THE RED-COATED captains from across Merseyside are going to St Andrews, where they will be photographed on the steps of the famous old clubhouse, as part of the centenary celebrations for one of the most prestigious golf organisations in the country.
The Society of Liverpool Golf Captains is 100 years old and events planned for this year will also recall its early beginning at Woolton Golf Club when secretaries, captains and treasurers of selected clubs were invited for a game of golf followed by a dinner.
The Society has developed to become very special. Its membership includes the captains and past captains, more than 700 men from 27 clubs, and its status and popularity is so great that it is impossible to accept the captains from other, more recently established clubs. Quite simply, no more could be accommodated at the annual dinner and golf competition.
The society may not be the oldest but as Geoffrey Leece, past captain of Huyton and Prescot who is now writing a history of the society, says: "We are the envy of many in other areas because of the strength of our society and we traditionally wear red coats. Others do not do that, but some are now following us."
So, as usual, the society’s annual dinner in Liverpool last month was a red-coated evening and for the three-days autumn meeting at St Andrews the society members will be in red coats at the old clubhouse before they go to dinner at the Old Course Hotel. Between 250-300 are expected to be there.
It is not clear who at Woolton invited the captains, secretaries and treasurers to that first get- together in 1908, although a J.F Clegg was a prominent figure at Woolton and indeed in the Society.
"Cleggie," as he was called, was in turn Woolton’s secretary, treasurer, captain and president, a naval architect by profession and, according to a Woolton history, a "very masterful personality."
In addition to Woolton, the clubs represented for the 1908 match and dinner were Royal Liverpool, Formby, Birkdale, Bromborough, West Derby, Heswall, Wallasey, Huyton, Ormskirk, West Lancashire, Chester, Leasowe, and one among the lost courses of Merseyside, New Brighton.
The evening was obviously a success because the idea was repeated before and after World War One, in 1911, 1912 and in the early 1920s. Then the golfers were known as the Liverpool and District Captains, Ex-captains, Hon. Treasurers and Secretaries Competition.
The Competition was renamed as the Society of Liverpool Golf Captains in 1938 and the secretaries and treasurers were phased out.
Clegg was secretary of the Competition from 1929 until he became the Society’s first captain in 1939. The other key figures in the history of the Society include Jack Stanway Johnson, a past captain at Childwall and secretary and treasurer of the Society for 30 years until retiring in 1992, and Harry Hayco, a captain at Huyton who in 1924 presented a trophy to the Society.
Members will again play for the Hayco Trophy at the annual competition this year.
The events this year include the annual competition, played each year at the home course of the captain, which this year means Derek Walkden’s Haydock Park, and a centenary dinner and dance at the arena at Kings Dock.
Also, the Society will play a match against the Bolton Society.
At Woolton, where it all started, a centenary match between the Societies of Liverpool, Edinburgh and London is being held in June and the St Andrews Night Dinner, always one of the biggest nights in the north west golfing calendar, will be a very special evening, again an engagement for the members of the society. A full pheasant for each guest will be part of the seven course menu.
Cleggie will undoubtedly figure in the memories of many.
The man who the Woolton history recalls had the air of a man used to command, was undoubtedly a major influence in the formative years of the society, a great power in the Woolton club for nearly 50 years.
His memorial service was held in 1953 and in the years following it must have seemed difficult to imagine the Woolton club without his commanding presence.
But then if you are ever at Woolton, perhaps at nighttime when the shadows lengthen or later as midnight nears and you perhaps imagine a figure at the far side of the lounge by the window... well, his ghost is said to frequent the building.
Kind Regards
Steve Cooke
MD St Andrews Golf Vacations www.scotlandgolftouring.com
134 South Street.
St Andrews.
Fife
Scotland
Telephone +44 1337 858888
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