WGC Golf Book Centenary

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Clubhouse

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Halfway Hut

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The programme involved the construction of new bunkers and the drain-
ing, remodelling or removing of the existing 64 bunkers on the golf course.
But even that paled into insignificance alongside the decision taken in 2013
to install a 10,000 cubic metre reservoir between the 13th and 14th holes at
a cost approaching £150,000, raised by a Bonds Capital Repayment Scheme
and a £50 levy on all playing members.

The decision to build the reservoir was made to counteract changing
weather patterns associated with climate change. In the years leading up to
2013 the club owned an extraction licence enabling it to pump water from a
bore hole, provided the water level in that bore hole did not fall below a cer-
tain level (19m 43cm). Unfortunately, on several occasions before 2013, the
water level did drop below that level, forcing the club to purchase expensive
mains water to irrigate its greens, tees and landing areas.

The course was particularly susceptible during periods when hosepipe
bans were imposed and no water was available, leaving the club totally reli-
ant on nature to protect its course.

“That was a very uncomfortable situation to be in and it got us thinking
about what we could do about it,” said Cox “The obvious answer was to
build a reservoir so we could store water for when we needed it, and it has
already proved to be a great investment.

“One of the experts we spoke to when we were putting our plans to-
gether described building a reservoir as an insurance policy and that’s ex-
actly what it is. It protects the course from increasingly extreme weather
patterns, and I’d like to think it also guarantees it will still be here in
another 100 years’ time.”

52

CHAPTER FIVE

The Nineteenth Hole

The lack of a clubhouse for the first five years of the club’s existence did
not prevent members of Welwyn Garden City Golf Club having the best
of times. There was more to life than mashies and niblicks and the club’s
golfers rapidly became part of the town’s social fabric.

With the perfectly positioned Waggoners pub at Ayot Green providing a
hallowed halfway house, The Cherry Tree, the town’s first and for many years
only licensed premises, was adopted for functions and post-match lunches

Club events ranged from the sober to the not-so-sober. The first official
club gathering was in the sober category – a bridge and whist drive at The
Cherry Tree on April 28, 1923. The Pilot, the town’s privately-owned news-
paper, reported that a “select company” of 64 competed for “some very
handsome prizes presented by members – a pair of cut-glass decanters, a sil-
ver gong, a bronze monkey, a match-box holder, an ornamental candlestick,
a bead bag, an electric light shade and a cigarette cabinet”.

The prize-list reads like an early blueprint for the Generation Game, and in
his notes club historian Dick Litster explained: “Garden City residents were
then young, often newly wedded and such occasions provided an opportunity
for presenting unwanted wedding presents from people not likely to visit.”

During the summer, club get-togethers moved outdoors. The golf day on
August Bank Holiday 1923 was followed by a picnic at which “a substan-
tial tea was taken by members from trestle tables”, according to newspaper
reports. The tea party took place on an area adjacent to the current 12th
tee, climaxing a morning competition and afternoon driving, approach and
putting challenges. Members paid an entry fee of one shilling (5p) which
covered the cost of the tea. For the record, members Mogg and Mrs Leitch
won the driving competitions with distances of 221 and 110 yards – not
bad for hickory-shafted clubs.

53

The Cherry Tree (above) in the early 1920s was the club’s social centre.
Below: members pictured in front of their first clubhouse in 1928.

54

Above: members gather outside the nineteenth hole in the
1950s.
Left: Doris Litster, standing next to husband Dick, hands
over the key to Dick Reiss at the official opening of the club’s
pavilion in 1928.
Below: pictures of the clubhouse in the 1930s after it was
rebuilt following a fire.

55

Every event came under the gaze of the local press which, at this stage
of the town’s development, had limited options in its search for scoops.
The club’s ‘Smoking Concerts’ – which can be filed under the not-so-sober
category – drew particular interest. In this period, in this embryonic town,
the citizens made their own entertainment and club members doubled as
amateur musicians, singers and comedians.

The first Smoking Concert took place in early November 1923 when 150
members and friends packed The Cherry Tree. A “genial spirit prevailed,” it
was reported, as members provided entertainment in the form of sketches,
songs and monologues. Richard Wallhead, the Independent Labour MP for
Merthyr who lived in Welwyn Garden City and was a club member, received a
rave review for a rendition of A Yorkshireman in the Garden City. Paradoxically,
Wallhead was born in Romford and appears to have no links to Yorkshire. The
club’s gang of entertainers were, it was reported, in “magnificent voice”.

Local journalists from three newspapers arrived full of anticipation for
the 1925 Smoking Concert. More than 1,500 words of coverage appeared,
with one reporter gushing: “Some functions one attends doubting they are
worthwhile. At the Golf Social everyone knows that the common bond
of the ancient game will ensure an evening of pure relaxation and good
fun. This was abundantly proved by the crowd which filled the room at
The Cherry Tree last Friday night, when Mr Duncan Leitch, the captain
of the club, presided, assisted by an irrepressible committee who resembled
schoolboys set free on Guy Fawkes Night with all manner of wicked squibs
(small fireworks) and crackers let loose among unsuspecting company.”

The evening clearly went with a bang. Reports went on: “The chairman
first welcomed the splendid gathering of members and friends; and after a
brief speech asked Mr Arthur Blackborow to open the programme at the
piano. A charming combination of harmony was provided by Miss Peas-
good’s beautiful rendering of her song Love’s Coronation with cello obligato
soulfully rendered by Miss Joan Peasgood and piano accompaniment by
Professor Watts.”

It was not all highbrow. Leitch reduced the tone a notch or two with a
rendition of Drinking and Sandy Oglivie turned comedian, telling the au-
dience that he called very late at Leitch’s home and, not sure he was at the
right house, asked when Mrs Leitch answered the door: “Does Mr Leitch
live here?” To which she replied: “Yes, bring him in.”

Even AGMs were deemed an opportunity for a drink, a singsong and a
few jokes. In music hall tradition, much humour was aimed at the club’s

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many Scots and their relationship with money. No doubt it was done in the
best possible taste and, reading between the thousands of lines written about
WGC Golf Club’s early years, camaraderie flourished in the fledgling club.
Golfing friends were having a ball.

The fact remained, though, that members lacked a home of their own. A
couple of storage sheds (adjacent to the current 16th green) were no substi-
tute for a proper nineteenth hole. Eventually the club’s landlords, the WGC
Company, agreed to invest £560 (£37,000 in today’s values) in a suitable
structure. The formal opening took place on April 7, 1928.

Positioned on today’s chipping and practice area at the rear of the first
tee, the building was constructed from elm weather boarding with a red-
tiled roof, providing a central clubroom with glazed doors opening on to a
veranda. There were men’s and ladies’ dressing rooms with lockers, a room
for the club professional and a refreshment bar.

Dick Litster, captain in 1928, presided over the opening ceremony and
his wife, Doris, handed over the key to Dick Reiss, whose speech underlined
his dual interests as golf club president and director of the WGC Company.

Reiss made the point that since the War many clubs had opened around
London at great expense and with large subscriptions. Here, they tried
to make subscriptions as low as possible. Reiss said he thought they had
achieved something that had not been equalled. “With a three-guinea sub-
scription (£220 today) the course is perhaps not equal to a 15-guinea one,”
he said. “But I do think it’s equal to an eight-guinea one.” Reiss’s comments
confirmed the importance of the golf club to the development of WGC.

But there was a problem. Whether it was the puritanical streak within the
Garden City movement or, as Litster suspected, the Company’s reluctance
to see money diverted from their own establishments, such as The Cherry
Tree, the golf club struggled to gain permission to serve alcohol.

With just £50 left over in the kitty from 1927, the club desperately need-
ed clubhouse bar profits to ease the financial squeeze. Eventually they were
granted a licence, but this stipulated that the maximum serving time was
four hours on each winter weekend day, and five hours on each summer
weekend day, with special hours on public holidays and match days.

Such protectionism caused problems – finances were stagnant at best and
if a cask of beer was not finished on a Sunday, it was undrinkable by the fol-
lowing Saturday. This meant all profits went gurgling down the drain along
with the stale ale. The addition of a clubhouse did have an impact: by the
end of 1928 membership had increased from 198 to 245. However, the new

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The final version of the clubhouse
before its demolition in the early
1980s
Left: Captains Tom Balfour and
Hugh Anderson (right).
Below: hands-on members who built
the current clubhouse, Len Price, a
bricklayer, and captains Tony Cull
and Dick Skidmore.

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facility led to an increase in lease fees to £200 per annum (£6,700 today).
More difficulties were to come. Barely three years after the clubhouse was

opened, the club was back to square one. On March 19, 1931, the Welwyn
Times reported that WGC Golf Club’s clubhouse had been gutted by fire.

“The fire had got a secure hold of the wooden building and the fire bri-
gade was not able to do more than prevent it spreading into the men’s locker
room at the far end,” reported the paper. “The main clubroom, the kitchen,
the professional’s shop and the ladies’ locker room were destroyed. Many
of the lockers, of course, contained their owners’ clubs. Nothing was saved
except two easy chairs, a settee and two small tables.”

The Welwyn Times speculated that the fire had started in the kitchen and
told their readers that the club professional, Mr Perkins, was giving a mem-
ber a lesson in the valley some distance from the clubhouse as he watched
his stock go up in flames.

Good news followed the bad. An improved clubhouse emerged from the
ashes and opened at the end of June 1931, though it cost a third more than
the first. Externally it was a replica of the old building, but internally it was
much improved. Welwyn Builders – another WGC Company subsidiary –
even added a separate professional’s shop.

The Welwyn Times – also owned by the WGC Company – went into over-
drive, enthusing that one member had “paid for hot-water radiators and hot
water to all wash basins”. In addition, another member, Mr Alec Smith, had
polished the clubhouse floor to such effect that it “has become a temptation
to some members to forsake golf for dancing”.

Members of the ladies’ committee, the paper reported, “furnished the clu-
broom with nice-looking and comfortable Lloyd Loom chairs and tea-tables
that do not suffer by comparison. The upper part of the walls and the ceiling
is now panelled with asbestos sheeting coloured in primrose and there are
gay curtains.” Now known to be a major health hazard, asbestos is con-
signed to history, as is the term ‘gay curtains’ in the world of interior design.

Over the following decades the clubhouse took on various iterations.
There was an upgrade in 1935, providing a men’s smoking room and com-
bined office and stockroom. The year’s deficit ticked up to £88, sparking a
stern warning from Sandy Ogilvie, captain of 1924. Ogilvie’s concerns were
not without foundation. Against a backdrop of the 1930s Depression, new
members were hard to find, current members resisted subscription increases
and any capital expenditure required support from the landlord, who in
turn would increase the rent.

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There was a gap of 23 years before further clubhouse changes were made.
Under the New Towns Act of 1948, WGC Company assets were taken over
by the WGC Development Corporation. Offering a new lease as collateral,
the club could now borrow money from banks and negotiate interest-free
loans with breweries.

This freedom allowed investment in a bungalow in the early 1950s, providing
accommodation for a bar steward and stewardess. The logic was that a package
including accommodation would widen the recruitment opportunities beyond
the local area. Today it provides a regular rental income for the club.

An extension was made to the men’s locker room in 1958, costing £800.
Designed by Charles Fox, an architect and the club captain in 1947, the
building was three inches too low to accommodate the usual double bank
of rent-producing lockers. On the plus side, several larger lockers were built
to accommodate the growing fashion for bigger bags as the use of trolleys
increased.

Investment in a series of improvements was approved by members in
1963, and in 1966 captain Hugh Anderson reported that the step-by-step
project was complete. Costing £18,000, the frontage of the old building was
extended towards the 18th green to provide an entrance hall, a lounge and
billiard room. A separate building was erected on the far side of the club-
house for the professional’s shop – previously a shed – and the secretary’s
office, which had been in the main building.

Ten years later a changing-room block was added at a cost of £50,000. It
remains the men’s locker room today despite spectacularly falling foul of the
storms of 1990. The £50,000 investment of 1976 was the largest by the club
so far, but major change was on the horizon. The old clubhouse was falling
apart, and its days were numbered.

The roof was in such poor condition that some joked that
WGC was the world’s first golf club to have a water hazard
at the nineteenth hole. Buckets were positioned around the
clubhouse whenever it rained and the gag was adopted by
the broadcaster Terry Wogan, (left), who joked on his BBC
radio show that WGC Golf Club had spittoons in the bar.
The wet and the wit was too much for David Whalley, captain in 1978,
who instigated a pilot project to investigate options for a new clubhouse.
Dick Skidmore, a partner in a local building company, picked up the baton
and draft plans were presented to the captain’s committee in 1979. There
were rumours of heated discussions, but this was the captaincy year of the

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Frank Casey (left) leads the music during his 2022 captain’s drive-in celebrations

erudite Scot Tom Balfour, who calmed troubled waters.
Skidmore and vice-captain Jim Frost presented plans at an EGM and the

scheme was approved 2–1 in favour. Members agreed to pay a debenture of
£54 a year for four years which would be paid back later.

The club was blessed with many skilled tradesmen and the club’s builders
united for the cause. Tony Cull, captain in 1981, was one of them and little
more than a year after building work began, he was raising a glass at the
structural opening.

Such was the support of members that the new clubhouse was almost a
DIY project. Skidmore, who played a leading role with his partner Peter
Lucas (captain in 1984), told the Welwyn Times: “We estimate that if we
had put the project in the hands of a builder it would have cost us over
£400,000. By contracting out with no profit and no overheads it has cost
somewhere in the region of £192,000.” The final cost was put at £220,000.

In the Welwyn Times article, Cull summed up: “Keeping up the standard
of dress in the old clubhouse was always a problem. How can you tell a
bloke to wear a collar and tie when he’s got water dripping down his neck?”
Those who knew him will not be surprised to see Cull capture the moment
in such a humorous way. His comment also reflected the club dress code at
that time – collar and tie were required after 7pm in the lounge bar.

The new clubhouse was officially opened on June 12, 1982, by Herts
Golf Union president William Fernie. Fittingly, club captain Dick Skid-

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more presided over the ceremony with Dick Litster and Richard Reiss Jnr
in attendance.

Some members still remember with affection the slightly shambolic for-
mer clubhouse which started life in 1928, and it is true to say that the new
clubhouse has not been without its critics. Meanwhile, The Cherry Tree,
scene of such joy ten decades ago, has been swallowed up by the town’s
Waitrose. Other venues used over subsequent decades for club functions,
such as the Parkway Restaurant in the old Welwyn Department Stores
(John Lewis), and Welwyn’s Clock Restaurant, no longer exist.

In recent years the clubhouse has seen echoes of the 1920s Smoking Con-
certs with members displaying their musical talents. Norman Wiggins has
performed with one of his bands, and former club champion David Owler
revealed himself to be a scratch-level pianist in a 2022 summer gathering
on the terrace. On his captain’s drive-in day in 2022 Frank Casey provided
musical entertainment with his renowned Irish folk band which contains
musicians who have accompanied, amongst others, Sting.

In 2023, the clubhouse (below) will host the club’s centenary celebration.
In 2022, plans were unveiled for a major reconfiguration and refurbishment
of the 41-year-old building. It will not be the last. As in past decades, mem-
bers will come and go, and the clubhouse will host christenings, birthdays,
weddings and wakes. Welwyn Garden City Golf Club’s nineteenth hole will
remain a static structure that never stands still.

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CHAPTER SIX

A Prodigy Arrives

Accompanied by his mother Joyce, Nick Faldo arrived at Welwyn Garden
City Golf Club for the first time in April 1971.

The teenager had watched television coverage of The Masters, in which
Charles Coody pipped Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller by two shots, and
intrigued by what he saw, was determined to find out more about the game.

It was a decision that would transform his life and ultimately result in
him becoming arguably the greatest golfer Great Britain and Europe has
produced.

“The Masters of 1971 was my very first encounter with golf,” Faldo con-
firmed. “I was 13 years old and saw the last two days on television. With
the Easter holidays just beginning, I told my parents that I wanted a go at
the game.

“None of us really knew how I should go about becoming a golfer,” he
continued, “so my mother said we should go up to the local club at Welwyn
Garden City and simply ask. She also said that in return for taking me along
I would have to get a haircut.”

The following morning Faldo went to the barber’s as instructed and then
on to the golf club where mother and son were greeted by assistant pro-
fessional Chris Arnold. He suggested the best way to get started was to
book half-a-dozen taster lessons before going to the expense of buying the
required equipment. It was sound advice, but also completely unnecessary
because the young Faldo was hooked from the start.

He had already shown considerable promise as a swimmer, cyclist and
athlete, and it soon became clear his sporting prowess extended to the royal
and ancient game. He returned on successive Saturdays for 30 minutes of
tuition from Arnold at a cost of 50 pence a time before the assistant relin-
quished his role and handed him over to head professional Ian Connelly.

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The big match of 1973: Chris Allen and a 16-year-old Nick Faldo line up with captain Eddie Fogarty before
the club championship final which was won by Allen.

Connelly, a Scot from Dundee, knew talent when he saw it and in Faldo
he saw something special. It was a player-coach relationship that was to
endure for 13 years.

“I remember not long after Nick started a group of us were chatting to
Ian in his shop when he said Nick would win The Open,” said serial Wel-
wyn Garden City men’s champion Chris Allen. “We all laughed when he
said it, but then we realised that he was serious. And of course he turned out
to be absolutely right.”

Allen was one of a talented group of golfers at the club in the early 1970s.
Connelly’s pupils included Trevor Powell, Bobby Mitchell, Bryan Lewis,
Peter Cherry and Colin and John Moorhouse. Powell, Mitchell and Lewis
were all also to turn professional while John Moorhouse would join Faldo as
his caddie on the European Tour.

Fifteen years older than Faldo, Allen was an experienced high-class am-
ateur who beat the prodigy in the first of three WGC club championship
finals between the two from 1973–75. “I also beat him in the first round
of the county championship at Sandy Lodge,” said Allen. “But long before
then I knew he was in a completely different league to me.

“He was such a good ball-striker. We could both hit shots close to the pin,

64

but his ball flight and strike was so much better. He appeared to be able to
do it at will, and he was so focused and so determined. Even as a youngster
all his mannerisms were professional.

“By the time I played him in the 1975 club championship final he was
streets ahead of me and he beat me 6&5. I have some fantastic memories of
playing with Nick and it was thrilling in later years to be in the galleries at
The Open and witness his progress.”

Allen considered Faldo’s prodigious work ethic as a major factor in his de-
velopment, and that was confirmed by Ian Fordyce, another talented WGC
youngster.

“He never stopped practising,” said Fordyce, the 1971 Hertfordshire
Boys’ champion. “He was out there so much that it was difficult for the rest
of us to get on to the practice ground. There wasn’t much room out there,
so it usually came down to who got there first. Invariably that was Nick. I’ve
never seen any player work as hard as him.”

Faldo was utterly obsessed with becoming a professional golfer. Supported
by his parents George and Joyce, he elected to leave Sir Frederic Osborn
School in June 1973, just short of his 16th birthday. “I totally lost interest
in school from the age of 15,” he remarked later. “I just couldn’t see any way
in which an algebraic equation would help my golf.”

He intensified his rigorous practice regime and his game developed to
such an extent that the following year he was named in the English Boys’
team for the Home Internationals at Royal Liverpool.

Chris Allen observes a drive from Faldo in the 1973 final. “Even as a youngster all his mannerisms were
professional,” said Allen of Faldo.

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Photographs of the 1975 club championship final here
and on p67 were taken by long-time member Terry
Densham. Faldo is pictured (right) with his great
supporter Clive Harkett. Below: a huge gallery watches
Faldo tee off on 13.

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Above: Eque pelecti con et quunt quas sit volecabo. Et volut plandam idicimo luptasi utempeles exeribea
prestet Right: prorest odis alict

A Faldo iron shot is watched (above)
by Faldo’s friend and fellow member
Ron Marks who employed the young
amateur as a carpet fitter in winter
months.
Faldo’s elegant finish (above) is
captured perfectly by Densham’s
photograph as he plays out of a
bunker on 10.
Left: One more Faldo victory in
1975 is confirmed as Allen shakes
the hand of his opponent on the
13th green.
67

It was not an auspicious debut, however, but he did enough to impress the
former Walker Cup player and captain Gerald Micklem, who sidled up to
him after the match and offered some words of encouragement.

Micklem also spoke to Michael Bonallack, the five-time British Amateur
champion, about watching Faldo for the first time. “Something tremendous
has happened,” he said. “I’ve just seen the best player I’ve seen for ages and
ages. He’s terrific.”

Despite the age difference between them, Faldo and Micklem struck up a
deep friendship that lasted until the latter’s death in 1988. It was a relation-
ship Faldo appreciates to this day.

“I always listened to Gerald because he presented things so well,” Faldo
told one of his biographers, Dale Concannon. “He spoke such good sense.
It was straight to the point. He never wasted words. He would tell me what
I had to do, or what had gone wrong, and then leave me to decide how to
cope with it. I can hear him now saying to me in that distinctive way he has,
‘I’ll leave you to work out what the best solution is for that’.

“I remember I threw my clubs down at Saunton Sands [after losing the
lead during the final round of the West of England Open] and he came up
to me later and said, ‘I’ve just got to chat to you. I didn’t like you throwing
down your clubs like that. I used to do it and you can see that it never got
me anywhere’. He didn’t say, ‘If I ever see you do that again I’ll …’ and I
appreciated that. I always knew he said what he did for a good reason.”

Another older person Faldo forged a strong relationship with was the 1975
WGC captain, Clive Harkett, a larger-than-life Welshman. In his 2004 au-
tobiography Life Swings, Faldo described Harkett as “a true gentleman who
fully appreciated that the juniors represented the future of the club. He was
tremendously supportive. We won the Herts County Junior Team Champi-
onship [in 1973 and 1974] with a team consisting of Trevor Powell and John
and Colin Moorhouse and suddenly the membership was proud of us.

“Under Clive, the Welwyn members became wonderfully helpful and even
created the Commemoration Jug tournament after my first Open Champi-
onship victory at Muirfield in 1987, but in the bad old days I think some of
them regarded me as a young upstart who should have been at home doing
my homework instead of cluttering up their precious golf course.”

Faldo raised funds for his forays into the amateur circuit by working
part-time during the winter for local businessman and WGC member Ron
Marks. A carpet fitter by trade, Marks paid Faldo to fetch and carry for him
which, at the same time, helped build up strength for the season ahead.

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“Occasionally, when the weather was too atrocious even for me to ven-
ture out on the course, I would offer my services to Ron Marks, a long-time
friend,” Faldo recalled in Life Swings. “It was hard work for two quid a day,
lugging van-loads of best Axminster up and down innumerable flights of
stairs, but eventually as I picked up the secrets of the craft, I was promoted
from human donkey to assistant fitter, laying the underlay, hammering in
the gripper rods, then cutting the carpet to fit.”

The support of individuals like Marks, Harkett and Micklem enabled Fal-
do to enter the 1975 season determined to make his mark on the national
amateur scene.

His campaign started slowly when he carded a disastrous 86 in the second
round of the Carris Trophy (English Boys’ Under 18 Stroke-Play Champi-
onship) at Moor Park. But he followed by winning the prestigious Berkshire
Trophy before adding another string to his bow when he beat seasoned
English international John Davies in the third round of the British Amateur
Championship at Royal Liverpool.

Davies, a member at Sunningdale, spoke glowingly to the assembled re-
porters about how well his young opponent had played that day. “What a
boy! What class! He has a great temperament. If I can find a chink in the
armour of anyone I play, I’ll always attack it. But there was nothing I could
do about him. He had no weaknesses.”

Faldo came back to earth the next day when he lost to the unheralded
David Moffat. It proved to be a momentary blip because during that golden
summer he was to become, just nine days after his 18th birthday, the young-
est winner of the English Amateur Championship. He also won the British
Youths’ Championship, the South African Stroke-Play Championship, the
Scrutton Jug, the Hertfordshire County Championship, the Hertfordshire
Boys’ Championship and, of course, the WGC club championship for the
second time.

Remarkably, the final of the English Amateur Championship at Royal
Lytham and St Anne’s could have been an all-Welwyn affair. While Faldo
plotted his way to the semi-finals in one half of the draw, his clubmate
Chris Allen had done the same in the other half. Sadly, it was not to be.
Faldo beat his roommate for the week, Philip Morley, but Allen’s run came
to end when he lost to David Eccleston. The following day Faldo thrashed
Eccleston 6&4.

It was a result lauded in the newspapers. “It would be a surprise if this
success was a sudden flash of glory because there is the distinct quality of

69

the unusual about Faldo,” wrote Pat Ward-Thomas in the Guardian. “The
exceptional strength of his wood and iron play would stand favourably in
any company and is achieved with less effort than I have seen in any young
golfer for many years. This plainly is a natural gift. For a boy, his approach
to the game is uncommonly mature.”

Faldo’s run of success prompted Sunday Times journalist Dudley Doust to
write: “Few could have made a more mercurial rise than Faldo has done,”
but it also left him in something of a quandary about what to do next.

The options were either to turn professional or retain his amateur status.
Initially he opted for the latter by enrolling on a golf scholarship at the Uni-
versity of Houston alongside the Scot Sandy Lyle and fellow Englishman
Martin Poxon, before changing his mind and returning home a few months
later. It was a decision heavily criticised in some sections of the media, not
least by the American Doust, but Faldo himself was comfortable with it.

“There was simply too much studying,” he said. “I was missing the usual
practice sessions I had at home. I was used to hitting six hundred practice
shots a day. I had been doing that for three years and now I was being asked
to break my routine. It naturally led to a deterioration in my game.”

Faldo packed his bags and left Houston in March 1976. The following
month he played his last event as an amateur in the King George V Trophy
at Craigmillar Park in Edinburgh where he rattled off rounds of 68, 70, 76
and 68 to claim an impressive four-shot victory over Scottish international
George Macgregor.

The next day, on April 14, three months shy of his 19th birthday, and
after consulting his mentor, Connelly, and his parents, he decided to relin-
quish his amateur status.

“I felt as though everybody was expecting me to win in Scotland,” he
said. “And as that would have made it much harder, if not impossible, to be
as successful as the previous year, I decided to turn professional.”

The time had come to move into the big league.

70

Nick Faldo’s 1975 Major Achievements

English Amateur Championship
South African Amateur Strokeplay Championship

British Youths Championship
Berkshire Trophy
Scrutton Cup

Champion of Champions Trophy
Hertfordshire County Championship
Hertfordshire Junior County Championship
Royston Junior Boys’ Championship
Tied First for King George V Coronation Cup
Welwyn Garden City Golf Club Championship
Faldo was selected for: England and British Youths sides;
England in Home International Series; British Commonwealth Trophy side.

In his golden year of ’75 Faldo holds the English Amateur Championship trophy with parents
George and Joyce in a picture published in the Welwyn Times.

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Changing times at The Clock

Four days before Christmas in 1975, Nick Faldo’s remarkable leap into amateur
golf ’s elite group was celebrated with a dinner at Welwyn’s Clock Restaurant.
With a ticket price of £3.75, guests were served a seasonal meal of minestrone
soup; roast Norfolk turkey, stuffing, chipolata sausage, roast and cream potatoes,
garden peas, Brussels sprouts; Christmas pudding and rum sauce; mince pies;
cheese and biscuits and coffee.
The presidents of the English Golf Union and Herts Golf Union proposed a toast
to Faldo who responded with a speech. Club captain Clive Harkett proposed a
toast to the guests and Alex Hay, professional at Ashridge Golf Club, replied on
behalf of guests.
Just as life for Faldo was on the cusp of great change, Hay too was to become a
national figure - and he was to see a lot more of the young man sitting with him
on the top table. In 1978 Hay joined the BBC as a commentator, combining the
role with positions as professional and managing director at Woburn. With his
natural warmth and soft Scottish accent, he formed a compelling partnership
with Peter Alliss, describing to the nation some of Faldo’s greatest triumphs. Hay
retired from commentary in 2004 and died aged 78 in 2011. In his obituary,
the Daily Telegraph described Hay as the Ernie Wise to Alliss’s Eric Morcambe.
The Clock Restaurant, a regular venue for WGC Golf Club dinner dances, closed
in 2009. Sitting on a site adjacent to the A1M which is now occupied by apart-
ments, the building was destroyed by fire in 2010, ending hopes of it reopening
as a restaurant and hotel. Unfortunately, the £3.75 Christmas dinner is also a
thing of the past.

72

CHAPTER SEVEN

Ascent to Glory

Nick Faldo was one of amateur golf ’s hottest properties before he turned
professional in April 1976, so it was no surprise that he took little time to
make his mark in the paid ranks.

Armed with a £1,000 cheque generously donated by members of Wel-
wyn Garden City Golf Club, he finished tied 38th on his European Tour
debut in the French Open at Le Touquet. There followed another strong
performance in the German Open plus a share of 28th place alongside Gary
Player, Doug Sanders and Neil Coles in The Open Championship at Royal
Birkdale. The 19-year-old rookie finished the season in 58th place on the
Tour’s money list with earnings totalling £2,339, which secured full playing
privileges for the 1977 season.

After a winter working hard with coach Ian Connelly, he began his first
full season on the European Tour with a tie for third place in the Madrid
Open and a share of sixth place in the Colgate PGA Championship at Royal
St George’s.

Faldo also reached the fifth round of the Sun Alliance Match-Play before
bowing out to Brian Huggett. He then led the Uniroyal Championship at
Moor Park after two rounds only to suffer the heartache of losing to Seve
Ballesteros in a play-off.

That reversal was hard to take, not least because it happened in Hertford-
shire in front of his home fans. But by now it seemed only a matter of time be-
fore Faldo notched his first victory as a professional and the landmark duly ar-
rived at the Skol Lager Invitational at Gleneagles, a 36-hole stroke-play event,
played ahead of the Double Diamond Invitational. He carded rounds of 67
and 71 and then beat Craig Defoy and Chris Witcher in another play-off.

That was the first of 43 victories Faldo clocked up around the world over
the next two decades and was instrumental in helping him become the

73

An early image of Nick Faldo as he enters the world of professional golf with his fellow Welwyn Garden City
member John Moorhouse who carried his bag in the first phase of his career.

74

Faldo made an instant impact on his Ryder Cup debut in 1977 by claiming the scalp of Tom Watson who had
won the second of his five Open Championships a few months earlier.

youngest player to represent Great Britain & Ireland in the Ryder Cup. His
appearance, in the 1977 edition at Royal Lytham & St Annes, began when
he teamed up with Peter Oosterhuis to record a 2 & 1 victory over Ray
Floyd and Lou Graham in the foursomes before the same English pairing
claimed another point with a 3 & 1 win over Floyd and Jack Nicklaus in
the fourballs.

Faldo’s dream Ryder Cup debut was completed the following day with a
one-hole singles victory over reigning Masters and Open champion Tom
Watson. It was the first of 11 appearances (plus one as captain) he made in
the biennial contest during which he set records for most matches played
(46), most matches won (23) and most points secured (25).

The Ryder Cup was barely over when Faldo claimed his second title of the
season in the Laurent Perrier Trophy in Belgium, where he beat Ballesteros
and Billy Casper as part of an exclusive eight-man field.

“Faldo has the class to rule Europe for years,” Michael McDonnell, the
Daily Mail’s respected golf correspondent wrote at the time. “His display
was not only thrilling but also showed clear evidence that he is the stuff of
champions.”

75

Casper, a three-time major champion, agreed. “Nick has more talent than
anyone I have seen out of Britain,” he said. “He gets a bit hot when he miss-
es a shot, but that’s youth.”

Faldo went on to claim eighth place on the European Tour Order of Merit
at the end of the 1977 season and was named the Tour’s Sir Henry Cotton
Rookie of the Year.

The following year he won his first 72-hole stroke-play event at the Col-
gate PGA Championship at Royal Birkdale. Between 1979 and 1983 he
rattled off further victories at the ICL Tournament (South Africa), the Sun
Alliance PGA Championship (twice), the Haig Whisky Tournament Players
Championship, the Paco Rabanne French Open, the Martini International,
the Lawrence Batley International and the Ebel Swiss Open.

Faldo headed the European Tour Order of Merit for the first time in 1983
with five wins in 16 starts, and in 1984 claimed the Car Care Plan Interna-
tional on the European Tour and his first victory on the PGA Tour in the
Sea Pines Heritage Classic at Hilton Head. However, by that time he had
begun to harbour doubts about whether his swing was robust enough to
handle the pressure coming down the stretch in the biggest tournaments; he
vowed to do something about it.

Faldo had parted company with Connelly in 1982 and had worked briefly
with other coaches, including John Jacobs and Bob Torrance, but to no avail.

“They either wanted me to work on their ideas, which in some way or
other were different to what I thought was right, or suggested I should go
back to my old swing,” he reflected.

“On the surface, the solution was simple: ‘Work on that,’ they said, ‘and
you will learn to handle the big occasions in due course’.”

Faldo was unconvinced. Ultimately his solution was to team up with Da-
vid Leadbetter, who was born in England but had emigrated to Zimbabwe
with his family at the age of six.

Leadbetter was already coaching Denis Watson and Nick Price, and it was
while working with the latter at the Million Dollar Challenge at Sun City
in 1984 that he got together with Faldo for the first time.

“He asked me to have a look at him,” Leadbetter recalled. “I think Nick
Price had been speaking to him. Nothing was planned. It was more a case of
I was there, he was there. I think he had already spoken to Mark O’Meara
about his swing at that stage and maybe wanted a second opinion.

“I told him that his swing was too steep, that he needed to get his swing
a little more rounded, a little flatter. Something that would give him a little

76

An image of Faldo (top left) was painted by sport specialist artist Roger Harvey in 1978 to celebrate Faldo’s
first 72-hole event tournament victory, the Colgate PGA Championship at Birkdale.
Top right: Faldo consoles Greg Norman after dismantling him in the final round of the Masters in 1996,
Faldo’s final major win.
Below: Faldo stands next to captain Tony Jacklin as the European team of 1987 celebrates the continent’s
first Ryder Cup victory on American soil. Faldo took three-and-a-half points in the famous 15-13 victory at
Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.

77

more control. I remember walking with him in a practice round at Augusta
in 1982 or 1983, and noticing that when he hit his tee shots, especially
into a slight breeze, how they seemed to balloon up. There was no run on
his shots, His goal at that stage was to win a major. He dearly wanted to
win The Open, but I thought the way he hits it high like that he is going
to struggle. So, my suggestion was to get the club going a little more round
him and we sort of left it like that.”
Faldo was clearly receptive to Leadbetter’s ideas, but it was only after sev-
eral more months in the doldrums the following year that the pair started
working together formally. “I had reached the stage when I knew I couldn’t
do it by myself, and of all the people I had talked to, Lead made the most
sense,” Faldo said.
However, it was no easy fix, and no quick one, either. The once domi-
nant Faldo endured uncomfortable, winless seasons in both 1985 and 1986,
when he was lambasted in the media for dismantling the swing that had
brought him his early successes. But all the heartache and hard work proved
worthwhile when he finally secured his first major title at The Open at
Muirfield in 1987
Faldo had always been clear that his career would be defined by the num-
ber of majors he won so it was understandable that he was close to tears on
the day after his 30th birthday. By firing 18 pars in his final round to pip
Paul Azinger by a single shot, he became the first English player to claim the
title since Tony Jacklin in 1969.
“I knew I’d do it. And I knew I had to do
it,” he said in the aftermath of that sensation-
al final round before reflecting on the frustra-
tions he had felt about how long it had taken
to fulfil his childhood dream.
“Sandy [Lyle] and Bernhard [Langer] had
gone ahead of me, there is no doubt about
that. But I always felt I was as good as they
were, and it was immensely frustrating not to
show it.”
Faldo was awarded an MBE after that tri-
umph and was named the BBC Sports Per-
sonality of the Year. But any thoughts that he
would rest on his laurels were dispelled over
Faldo with the coveted BBC Sports the following years.
Personality of the Year trophy in 1989.

78

In 1988 he narrowly missed becoming the first Briton to hold both The
Open and the US Open titles simultaneously when he lost in a play-off
to Curtis Strange at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. But
he then went on a run in which he won back-to-back Masters in 1989
and 1990 and another Open Championship at St Andrews in the second
of those years. He won the Claret Jug for a third time, back at Muirfield,
two years later and The Masters for a third time in 1996 with the brutal
destruction of Greg Norman in the final round. Faldo memorably hugged
the vanquished Australian on the final green and said: “I don’t know what
to say. I just want to give you a hug.”

Faldo’s career haul of six major titles puts him twelfth equal on the list of
winners behind Jack Nicklaus (18), Tiger Woods (15), Walter Hagen (11),
Ben Hogan and Gary Player (both nine), Tom Walton (eight) and Harry
Vardon, Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer (all
seven). It might have been more because he also claimed three runner-up
finishes and was placed in the top five on nine other occasions.

He was to record just one further victory: in the 1997 Nissan Open at the
Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. Later that year he made one final Ry-
der Cup appearance at Valderrama, but two years later was declared surplus
to requirements by captain Mark James, thus ending a sequence stretching
back to 1977.

“I think Nick was a great benefit to the team two years ago, but he hasn’t
really done anything in the last couple of years,” was how James explained
his decision. “He’s been beaten and bettered by younger players. Maybe
the others aren’t in awe of him as they used to be and he’s no longer one up
standing on the first tee.”

It was not a decision met with universal approval. Colin Montgomerie
insisted that “an 80 per cent Nick Faldo would always be on my team”,
while, ahead of the announcement, Lee Westwood had signalled his support
for the Englishman by suggesting “a Ryder Cup without Nick Faldo would
mean a weaker European team”.

By that time Faldo had started to wind down his playing career and was
looking for other avenues to explore. One of the first was setting up the
eponymous annual Faldo Series for junior golfers, which nowadays provides
competition for around 5,000 boys and girls across Europe and the Far East.

“The idea first came to me when I was playing a practice round with
Robert Floyd [son of Raymond] in Florida and asked the lad about his
forthcoming plans,” he explained in Life Swings. “His diary was packed

79

with 72-hole events which set me wondering why there were so few similar
opportunities for juniors in Europe. The Swedes cottoned on to the im-
portance of helping youngsters years ago. Way back in 1982, the Swedish
association sent three of their junior players to study me at close range. They
shadowed me throughout practice for The Open at Royal Troon, watching
how I prepared for a major. With such foresight, is it any wonder that Swe-
den’s golfers have such global presence?
“I could have simply pumped in the money to set a Junior Series in mo-
tion and employed a team of teaching professionals and advisors to look
after the fledgling players, but that is not how I wanted to do things,” he
explained. “For a start, I enjoy my time with the youngsters, and I think it
is important to them that I am actively involved.”
Over the last couple of decades Faldo has also worked tirelessly to build
his golf course design business. Faldo Design’s portfolio now includes cours-
es on five continents and 20 different countries. Between 2004 and 2006 he
worked alongside former rival Paul Azinger and host Mike Tirico as a com-
mentator for ABC’s PGA Tour coverage. That broadcasting role broadened
considerably when, in October 2006, he replaced Lanny Wadkins as CBS’s
lead analyst. Subsequently, he became the analyst for the Golf Channel and
he has made frequent guest appearances on Sky Sports during their Open
Championship coverage and at other events.
In 2009 Faldo was knighted by
Queen Elizabeth II in recogni-
tion of his service to golf. “I had
dreams as a young boy of being
a golfer and winning golf tour-
naments, but you don’t dream of
this,” he said at the time.
Faldo announced last year that
he would step down from his
broadcasting duties while still at
the top of that profession. Fit-
tingly his last appearance came
at The Wyndham Championship
(formerly the Greater Greensbo-
ro Open), the event where he
made his PGA Tour debut way
A young Rory McIlroy receives the under 15 Faldo Series back in 1979.
trophy from Faldo at Burhill in 2004.

80

Faldo was knighted by Queen
Elizabeth II at Windsor
Castle in November 2009.
In a US TV interview Faldo
said that when he was told he
was to be knighted his mind
flashed back to a time when
he would carry his clubs on
a self-made bike from his
home in Redwoods through
Sherrardspark Wood to WGC
Golf Club. He said: “My first
thought was ‘how did a kid
get from riding through the
woods on that contraption get
to become a knight?’”
81

“After much consideration and discussions late last year [2021] with my
business manager, and more privately with my wife, Lindsay, we together
concluded, and I decided, I would step down from Tower 18,” said Faldo.
“It was a great run since October 2006, when I was privileged to become
Lead Golf Analyst for CBS and to have the second best and highly coveted
seat in golf, sitting next to Jim Nantz.”

He has no plans to disappear completely from the golf scene while spend-
ing more time at his new home in rural Montana. It is still all systems go at
Faldo Design, the Faldo Series and for other new projects, he says.

The remarkable golfing journey, which began in 1971 when a local teen-
ager and his mother walked into the professional’s shop at Welwyn Garden
City Golf Club, is not over yet.

82

Sir Nick Faldo’s Major Titles

1987 Open Championship

Faldo’s decision to rebuild his
swing with help of David Lead-
better paid rich dividends when
he claimed his first major title at
the 1987 Open Championship
at Muirfield. He carded 18 suc-
cessive pars in a closing 71 to pip
Paul Azinger and Rodger Davis
by a single shot and claim the
£75,000 first prize on five under
par 279.

1989 Masters

It is never easy to win a major
and it certainly was not for Faldo
who was required to shoot a 65
in the final round and then beat
Scott Hoch in a play-off to win his
first Masters title. The American
missed a two-foot putt for victory
on the first extra hole before Faldo
holed a long putt on the next to
secure his first major on US soil.

1990 Masters

Faldo became the first man to
win successive Masters titles
since Jack Nicklaus in 1965 and
’66 when he beat Ray Floyd in
another play-off at Augusta.
WGC’s finest was three shots
behind his American rival with
a round to go but shot 69 be-
fore watching Floyd’s hopes of
becoming the oldest winner dis-
solve when he found water on
the second extra hole.

83

1990 Open Championship

It is sometimes said you cannot
be regarded as a truly great golf-
er until you win an Open at St
Andrews and that is what Faldo
achieved when he secured a five-
shot victory over Mark McNulty
over the Old Course. Faldo dis-
mantled fellow challenger and
playing partner Greg Norman
with a 65 in the second round be-
fore sealing his second Open title
with rounds of 67 and 71.

1992 Open Championship

Nick Faldo joined an exclusive club when
he won the 1992 Open at Muirfield for
a second time. Previously only Scotland’s
James Braid had won the Claret Jug
twice at the home of the Honourable
Company of Edinburgh Golfers but that
changed after Faldo took the lead with a
second round 64 and then added further
rounds of 69 and 73 to complete a single
shot victory over America’s John Cook.

1996 Masters

When Nick Faldo won his third
Green Jacket he said: “I hope
I’m remembered for shooting 67
on the last day and not for what
happened to Greg (Norman).” In
truth that was never likely to be
the case. The Australian was six
shots clear heading into the final
round but intense pressure from
Faldo resulted in his opponent
stumbling to a 78 and finishing
five shots adrift.

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Home on the range

Sir Nick Faldo has made many visits to Welwyn Garden City Golf Club since he
hit the road as a professional touring the world in 1976.

Faldo ponders some course design There is a permanent reminder of his deep af-
changes in 1981 filiation to the club out on the course he still
thinks of as home. In 1981, Faldo met captain
Tony Cull, vice-captain Dick Skidmore and Jim
Frost, captain the previous year, to dip his toe
in the water as a course designer. The most dra-
matic change he instigated was a redesign of the
sixth hole. A relatively mundane and straight
par-five was transformed into an aesthetical-
ly-pleasing, sweeping challenge thanks to Fal-
do’s vision.

In an interview at the time of that visit, Faldo said: “Golf course design is big
in the States and something I mean to get involved in.” He did, and with great
effect: Faldo Design has since built courses in 20 countries on five continents.

Back at the club in 1987 sharing The Open trophy Faldo added in that interview:
with captain David Robertson and (below) the “I owe the club a lot and I have
children of long-time member Colin Burke (l to r) never forgotten what the people
Kelly, Scott and Ricky. here did for me. Now I have the
chance to repay that generosity
by redesigning part of the course
to make it one of the best in the
South. I may not play a lot on the
course these days, but it is home
to me. Here is where it started 10
years ago, and I will give the club
all the support I can.”
Faldo was true to his word: on
Boxing Day 1987 he arrived at
the club with The Open trophy
he had won that summer. The
visit remains long in the mem-
ory of many members. “It was
a fantastic occasion,” said 2023
lady captain Marlene Duke. “I
first knew Nick as a seven-year-
old because I taught his mother
Joyce at the local college, so for
me it was quite incredible.”

85

She added: “I’m not quite sure
how it happened, but The
Open trophy finished Boxing
Day night on my bedside cab-
inet. We had guests later that
day and someone must have
brought it along from the golf
club – I’m sure with Nick’s per-
mission! My husband David
and I gave it safe refuge for the
night.”

Faldo and his Master Class pupils of 1991 Faldo has been an enthusiastic
supporter of the Commemora-
tion Jug, the competition for
club champions staged annual-
ly by Welwyn to celebrate his
first Open victory. He made
several appearances at the tour-
nament in the early years and
his parents, George and Joyce,
later substituted when he
moved to the United States.

Marlene added: “Nick has also
made many unscheduled visits
to the club – just popping in to
say hello.”

Faldo hosted some of the best
Mike Wild, Nick Faldo and (right) Alan Astell young players in the country
celebrate the unveiling of the club’s tribute to the
player’s astonishingly successful career. in 1991 when a Faldo Master
Class visited the club. A glance
at the photograph which hangs in the snooker room reveals that participants in-
cluded Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington. Faldo’s coach David Leadbetter
can also be spotted standing at the rear.

In 1992, Faldo officially unveiled the mahogany board which dominates the
clubhouse entrance, highlighting his career achievements. Alan Astell was the
captain that year and a predecessor, Mike Wild (1990), was one of the main insti-
gators of the tribute which provides the club with a permanent commemoration
to an incredible career.

There was a poignant return for Faldo and his family in September 2014 when
the life of his father George, who had died aged 88, was celebrated at a wake in
the clubhouse. On that occasion he took his children to the practice range to
show them the spot where he had hit countless thousands of balls as he honed a
swing good enough to take on the world.

86

Surrounded by Commemoration Cup volunteers in 1992, Faldo is pictured with (clockwise
l to r) Cathy Shand, Barry Didcock, Ray Izzard, Ron, Millar, Barbara Millar, Diana Lang,
Marian Andrews, Helen Tovey, June McClosky and Marlene Duke and (below) beneath the
scoreboard with parents George and Joyce.

87

Veteran member Terry Densham in the professional’s shop with Faldo and former club pro
Stuart Mason in 2014.
In 2021 Faldo brought one of his Faldo Series events for young golfers to Wel-
wyn, with more than 90 girls playing over two days. He took part in a television
interview, met many of the participants and gave his new wife Lindsay de Marco
a tour of the golf club.
The couple moved to their farm in Montana in 2022, and a quote from an in-
terview more than four decades ago may bring a wry smile to Faldo’s face. He
told journalist Bob Bryant in 1981: “I want to continue playing here in England
because this is my home. No way will I move to the States. I can fit the golf in
just as well by commuting by jet.”

Life changes, but Welwyn
Garden City remains Sir
Nick Faldo’s home golf
club.

Faldo with club professional
Shaun Collins in 2021 when
WGC hosted a Faldo Series
event.

88

CHAPTER EIGHT

Nick Faldo versus Gary Player

The big match: Player’s schoolboy caddie Bobby Mitchell offers some advice as Faldo looks on.

Two helicopters hovered into view above Welwyn Garden City Golf Club
on a warm early July afternoon in 1978. They signalled that the club and its
members were about to witness one of the most significant days in its histo-
ry. Having held a pre-match press conference at the RAC Club in London,
prodigal son Nick Faldo and South African golfing great Gary Player landed
safely adjacent to the first fairway.

89

Out stepped Player, winner of nine major championships, the last com-
ing three months earlier when, at the age of 42, he shot a final-round 64 at
Augusta to sweep through the field and secure his third Masters. Faldo was
21, barely two years into his professional career and nine years away from
the first of his six majors. However, a year before he had claimed the scalp
of Tom Watson in the Ryder Cup and was therefore intimidated by no one.

This was a head-to-head, winner-takes-all match for £5,000 (the equiva-
lent of £32,000 today). It was clearly a pay cheque worth getting out of bed
for. Or even a helicopter.

The sponsors were Playright Golf Mirrors, marketeers of a foot-high re-
flector in which a golfer could see his or her entire body. The sponsors
hoped the mirror would become a must-have mobile training aid, sitting
at the feet of a golfer while displaying a full reflection of their swing. The
technology was an adaption of the traditional Hall of Mirrors fairground
attraction in which concave and convex reflective glass turned people into
monstrously contorted figures; for many golfers, however, a reflection of
their swing would be a far more horrific sight. The Playright mirror was not
a revolutionary success, but adaptions of the idea remain available today.

Player had flown into London from Johannesburg on the morning of the
match. Before the action started he snatched an hour’s sleep at the home of
club captain David Whalley. Player awoke to play a bizarre one-hole celeb-
rity pro-am with guests Colin Reid, a high-profile Daily Mail columnist,
and the 1966 World Cup football commentator Kenneth (‘they think it’s
all over’) Wolstenholme. For one spectator it very nearly was all over when
Reid drilled his drive 10 yards left, sending the gallery on the first tee scur-
rying. Thankfully everyone survived to enjoy a 30-minute coaching clinic
from Player when the hole was completed.

In the main event Faldo was imperious. With his WGC Golf Club friend
John Moorhouse carrying his bag, he shot a six-under-par 65 to crush
Player, who signed for a two-under 69. Player’s caddie was 15-year-old
schoolboy Bobby Mitchell, now the professional at South Herts. The son of
WGC members Brian and Betty Mitchell, who lived adjacent to the course,
Mitchell had taken a day off school to help Player.

“The crowd absolutely loved Gary and people still talk to me about him
today,” recalled Mitchell. “I have to say, though, that he didn’t show too
much affection for me! I was just a schoolboy, but he treated me as if I was
his professional tournament caddie. Put it this way, he firmly made his point
if he thought he had been misinformed. But that underlines what a fantastic

90

professional he was, leaving nothing to chance and competing hard every
inch of the way. I learned a lot that day.”

As well as great memories, Player left WGC members with a permanent
reminder of his visit. As reported in Chapter Four, Player severely criticised
the 14th hole, which was then a par-four requiring a short iron towards
what is now the tee area. A second shot was then needed to negotiate the
dell. Player said he thought the hole was a terrible par-four but had the
potential to be an outstanding par-three. His wisdom was duly acted upon
and today the 14th is the course signature hole.

The Welwyn Times reported that in his after-match comments Player
praised both opponent and course. “I enjoyed the round and was pleased
to shoot 69 first time round. I think Welwyn Garden City is a really nice
course and I would like to compliment the ground staff on the way they
keep it.”

Faldo won an extra £1,000 for finishing nearest the pin on the 18th – so
near, in fact, that he was inches from winning a Rolls-Royce for a hole-in-
one. Player said of Faldo: “What a fine young golfer he is. It’s nice to see that
Britain has this type of player with so much potential. I think it would be
great if a Briton won the British Open again.”

At that time the last British player to win The Open was the former Pot-
ters Bar assistant Tony Jacklin, who triumphed at Royal Lytham and St
Annes in 1969. Sandy Lyle subsequently won it in 1985, two years before
Faldo’s victory at Muirfield. Faldo went on to match Player’s record of three
Open victories.

Bobby Mitchell’s account of his afternoon with Player underlines the
driven, obsessively competitive and self-critical nature of the world’s great-
est golfers, and Faldo’s uncompromising post-match comments confirm the
point. Having delivered eight birdies in setting a course record, Faldo said:
“It was nice to see the putts go down, but I still didn’t think I was swinging
very well.”

Next stop for Faldo and Player was The Open itself at St Andrews, where
Faldo finished seventh, his first Open top-ten finish. Faldo was six shots
behind the winner, Player’s great friend and rival Jack Nicklaus. Player fin-
ished 34th.

Scorecards, photographs and signed gloves celebrating the Faldo versus
Player encounter were framed and donated by former captains Tom and
Etta Balfour. Today the memorabilia hangs above the door in the club’s
Faldo Bar. The display confirms to members and visitors the historic fact

91

Faldo’s card tells the story of a performance too hot for Player with whom (left) he shakes hands before play.

that two Open champions have played the WGC course – but that is not
the entire story. In fact, three men who lifted the Claret Jug have played at
WGC.
Arthur Havers, winner of The
Open in 1923, was the star turn in
an exhibition match celebrating the
club’s silver jubilee on September 19,
1948. Another touring profession-
al, Eddie Whitcombe, also played.
Eddie was the son of Ernest Whit-
combe, who had famously appeared
alongside his brothers Charles and
Reginald in the 1935 Ryder Cup.
The WGC club professional Andrew
Cafferty and the Knebworth pro, a
Mr Hulls, made up the fourball.
Arthur Havers, another famous visitor to Welwyn, Unfortunately, no details of the
holds the Claret Jug at Royal Troon in 1923.

match result remain, but a diary item in the Welwyn Times reported:
“Much as the putting of Cafferty and the terrific drives of the genial Havers
were admired, it was Whitcombe’s day. His all-round game, entirely devoid
of flourish and showmanship shone with equanimity and class and here is
a golfer whose future record will be followed by the many Garden Citizens
who trekked in his wake on Sunday. The club committee is to be congratu-
lated in promoting this epic display.”

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The gallery looks on as the Havers fourball putts out on the old second green.

Fifteen years earlier, in WGC Golf Club’s inaugural year, Havers had been
a surprise winner of The Open at Troon where he holed from a bunker on
the 72nd hole to push American genius Walter Hagen into second place.
Hagen had won The Open in 1922 and did so again in 1924, 1928 and
1929. Having pocketed £75 for his Open victory (Cameron Smith won
$2.5 million in 2022), Havers went on to beat Bobby Jones and Gene Sara-
zen in exhibition matches in the United States. He also played in three
Ryder Cups, 1927, 1931 and 1933.

But Havers had his detractors. In his book The Who’s Who of Golf,
the legendary golfer and commentator Peter Alliss wrote of Havers: “He

Welwyn’s par-three third hole provides a perfect vantage point to watch the 1948 exhibition.
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Abe Mitchell in action and (top) lining up with Verulam amateur Evans
(far left). Welwyn’s professional ‘Ted’ Titterington (light top) stands with
partner Malcolm Sharp.

could at times look a very inferior player. He had
a four-knuckle grip and made little use of his right
hand. The swing was a lunging one with the hands
too far in front of the clubhead. At times, the re-
sult was one shank after another. Havers always ap-
peared unmoved, as if these monstrosities were no
concern of his.”
Perhaps Alliss’s assessment explains an unfortunate blemish on Havers’s
record – the largest loss in Ryder Cup history. In 1931 Havers and partner
George Duncan suffered a 10&9 defeat against Walter Hagen and Denny
Shute, albeit in a 36-hole match.
Havers finished his career as head professional at Frinton Golf Club,
where the main course is named The Havers Course. He retired in 1964
and died aged 82 in 1980.
While Havers was a relatively unheralded Open champion, another visi-
tor to Welwyn, Abe Mitchell, is immortalised as the golfer depicted on top
of the Ryder Cup. Mitchell travelled from his St Albans home to take on
WGC’s club professional L.A. ‘Ted’ Titterington in October 1936.

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Appearances on cigarette cards reflect the importance of Welwyn visitors Havers and Mitchell.
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This was the club’s first exhibition match and it ended in triumph for the
home player with the Welwyn Times declaring: ‘Local Pro Defeats Golf Star’.

It was quite a scalp for Titterington. Mitchell, winner of the Miami
Open in 1924, was regarded as one of the best players never to win The
Open, having had eight top-ten finishes. He was private tutor to the St Al-
bans seed merchant Sam Ryder, a Verulam Golf Club member and found-
ing father of the biennial confrontation now played between Europe and
the United States.

Such was Ryder’s respect for Mitchell that when he donated the trophy for
the first Ryder Cup in 1927, he ordered the goldsmith to place Mitchell’s
figure on the lid. Mitchell was selected as captain for that inaugural encoun-
ter in the United States, but appendicitis prevented him from travelling. He
subsequently played in the next three Ryder Cups, 1929, 1931 and 1933.

Mitchell was big box office and according to the Welwyn Times, 250
people walked the fairways to witness his match with Titterington. The
newspaper enthused: “The most interesting golf match ever played in the
Garden City ended in the youngster winning in 3&1. He deserved to win.
His courage in fighting down a certain nervousness evident on the first tee,
was admirable. What luck here was with him, but he played really well and
the long putt which gave him victory on the 17th will live long in his – and
our – memory. Mitchell was steadier off the tee, but handicapped a little by
ignorance of the course, not quite the master in his approaching.”

Mitchell, whose coaching manuals Essentials of Golf and Down to Scratch
are still today regarded as classics, bounced back in an afternoon pairs match
when, partnered by an apparently long-hitting Verulam member called Mr
Evans, he saw off Titterington and WGC club champion Malcolm Sharp.
Mitchell completed the last eight holes in 25 to produce a better-ball score
of 63. Abe Mitchell died suddenly in St Albans at the age of 60 in 1947.

The appearances at WGC Golf Club of Mitchell, Havers, Faldo and Play-
er caused great excitement and drew large galleries. However, the privilege
of a close-up view of the world’s best golfers on your doorstep is not appar-
ently for everyone. When Faldo took on Player, two high-handicap mem-
bers preferred their own version of the game, hacking their way round on
the opposite nine.

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The Welwyn Garden City double act

Nick Faldo’s lucrative Friday afternoon encounter with Gary Player at Welwyn
Garden City was another interesting day at the office for his caddie, John Moor-
house.
“Nick wasn’t going to give Gary any advice,” said Moorhouse. “He asked, but
we stayed quiet. Nothing’s given at that level. When he beat Tom Watson in the
Ryder Cup the previous year, Watson made him putt a gimme at the last. Nick
wasn’t overawed playing Watson or Player. He enjoyed every inch of the challenge
– he was right up for it.”
In the early 1970s Moorhouse and his brother Colin were talented players who
were part of Faldo’s close circle of golfing friends at Welwyn. Their father Geoff
was a highly competitive club champion.
Moorhouse had caddied locally for years before Faldo invited him to form a part-
nership at the tail-end of 1976. The pair enjoyed a remarkable season in 1977,
culminating in Faldo earning a place on that year’s GB & Ireland Ryder Cup
team and defeating Watson, who was then in his pomp.
“I started caddying at Brookmans Park when I was ten,” said Moorhouse. “I went
there every Sunday for about seven years. The only times I didn’t go were when
the family was on holiday. I used to get picked up by the pro at the Red Lion in
Hatfield. When I started I got five bob [shillings], but then it went up to seven
and six which was better.”
Moorhouse gravitated to working for local pros in Alliance meetings, but it was
after carrying his father’s bag in the 1976 WGC club championship that Faldo
asked him to join him out on Tour.
“I was just finishing my apprenticeship at Hawker Siddeley so I took a little while
to think about it,” he recalled. “I was 20. I’d never been abroad in my life. I didn’t
even have a passport, but in the end I decided it was too good an opportunity
to miss.”
The pair warmed up by winning a pro-am in Torquay before Moorhouse caddied
on Tour for the first time when Faldo finished tied 68th behind Seve Ballesteros
in the French Open at Le Touquet.
“I slept on the floor of his room that week, but that’s what you did in those days,”
he said. “There wasn’t as much money as there is nowadays.”
Moorhouse was on the bag for Faldo’s impressive early career performances and
his first Tour title in the Skol Lager tournament at Gleneagles where he scooped
the £4,000 first prize. “It was only a 36-hole event but that did not matter,” said
Moorhouse. “A win’s a win no matter what it’s in.”
Faldo went on to make a high finish in the Carroll’s Irish Open and the combined
result of those fine performances was a spot in the Ryder Cup team at Royal Ly-
tham & St Annes where he emerged undefeated.

97

“That remains one of the highlights for me,” admit-
ted Moorhouse. “It was a great honour to be part of a
Ryder Cup and to see Nick play so well made it even
better.”
Moorhouse pocketed £500 the following year when
Faldo won the Colgate PGA Championship, which
delivered a cheque for £10,000. Further success
seemed inevitable, but Faldo did not win again in
1978 and after a lacklustre start to the 1979 season,
and a collapse while challenging for the Colgate PGA
title at St Andrews, the WGC pair’s working relation-
ship came under strain.
“That was effectively that,” said Moorhouse. “We
carried on until the end of the season, but the spark
was no longer there.”
Faldo turned instead to Andy Prodger, who was to
help him to his first two major titles before being
replaced by Dave McNeilly and then Fanny Sunes-
son. Moorhouse teamed up with Mark James at
the 1980 French Open and worked for the York-
shireman until 1985, and then again in 1987. Dur-
ing that time James won the 1980 Carroll’s Irish
Open and the 1982 Italian Open. Moorhouse also
received a second chance to experience the unique
atmosphere of a Ryder Cup when James qualified
for the 1981 match at Walton Heath.

“I had some great times with Nick,” said
Moorhouse, who went on to carve out a
successful career as a greenkeeper, which
led to him being appointed to the top job
at Brocket Hall.
“Nick and I went our separate ways, but
I still have a huge respect for what he’s
done. I firmly believe that in the future he
will be seen as the best English golfer who
has ever lived.
“He’s certainly the best to date.”

Top: Faldo and Moorhouse measure up at
Birkdale and (above) Moorhouse at the
Panasonic European Open with Mark James.
Left: Moorhouse at Welwyn in 2022.

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CHAPTER NINE

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