at a shipping firm in Manchester, before moving first to Derbyshire and then to St Albans in 1895.

Sam expanded the seedling business which grew so rapidly that by 1903, he was able to move it into a former coaching inn where he employed 90 staff to pack the seeds.

His parents both died in 1904.

After a period of ill health in 1908, Sam took up golf to help get himself out of doors more often. And with the help of American golf professional Abe Mitchell, he was soon on a single figure handicap.

In the early 1920s Sam decided to retire from the seed business and instead to concentrate on his idea of a series of challenge matches between British and American amateur golfers

He founded the competition in 1926 and donated The Ryder Cup, which was first played for in 1929 at Moortown, where he presented the trophy to home winning captain George Duncan.

He died in 1936 and was buried in St Albans.

Ivan Westcott, captain at Ashton-on-Mersey GC, said: "It's nice to have the parents of such a famous sporting name buried so close to our course. Members didn't want to see grave of Samuel Ryder's parents remain in a largely forgotten state so we've tidied the plot and added flowers so the parents of the famous son will be remembered."