Samuel Leonard King was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 professional golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

er, best known for playing on three Ryder Cup

Ryder Cup

The Ryder Cup is a biennial golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is jointly administered by the PGA of America and the PGA European Tour, and is contested every two years, the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe...

 teams.

King was born in Sevenoaks

Sevenoaks

Sevenoaks is a commuter town situated on the London fringe of west Kent, England, some 20 miles south-east of Charing Cross, on one of the principal commuter rail lines from the capital...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, a short distance from the Knole Golf Club, and lived there most of his life. His father was a charcoal burner at the Knole House

Knole House

Knole is an English country house in the town of Sevenoaks in west Kent, surrounded by a deer park. One of England's largest houses, it is reputed to be a calendar house, having 365 rooms, 52 staircases, 12 entrances and 7 courtyards...

 Estate. King became a caddy at the club as a boy, and learned to play. By 1929, he was the assistant club professional, and began playing in local and national tournaments. In his career, King had nine top-10 finishes at The Open Championship

The Open Championship

The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...

 between 1939 and 1959.

King was a member of Great Britain's 1937

1937 Ryder Cup

The 6th Ryder Cup Matches were held at the Southport and Ainsdale Golf Club in Southport, England.The United States team won the competition by a score of 8 to 4 points. It was the first time that the host team lost the competition.-Format:...

, 1947

1947 Ryder Cup

The 7th Ryder Cup Matches were held at the Portland Golf Club in Portland, Oregon, marking a resumption of the tournament after World War II forced its cancellation from 1939 to 1945. The United States overwhelmed the British team by winning the contest by a score of 11–1...

, and 1949

1949 Ryder Cup

The 8th Ryder Cup Matches were held at the Ganton Golf Club in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England.The United States team won the competition by a score of 7 to 5 points.-Format:The Ryder Cup is a match play event, with each match worth one point...

 Ryder Cup teams, including scoring his team's only point in 1947. He had qualified for the 1939 team, but the event was cancelled after the outbreak of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. During the war, he served in the Home Guard before returning to professional golf in 1946.

King became the head professional at Knole Golf Club in 1955, and later won the PGA Seniors Championship

PGA Seniors Championship

The PGA Seniors Championship is a European Seniors Tour golf tournament for men aged fifty and above. It was founded in 1957, and became part of the European Seniors Tour on its founding in 1992. It was played at the Royal Dublin Golf Club in the Republic of Ireland that year, but since 1993 it has...

 in both 1961 and 1962. He retired in 1976 and moved to Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

.

King died at age 91 in 2003, after being hospitalized for pneumonia. He is buried at St. Peter and St. Paul's church in Seal, Kent

Seal, Kent

Seal is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. The parish is located in the valley between the North Downs and the Greensand ridge to the north east of Sevenoaks town....

.

Tournament wins

This list may be incomplete

• 1933 PGA Assistants' Championship
• 1937 Daily Mail Tournament
• 1949 Yorkshire Evening News Tournament
• 1961 PGA Seniors Championship
  PGA Seniors Championship
  The PGA Seniors Championship is a European Seniors Tour golf tournament for men aged fifty and above. It was founded in 1957, and became part of the European Seniors Tour on its founding in 1992. It was played at the Royal Dublin Golf Club in the Republic of Ireland that year, but since 1993 it has...
  
  
• 1962 PGA Seniors Championship
  PGA Seniors Championship
  The PGA Seniors Championship is a European Seniors Tour golf tournament for men aged fifty and above. It was founded in 1957, and became part of the European Seniors Tour on its founding in 1992. It was played at the Royal Dublin Golf Club in the Republic of Ireland that year, but since 1993 it has...
  
  

Results in major championships

Note: King only played in The Open Championship

Tournament	1932	1933	1934	1935	1936	1937	1938	1939
The Open Championship The Open Championship The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...	CUT	CUT	DNP	T23	T28	T29	T23	T3

Tournament	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949
The Open Championship The Open Championship The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT	NT	DNP	T6	T7	T4

Tournament	1950	1951	1952	1953	1954	1955	1956	1957	1958	1959
The Open Championship The Open Championship The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...	T9	T35	T5	7	T8	DNP	DNP	T24	T30	T5

Tournament	1960	1961	1962
The Open Championship The Open Championship The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...	DNP	T37	CUT

NT = No tournament

DNP = Did not play

CUT = missed the half-way cut

"T" indicates a tie for a place

Yellow background for top-10