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
99
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
Twenty Five 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 bun-
ker 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
Sarazen 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
101
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
103
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 many tourna-
ments, including 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 Albans seed merchant Sam Ryder, a Verulam
Golf Club member and founding 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.
105
“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
106
CHAPTER NINE
Tom Lewis
When Tom met Tom: Lewis shakes hands with Watson after shooting a magnificent 65 in the first round of
The Open at Royal St George’s in 2011
Tom Lewis heralded a glittering chapter in the rich history of Welwyn Gar-
den City Golf Club when, on June 1, 2007, he joined from the neighbour-
ing Mid Herts club.
The 16-year-old already had strong ties with WGC because his grandfa-
ther, Joe, had been a single-figure handicap member for more than 30 years
and his father, Bryan, was a sufficiently accomplished golfer to be able to ply
his trade on Tour for a time. Bryan was part of the hugely strong group of
youngsters who grew up alongside Nick Faldo in the 1970s before he even-
107
tually settled down as the teaching profes-
sional at WGC’s Gosling Driving Range.
Bryan’s athletic prowess was inherited by
his eldest son, and by the time the 11-year-
old Tom left St Mary’s Primary School in
Welwyn for Monk’s Walk in 2002 he was
being monitored by several profession-
al football clubs. However, it was golf to
which he decided to devote his life.
Tom was widely regarded as one of
Hertfordshire’s most promising young
golfers well before he arrived at WGC,
and with his father’s guidance it was not
In 2009 Lewis won the Carris Trophy and long before he started to make his mark on
British Boys’ Championship the national stage. In 2009, in the space
of just a few summer weeks, he won the Carris Trophy (the English Boys’
Under-18 Stroke-Play Championship) at Moor Park and then defeated his
great friend Eddie Pepperell 5&4 in the final of the (British) Boys’ Amateur
Championship at Royal St George’s. Representative honours followed as he
was selected for both the English team in the Boys’ Home Internationals
and the GB & Ireland squad for the two Jacques Leglise Trophy matches
against the Continent of Europe.
It was inevitable that after such a breakthrough, Lewis started to be com-
pared to the youthful Nick Faldo. That scrutiny intensified the following
year when he won the Berkhamsted Trophy before travelling to Austral-
ia where, against a strong field of professionals, he narrowly lost to Peter
O’Malley on the third hole of a play-off at the New South Wales Open at
the Vintage Golf Resort. He then finished 12th behind 2006 US Open
champion Geoff Ogilvy in the Australian Open at The Lakes.
Faldo’s annus mirabilis as an amateur came in 1975, and Lewis experi-
enced a similar level of success in 2011: he won the St Andrews Links Tro-
phy before making global headlines by claiming a share of the lead after the
first round of The Open Championship at Royal St George’s.
A large group of WGC members were in the gallery that day as Lewis shot
a five-under-par 65 to sit atop the leaderboard alongside Thomas Bjorn.
That 65 was the lowest single round recorded to date by an amateur in The
Open and the equal lowest in any major championship. It made Lewis the
first amateur to lead after the first round in a major since Mike Reid in the
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Lewis back at WGC with his Silver Medal for the lowest total by an amateur at The Open
1976 US Open. He was also the first amateur to lead The Open since Mi-
chael Bonallack in 1968. It was particularly special because it was achieved
in the company of his father’s hero, Tom Watson, after whom the son was
named.
It was an incredible day for the 20-year-old who admitted that his main
goal had been to try not to “embarrass myself ”. He went on to card subse-
quent rounds of 74, 76 and 74 and finish in a share of 30th place and claim
the Silver Medal awarded for the leading amateur who plays all four rounds.
That was one feat Faldo did not achieve during his spectacular amateur
career. It ended any lingering doubts about Lewis’s inclusion in the GB &
Ireland team for that year’s Walker Cup match against the United States at
Royal Aberdeen. Faldo had missed out on a place in the 1975 match be-
cause the team was picked ahead of his wins in that year’s English Amateur
and the British Youths.
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A Champagne moment for Lewis on presentation night with WGC’s 2011 captain Keith Travers
Such was the strength in depth of an American team including Patrick
Cantlay, Harris English, Patrick Rodgers and Jordan Spieth, that GB &
Ireland were not expected to avenge the defeat at Merion two years earlier.
But that is precisely what they did.
110
Lewis celebrates winning the Portugal Masters for the second time
On an exhilarating final day, Steven Brown sealed an improbable victory
with a half against Blayne Barber. Lewis also played his part, teaming up
with Andy Sullivan to claim a win and a half in the lead foursomes and
fourballs. Later, he donated the bag he used that week to WGC; it is still
on display in the club’s lounge bar together with other Faldo and Lewis
memorabilia.
Lewis turned professional on the high of that Walker Cup success and
promptly finished tied tenth on his debut in the paid ranks in the Austrian
Open at Atzenbrugg. Even better was to follow: in just his third start a cou-
ple of weeks later he birdied five of his last seven holes to come from behind
to overhaul Rafael Cabrera-Bello and claim his first European Tour title at
the Portugal Masters at Vilamoura.
“I would not have expected this at all,” he admitted. “I was just happy
shooting in the 60s no matter where I finished. If you had said I would fin-
ish 21-under I would have said ‘no way’. I was really dreading going to the
Qualifying School at the end of the year, but it looks like I’ve skipped that.”
That victory in Portugal earned Lewis a precious two-year exemption from
the requirement to qualify. It was also instrumental in him being named as
111
Lewis gained his PGA card when he lifted the Korn Ferry Tour Championship
the European Tour’s Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year some 34 years
after Faldo was accorded the same honour.
Subsequently, as with all professional sportsmen and women, there have
been lows but also several bouts of extraordinary scoring. In 2018, while
struggling for form, he obliterated the field at the Bridgestone Challenge at
Luton Hoo. Two weeks later he flew to the Algarve to claim a second Euro-
pean Tour victory at the Portugal Masters at Vilamoura.
He was elated by that victory as he admitted after beating compatriot Pep-
perell and Australian Lucas Herbert by three shots with rounds of 72, 63,
61 and 66. “It means a lot to come and win this again,” he said. “The next
win was always going to mean more because of how much I worked for it.”
Lewis finished 41st on the European Tour’s Order of Merit that year. An-
other avenue opened for him in 2019 when he travelled to the United States
where he closed with a best-of-the-week seven-under-par 65 to spreadeagle
the field at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship at Victoria National GC in
Indiana. That helped fulfil his dream of earning a PGA Tour Card, and the
following year he proved he could match the very best when closing with
rounds of 61 and 66 to finished tied second behind Justin Thomas at the
WGC-FedEx St Jude Classic in Tennessee.
There were quieter years for Lewis in 2021 and 2022 but as WGC’s cen-
tenary approached, there were some signs that he was starting to turn things
round again. “I think good things are going to come to me,” he said. “I
remain confident that the next ten to 15 years are going to be the best of
my career.”
112
CHAPTER TEN
The Ladies
First ladies secretary Doris Litster (far left) next to Olive Clarke, mother of Susan, and fellow members
It is a remarkable fact that in 1923, five years before Parliament passed the
Equal Franchise Act that enabled women over 21 to vote, female members
of Welwyn Garden City Golf Club were equal to the men in every respect.
They even played in the same monthly competitions.
Here is another fact: by 1927 the golfing marriage was creaking, and the
ladies of WGC Golf Club were seeking a divorce. It is an intriguing tale
and, of all the aspects surrounding the foundation of the club, the ladies’
section is arguably the most historically significant.
Lewine Mair, a distinguished golf journalist, historian, and author of
One Hundred Years of Women’s Golf, confirmed the importance of Welwyn’s
113
story. “It’s quite incredible that in 1923 Welwyn was a club in which women
officially enjoyed equal status,” she said. “I think it’s a fascinating and sig-
nificant piece of history for the game of golf. I would say it’s unique, and in
this respect, Welwyn was 100 years ahead of its time.”
Mrs Mair added: “Women were very much second-class citizens for a long
time before and after Welwyn’s beginnings. It wasn’t too many years prior
to 1923 that women had to fight for the right to hold their own national
championship. It’s therefore amazing that a club in the early 1920s should
have been thinking and acting in this way.”
As an example of the attitude female golfers faced, Mrs Mair highlighted
a letter sent to a fledgling Ladies’ Golf Union by the two-time Amateur
Champion Horace Hutchinson, a man horrified at plans for an equivalent
ladies’ British competition. Hutchinson wrote:
“Women never have and never can unite to push any scheme to
success. They are bound to fall out and quarrel on the smallest
or no provocation, because they are built that way.
They will never go through one Ladies’ Championship with
credit. Tears will bedew, if wigs do not bedew, the green.
Constitutionally and physically women are unfitted for golf.
They will never last two rounds of a long course a day.
Nor can they hope to defy the wind and weather encountered
on our links even in spring and summer. Temperamentally
the strain will be too great for them. The first Ladies’ Cham-
pionship will be the last unless I and many others are greatly
”mistaken. The LGU seems scarcely worthwhile.
Hutchinson, who later wrote several books on golf, died in 1932 and may
well have lost his life a lot earlier had he put his theories to the formidable
ladies of WGC. Their advocate, Dick Reiss, was, like Hutchinson, born in
the Victorian era. But the pair held polar views.
114
Reiss rode to the rescue when a female London medic, who became a
founder member of WGC Golf Club, was the victim of a high-profile and
scarcely believable case of sex discrimination. In 1921, Dr Gladys Mi-
all-Smith was sacked as a Medical Officer of Health for St Pancras Borough
Council simply because she married. Dr Miall-Smith was dismissed and
told she should no longer work as her husband should support her. The
decision caused a massive furore with groups such as the Women’s Freedom
League joining the fight to save her job. The decision was upheld, leading
Reiss to recruit Dr Miall-Smith and her husband, Dr John Fry, as the town’s
first medics – with the bonus that they were both golfers.
As an Ebenezer Howard acolyte, and WGC Company director, Reiss
pulled all the strings when the WGC club constitution was formulated with
the goal of equality. Anything else would not have been acceptable to Reiss
or the evangelists of the Garden City movement.
Reiss ensured that the initial club committee consisted of five men and
five women. Their principles were typified by one of the original WGC Golf
Club by-laws which stated: “No person shall play in high-heeled shoes.”
Person? The determination for equality even worked both ways.
But as Albert Einstein said: “In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice they are not.” Club historian Dick Litster said that cracks began
to appear as early as 1924 when a gentleman member donated a prize ex-
clusively for women – one to be competed for in midweek. According to
Litster, ladies-only competitions became increasingly popular.
By 1927, the direction of travel was clear: the women sought independ-
ence and wanted control of their own flourishing section. A meeting was
called at the Brockswood Lane home of members Sandy and Jean Ogilvie,
an evening described as a ‘fearsome experience’ by Litster.
Litster wrote: “In 1927 it fell to me, then earmarked the next captain, to
negotiate a constitution which would satisfy the 70 ladies of the club’s 200
members and yet be acceptable to the all-male directors. My final meeting
at the Ogilvies’ house was a daunting experience. I was friendly enough on
a one-to-one basis with most of those hemming me in with my back to the
French windows, but this female massing was something quite different. I
seemed to be facing a grim, granite determination with no hope of escape.”
Litster said that after an adjournment for coffee and rock buns, “the gran-
ite turned to sandstone”, but he was clearly shaken by this experience. The
ladies won the argument, and a formal meeting to ratify the breakaway was
set for the Parkway Café on September 13, 1927.
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Happy days: Doris Litster (above right) during a round with a fellow ladies’ section member and (below)
Welwyn members line up in celebration of Captain’s Day in 1970
The triumphant Welwyn team of 1999 after winning the Hertfordshire section of the Pearson Trophy for the
second time. The Pearson trophy is a mixed-handicap inter-club competition.
116
‘Ladies Seek Independence’ shouted the headline in the Welwyn Garden
City News, which reported: “As ladies form more than one third of the total
membership of the WGC Golf Club – and they are on exactly the same
terms as the opposite sex – a Ladies’ Section of the club has been formed.
A meeting to bring the section into being was held at the Parkway Café on
Tuesday evening and, considering what a wretched evening it was, there was
quite a good attendance. Mr A. Miller, the secretary of the club, presided:
in fact, he was the only male present.”
Note that Dick Litster was nowhere to be seen. The report went on: “Mr
Miller explained that it was usual to have a ladies’ section in every club, giv-
ing the ladies power to manage their own affairs. By affiliating with the La-
dies’ Golf Union, they would gain certain advantages, one of which would
be that each member would have an official handicap.”
The report added that after a proposition by Mrs Oglivie, seconded by
Mrs Lloyd-Francis, the meeting decided to form a ladies’ section. Mrs E.S.
Chapman was elected captain and Mrs Litster secretary. The ladies duly
obtained affiliation to the Ladies Golf Union in 1928.
Reiss must have bought into the concept of separation because at that
moment he donated £50 for two Reiss Trophies – one for men, the other
for the ladies. The ideals of equality had clearly been smashed deep into the
rough because the committee decided to spend £35 on the men’s trophy and
£15 on the women’s!
Trophy discrimination apart, the ladies’ section thrived. The Ide Cup was
added to the women’s portfolio of competitions, the sponsor being Tom
Ide, the father of Dick Litster’s wife Doris. She was captain four times,
the final occasion in 1957. The Reiss Trophy and Ide Cup meant that se-
rious stroke-play and match-play competitions
were catered for. A steady trickle of trophy do-
nations followed, but a scratch contest to iden-
tify the club champion was not established until
1947 when Olive Scotchmer, a club stalwart who
served on the committee 13 times, provided the
Scratch Cup.
Margaret ‘Peggy’ Cunneen (left) is the name
that dominates the Scratch Cup honours board
in the clubhouse lounge, appearing 15 times. Re-
markably, she won her first Scratch Cup in 1947,
and her last in 1978.
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Mrs Cunneen, Herts County champion in 1965, was a consistent trophy
winner and her golfing c.v. included the highly prestigious Evening News
Women’s Championship. She was part of a remarkable double on finals day
at Camberley Heath Golf Club with Welwyn’s Chris Allen, who won the
men’s trophy on the same day.
Sally Bloomfield, a scientist, was another Scratch Cup multiple winner
with 13 victories between 1977 and 1995.
Susan Clarke (left) dominated the early
1960s, winning four times between 1960 and
1964. The daughter of long-standing mem-
bers Ralph and Olive Clarke, of Valley Road,
Susan was an outstanding golfer who brought
great honour to the club. A pupil of Sher-
rardswood School, she was an early recipient
of the Golf Foundation, receiving coaching
from Welwyn club professional Alf Bennett.
Susan won the Herts Girls’ Championships from 1956 to 1960, and in
1959 she was third in the British Girls’ Open and played for the junior
international team. In 1960 she was the beaten finalist in the Herts County
Ladies’ Championship, and crowned a fantastic year with victory in the
British Girls’ Open Championship at Kilmarnock (Barassie) and was select-
ed for England.
Sadly, Susan Clarke’s life ended tragically. She moved north after marrying
and was killed in a road accident while cycling down a country lane.
Past Lady Captains Day 1990: (top row l to r) Norma Wilkinson, Barbara Millar, Betty Harvey,
Margaret Bottomley, Pat Lindlay; (middle) Gill Skidmore, Wendy Cooper, Etta Balfour, Linda Woolnough;
(bottom) Angela Mercer, Marlene Duke, Carol Astell, Nalda Binz.
118
Esher Strous (Scratch Cup), Kelly Cooke (Herts Champion) and young mid-handicap ladies member Lucy Baker
Today, the baton of success is in good hands. The Welwyn ladies’ team is
a serious force in Hertfordshire. Three members, Kelly Cooke (England),
Nicola Callander (Scotland) and Esther Strous (South Africa) have interna-
tional honours, and Kelly and Esther are former professionals. The section
has four other players with a handicap of ten or lower – Alison Strous, An-
drea Clark, Caz Ryan and Aly Nedza. In addition, there are seven players
in the 11 to 16 range – Pam Crawford, Jill Callander, Karen Collie, Chloe
Jackson, Judith Moore, Liz O’Hare and Lucy Baker.
Cooke, a three-time Scratch Cup winner who works as assistant to the
general manager at Welwyn, won the Herts County Championship in
2022, giving the club its third county ladies’ champion. Mrs Cunneen won
in 1965 and Mary Oliver, a triple winner
of the Scratch Cup, triumphed in 1951.
She later represented Berkhamsted, win-
ning another eight Herts championships.
In the 2022 WGC Scratch Cup final,
Esther Strous’s name was inscribed on the
board for a second time after she defeat-
ed Cooke 4&2. “I’ve been playing against
Kelly for 20 years and that’s the first time
I’ve beaten her,” said Esther.
In 2022 the ladies’ section had 55 mem-
bers. That compares to 45 in 1924 and 70
in 1927. Celia Twigg, captain of 1990,
reflected: “In my year we had 120 lady
Ide Cup winner of 2022 Carol Reid (right) members, but I understand that society
with finalist Alison Philpot has changed.”
119
Female membership was up by about 10 per cent in 2022 and Esther
Strous, a former development officer for England Golf, is optimistic. “In
the ladies’ section we have very healthy turnouts on a Saturday, Tuesday and
Thursday and it’s possible to play serious or social golf,” she said. “In my
opinion we have one of the best courses in the county with successful play-
ers and a successful team. It has been encouraging recently to have players
join from other local clubs. We also have a very good age mix. We have to
grow, and I believe we will. It’s also great to have some girls in the junior
section – most clubs don’t.”
Cooke added: “Realistically I think we can increase the section to 70.
Golf ’s an individual game, but the key is to create a team atmosphere, en-
courage young players and give everyone a good experience.”
In the autumn of 2022 Esther and Alison Strous kept the trophies flow-
ing for the ladies’ section by securing the Powell Cup, the county’s scratch
foursomes event, with a 3&1 win over Sandy Lodge at Porters Park. The
following week Welwyn’s ladies team of Cooke, Esther and Alison Strous,
Aly Nedza and Chloe Jackson were on the cusp of bringing home the Herts
Scratch Championship for the first time but lost to Bishop’s Stortford af-
ter a sudden-death play-off at Brookmans Park Golf Club. Marlene Duke,
the centenary year captain who had two spells as club chairman, said: “I
joined in the mid-1960s so I
have seen tremendous change
and met so many interest-
ing characters. I can only
say that being a member at
WGC has been a dominating
and most fantastic part of my
life. The friendship and sup-
port within the club has been
amazing, particularly since
my husband, David ‘D.B.’
Duke, died. When my job
was running charity days for
Barnardo’s there was always a
group in the club supporting
me. It’s a wonderful group to
be part of.”
Esther and Alison Strous with the Powell Cup
120
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Commemoration Jug
John Bickerton receives the Commemoration Cup from Nick Faldo in 1989 after shooting 65, 66
When Nick Faldo won his first major title at the 1987 Open Champion-
ship at Muirfield, Welwyn Garden City captain David Robertson and his
committee decided the club should create something tangible as a lasting
reminder of his success.
They chose to introduce a 36-hole event, open to club champions from
across England. The following summer the Commemoration Jug was born.
The first man to lift the trophy, commissioned specifically to mirror the
Open Claret Jug was Surbiton’s Nigel Pimm. He was successful again in
1995 and 2001 and remains the only competitor to win the trophy three
times. Shaun Tarplett, from Hillsborough, has come closest to replicating
121
Reis Suart is rewarded for his superb Commemoration Jug round of 66 by being the recipient of the Tom
Lewis Medal, presented by the man himself
that feat, having won in 1997 and 2002 and finishing runner-up in 2005
and 2009. Chelmsford’s Lloyd Kennedy (2004 and 2005), John O’Gaunt’s
John Kemp (2006 and 2008) and former English amateur international
Michael Saunders from Dartford (2010 and 2012), have also won twice.
A glance at the records over the past 34 years shows that WGC’s course
has stood up well against a succession of top-quality fields, but there have
also been instances of exceptional scoring during which records were set.
The first of those came in the second year of the competition when John
Bickerton, from Droitwich, carded rounds of 65 and 66 to set a record
winning total of nine-under-par 131. He went on to win three times on the
European Tour during a successful professional career, but still has warm
memories of his visit to Hertfordshire.
“It was a long time ago, but I still remember how thrilled I was to win and
receive the trophy from Nick [Faldo]. That was a big thing for me because
it isn’t every day you get the chance to meet an Open champion. It is some-
thing I will never forget.
“It’s also great to see that WGC and Droitwich have formed a lasting
relationship since my victory and I know they still play an annual match
against each other.”
It was another 15 years before Chelmsford’s Kennedy matched Bickerton’s
winning total; his closing 63 that day was also enough to tie the lowest
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round of the tournament set by Matt Feavyour from King’s Norton on his
way to defeating Pimm by a single shot in 1999.
The 63s scored by Feavyour and Kennedy remain the second-best rounds
carded in the Commemoration Jug, but both were usurped in 2006 when
Broom Manor’s Miles Mackman went round in 61 to hoist himself into sec-
ond place behind Kemp. His round started in an inauspicious fashion with
a par at the first and a bogey at the second, but birdies at the third, fourth,
sixth, seventh and eight saw him reached the turn in 31. He then stormed
home with five further birdies at the tenth, 11th, 12th, 13th and 16th.
Mackman’s up-and-down from the first tee on the last hole of the tourna-
ment dashed WGC’s Andy Collie’s hopes of a third-place finish. But there
has been much for home fans to savour over the years, including the victo-
ries of the late Tom Piggott in 2000 and English junior international Reis
Suart in 2021.
Piggott had shown immense promise when, as an 18-year-old in 1999, he
carded rounds of 73 and 69 to finish seventh behind the rampant Feavyour.
Twelve months later he became WGC’s first Commemoration Jug champi-
on after two rounds of 70 eased him to a four-shot victory.
Suart also gave prior warning that he was a force to be reckoned when,
aged 15 in 2019, he finished runner-up to James Crabb of Chesfield Downs
with rounds of 70 and 66. Two years later, after the 2020 competition was
cancelled because of the Covid pandemic, the newly-crowned Hertfordshire
men’s champion claimed a second home success after posting rounds of 71
and 68 to beat Ely’s Luke Ryan by four shots.
Some WGC members may also recall
James Ruebotham’s birdie, birdie, bird-
ie finish on the 15th, 16th and 17th to
claim second place behind Tarplett in
2002, and how Ruebotham and South
African member Greg Schmidt performed
in 2004.
Lloyd Kennedy was the official winner
that day, but it was Ruebotham, playing as
a marker, who shot the lowest score with
rounds of 64 and 66 for a ten-under-par
total of 130. That would have set a tour-
nament record had he been eligible for a
prize. Club champion Schmidt also per-
Tom Piggott with his father, Keith
123
formed admirably, recording a two-round ag-
gregate of 135, good enough to have claimed
top spot in 13 of the previous 16 tournaments.
In similar fashion to Ruebotham and Su-
art, another young local member, Harry Cox,
excelled while playing as a marker in 2022.
He recorded rounds of 69 and 70 for a total
which, had he been eligible, would have seen
him finish second, one shot behind Aaron
Crabb of Cricket St Thomas. Nevertheless, the
2022 county boys’ champion did not go home
empty-handed because the official runner-up,
James Ruebotham Joss Gosling from Brocket Hall, graciously
handed him his voucher saying it was appropriate he should receive it given
he had shot a lower score.
WGC has always had a knack of nurturing young talent and has been
equally proactive in celebrating their successes. So it was no surprise that,
after Tom Lewis led the field after the first round on his way to winning
the Silver Medal as leading Amateur at the 2011 Open Championship at
Royal St George’s, the late David and Jenny Buck decided to celebrate his
performance by funding a medal for the competitor who shoots the lowest
round on the day.
The Tom Lewis Medal was played for the first time in 2012, when Droit-
wich’s Gavin Bourne won with a 67 after a card countback over Paul Kirk-
wood (South Beds). Subsequent winners have included Ryan (2014), Kemp
(2015) and Suart, whose 66 won the medal in 2019.
As WGC celebrates its centenary another initiative will be introduced at
the 2023 Commemoration Jug, with women club champions from across
England competing alongside and against their male counterparts for the
first time.
“Golf has become increasingly inclusive over the last few years, and it is
important that Welwyn Garden City endorses that process as we move into
our second century,” said long-time chairman of the Commemoration Jug
Organising Committee, Marlene Duke.
“It will also introduce an exciting new element to the tournament and it
will be very interesting to see how the women compete against the men,”
she added.
124
Women’s Pro-Am
There are a considerable number of golf clubs around Britain who have a pro-
am on their annual fixture list, but the one at Welwyn Garden City differs from
almost all others because it features women professionals.
Pro-am organiser and six-time club champion Andy Collie credits former chairman
Roy Warman for coming up with the idea and believes the decision to adopt this
format is a crucial element in the success of the competition over the last six years.
Lianna Bailey receives her cheque from (left) Nigel Palmer of PacAir and captain Frank Casey
“We were chatting one day and Roy said that he’d always wanted to stage a wom-
en’s pro-am because he thought they added better value to the day. And he’s been
proved absolutely right,” said Collie.
“The girls go out of their way to make sure their teams enjoy the day, which is why
so many of the same amateurs sign up to play in the event year after year. They don’t
have the same opportunities as the men, so they appreciate what we’re trying to do.
“We provide decent money in comparison to a lot of other events they play in. I
think the fact every single girl who played in 2022 has sent a message thanking
the club for a great day tells you something. Almost all of them have expressed a
desire to play again next year.”
The inaugural event in 2017 got off to a slow start when the ten girls who entered
had to be augmented by a similar number of male professionals. But since then
interest has grown considerably. Collie estimates that between 60 and 70 differ-
ent girls have played in the event to date, including Ladies European Tour win-
ners Alice Hewson, Amy Boulden, Felicity Johnson, Hannah Burke and former
US Women’s Open champion Alison Nicholas.
The first year Suzanne Dickens claimed the first prize of £1,000 (the same
amount also went to the leading male Joe Brooks). She was followed in 2018 by
125
Alice Hewson, winner in 2019, went on to win a Ladies European Tour event the following year
Elizabeth Mallett and Hewson in 2019. Sarah Gee took the first prize of £2,020
in 2020 before Keely Chiericato survived a play-off against Sophie Stone in 2021
after both players had shot 68 to match Hewson’s winning total in 2019.
There was also a play-off in 2022 when Lianna Bailey and Sharna Dutrieux card-
ed 69s before former English amateur international Bailey won on the second
extra hole.
Bailey told her team members, Centenary Captain John Horsley, Keith Hall and
Gary Bayliss, that she would not have been able to go to the 2022 Qualifying
School at La Manga without the £2,022 she won at WGC. With that weight off
her shoulders she was able to swell her coffers by a further £1,201 after finishing
in a share of 13th place at the subsequent Rose Ladies Open at Brocket Hall.
“It’s great we can make a material difference to some
girls as they start out on their pro careers.
But we could not have done it without PacAir,
our title sponsor since the start,” said Andy Collie.
“They have been incredibly supportive,
”and we have a lot to thank them for.
126
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Professionals
Master and pupil: Ian Connelly and Bobby Mitchell
Ian Connelly, the architect of the swing which took Nick Faldo from begin-
ner to professional winner, arrived in Hertfordshire in 1966, the 11th man
to be appointed head professional at Welwyn Garden City Golf Club. The
influence and legacy of the ultimate professionals’ professional was to prove
far-reaching.
Every teacher has his own methods and Faldo flourished under Connelly’s
hardcore coaching regime; a teacher-pupil dynamic observed with fascina-
tion by ten-times Welwyn club champion Chris Allen. “Nick didn’t flinch at
the harder side of Ian because he himself always had the killer instinct,” said
Allen. “Personally, I was always a little nervous regarding Ian’s feisty nature.
127
I remember I once had a three-foot putt to beat him on the 16th hole and I
was quite worried about making it! But beneath the tough exterior there was
a warmth about Ian, and we had some great fun together.”
Born in Dundee, Connelly rejected the prospect of a professional football
career when, as a teenager in the 1950s, he left his home city to become
assistant professional to Ian Marchbank at Turnberry.
The contrast with a harsh upbringing in Dundee was underlined when
Connelly found himself rubbing shoulders with President Dwight D. Ei-
senhower, who played Turnberry’s Ailsa course during an historic visit to
Scotland in 1959. Connelly kept a packet of White House tees as a me-
mento for the rest of his life. Connelly later moved to Royal Mid-Surrey,
working under Ryder Cup player Jimmy Adams. He had a two-year spell
in the Netherlands as head professional at Noordwijkse Golf Club before
replacing another Scot, Colin Christison, at Welwyn.
Connelly gained national acclaim during his 13 years as Faldo’s coach be-
fore the Florida-based David Leadbetter stepped in to guide Faldo through
his Major-winning years. In the 1970s Faldo led a phenomenal group of
Connelly pupils, many of whom turned professional. They included Faldo’s
Ryder Cup colleague Ken Brown, who emerged from Harpenden Common
to win tournaments on both sides of the Atlantic. Others were Welwyn boys
Bobby Mitchell, Bryan Lewis and Trevor Powell.
Brown and Faldo played in the same Hertfordshire Boys team and
Connelly watched proudly as the pair made their Ryder Cup debut
together in 1977.
Mitchell, (left) who won the WGC
club championship in 1980 and 1981
before going on to play the European and
Safari Tours for five years, is now head
professional at South Herts where he is
a highly regarded coach. He said: “Ian
was a remarkable character and huge in-
fluence. Sometimes when I’m teaching, I
hear myself coming out with terms and
phrases that Ian would use.
“Ian’s philosophy was about simplic-
ity, continuity and tempo. He was a
very hard taskmaster, but he desperately
wanted his pupils to do well. He never
128
looked at his watch during a lesson and would say, ‘Come on, let’s hit an-
other bucket of balls’. He would often ring people after a lesson to check
how they were getting on. He was totally dedicated.
“Looking back, I think we were extremely lucky to have had two excep-
tional people in Ian Connelly and Clive Harkett, who did so much for the
juniors.”
Bryan Lewis, head coach at Gosling Sports Park Driving Range and fa-
ther of Tom Lewis, Welwyn’s Walker Cup and twice European Tour winner,
added: “In those days junior golf was not something that was encouraged in
British golf. I was a scratch golfer but wasn’t allowed to play until after three
o’clock on a Saturday, which wasn’t great, particularly in winter. We were
very lucky to have had Ian Connelly and Clive Harkett, who did everything
they could to change the mentality.
“When you think about it, there were four players from the compara-
tively small WGC Golf Club – Nick, Bobby, Trevor and myself – who
had a European Tour playing card at the same time, and I think that’s quite
remarkable. I learnt so much from Ian’s enthusiasm and Nick’s incredible
work ethic.”
Connelly, who died of heart disease aged 64 in 2004, was a fine player,
too. He competed in The Opens of 1964 and 1967 at St Andrews and
Hoylake, and The Golfer’s Handbook of 1972 records that he had rounds
of 56 and 59 at WGC in the same month. “His short game was absolutely
phenomenal and that’s something you need at WGC,” said Mitchell.
Connelly’s coaching classes also included
WGC members John and Colin Moorhouse,
Ian Fordyce and four-time club champion
Eddie Green. Green said: “We all learnt a lot
from Ian and it’s funny because his method
of teaching the swing is now back in fashion.”
Fordyce (left) was featured in the Welwyn
Times in June 1971 under the headline:
‘Herts Boys Champion’. The report said that
the 17-year-old Heronswood School student
had won the county championship by five
shots. It added: “Tutored by the WGC Golf
Club professional Ian Connelly, the new champion has played golf since
he was 12.” It added that Connelly predicted that Fordyce ‘has got a great
future”. Fordyce, who won that county championship at Brookmans Park,
129
reflected that his relationship with Connelly was not always an easy one.
“We didn’t always see eye-to-eye because he was a strong disciplinarian, but,
of course, he was right,” said Fordyce.
The uncompromising side of Connelly’s character highlighted by Fordyce
regularly emerges in conversations with those who came under his tutelage.
Never shy to impart his golfing wisdom, beliefs and philosophies, he at
times sounded like a golfing Bill Shankly. Perhaps that is not a coincidence
because Liverpool’s legendary Scottish manager signed his younger brother
Bob at the age of 15. Bob stayed at Anfield for three years before moving to
St Johnstone where he became a team-mate and life-long friend of Sir Alex
Ferguson.
Connelly left Welwyn in 1976, moving to Dyrham Park. He wrote reg-
ularly for Golf World magazine and taught many top amateurs and tourna-
ment professionals.
Connelly’s son Ben, a Herts County champion, tried his luck as a profes-
sional before moving to Australia following the death of his father. He now
owns a successful recruitment agency in Sydney. His uncle Bob had moved
to the country in 1965 after being recruited to play in and set up the profes-
sional Australian Soccer League. Bob later became a successful businessman,
running some of Australia’s largest car franchises.
In an interview with the Dundee Courier, Ben Connelly said: “Dad’s and
Bob’s achievements for a couple of lads from Dundee who left home at
15 with few or any qualifications, is quite impressive. No doubt moulded
somewhat by their financially poor and strict childhood; they were both in-
credibly tough men. At the same time, though, they also had great warmth,
generosity, and strong family values.”
Welwyn’s professionals have a good re-
cord of guiding juniors to success. As
highlighted in Chapter Nine, Alf Ben-
nett, the professional from 1957 to 1962,
coached Susan Clarke to win the British
Girls’ Championship in 1960. She learnt
the game from Bennett under the Golf
Foundation scheme. Don Winning, who
joined in 1958 and remains a member to-
day, also learnt the game under Bennett.
The fact that Winning’s handicap has re-
mained in single figures since the early
Ian Fordyce and (right) Eddie Green
130
1960s confirms that Bennett passed on some solid fundamentals. Winning’s
father and grandfather were also members, meaning the Winning family
connection with the club stretches back to 1926.
Don Winning (left) said: “I remember both Alf
Bennett and Susan Clarke well. I was a pupil at the
Grammar School [now Stanborough] and Alf used
to give lessons to the juniors during school holidays
down on the 17th hole. He was a very nice guy
and a father figure who was keen to give the kids a
proper grounding in the game.”
Of all WGC’s club professionals, the man with the outstanding playing
pedigree is Simon Bishop, who joined the club in 1990. Bishop made more
than 160 appearances on the European Tour during the 1980s. His most
consistent season was in 1984 when he tied fifth in the Cannes Open, ninth
in the German Open and tied tenth in the Swiss Open at Crans-sur-Sierre.
At the end of the season he was ranked 56th on the Order of Merit.
The following year Bishop closed with a 69 in The Open at Royal St
George’s to finish the leading Englishman in tied 12th position behind win-
ner Sandy Lyle. After leaving WGC he became the PGA pro at the nine-
hole Harrow Hill course in North London before trying his luck on the
European Seniors Tour in 2009 after his 50th birthday.
Shaun Collins became the club’s 18th head professional in 2021 when he
joined from Hadley Wood after Stuart Mason moved to Devon. He said: “I
was very aware of the history of Nick Faldo at the club and his relationship
with Ian Connelly because I previously worked at Dyrham Park, the club
Ian joined when he left Welwyn. Ian Connelly must have been a major
coaching talent who probably isn’t fully appreciated today.
“I feel very lucky to be head professional at Welwyn. I think it’s a great
club and the course is a hidden gem. It’s awesome – a true 12-months-of-
the-year course and a great test of golf. I look at the very strong fields for the
Commemoration Jug and the course is rarely torn apart.”
In the autumn of 2022, the 33-year-old Collins became the coach of WGC’s
young prospect, 15-year-old Louie Bloxham. “I think he’s extremely talented
and has a great work ethic. It’s terrific that there is a group of very good young
players here including Louie Bloxham, Harry Cox and Patrick Donovan. I’m
hoping they can all kick on as a group as Ian Connelly’s boys did.”
Collins’s predecessor, Stuart Mason, placed on social media a video of
Bloxham’s swing and Sir Nick Faldo quickly reacted with some messages of
131
high praise. “Stuart had a good relationship with the players and it’s impor-
tant we continue that,” said Collins.
Collins and his two assistant professionals, Harry Cater and Curtis
Whitelegg, are keen to support both junior and adult members. They are a
popular and well-respected trio, but there were days when the appointment
of a teaching professional did not go down well in the club.
When Bert Pearson became Welwyn’s first professional in 1926, the in-
vestment of £10 for a pro’s hut did not meet with universal approval. Club
historian Dick Litster said that some members of the committee deemed
a club pro unnecessary, even though Pearson was employed as both green-
keeper and professional. “The committee gloomily put down the £10 hut
under the ‘Unforeseen Expenditure’ column,” recorded Litster. “Certain
members of the committee could not understand why people had to be
taught golf.”
Additionally, Pearson was granted very few trading rights because the club’s
landlords wished to protect their Welwyn Department Stores business.
Pearson remained at Welwyn until 1929, leaving to take up a similar
appointment at Northwood, a new course in his home county of Essex.
“A very limited number of members showed their appreciation of Bert’s
excellent work since 1926 in improving the course by contributing to a
testimonial,” wrote Litster.
It is interesting to note that the four professionals between 1949 and 1961
were hired on a pro/steward basis with their wives employed as the steward-
ess. It is also a fact that F.S. Perkins, Bert Pearson’s replacement, worked in
tandem as a golf teacher and taxi driver to make ends meet. A case of swings
and roundabouts.
Head professional Shaun Collins fine tunes Louie Bloxham’s swing
132
A lesson with Connelly
In 2021 Bobby Mitchell, the head professional at South Herts Golf Club, was
intrigued when reigning club champion Louis Leveson showed him a note on
the inside of his locker door. “I recognised the writing immediately,” said Mitch-
ell. “It turned out that Louis had been a pupil of Ian Connelly and had kept a
coaching note which he still regularly referred to. It summarises Ian’s teaching
philosophy.”
Thanks to Leveson, it’s therefore possible, 57 years after he began teaching at
Welwyn, to sample a piece of Connelly’s methodology. His note to Leveson reads:
GRIP
Hands should be in the natural impact position on the club.
SET-UP
Set-up should be left sided. Left side in command and right-side passive.
Head should always be behind the ball.
BACKSWING
This is a pulled coil around the right leg remaining central throughout.
Chain reaction golf swing. The last thing to be pulled to a coil is the first to
recoil on the downswing.
THROUGHSWING
Wait for the club to allow the left arm to resist and the clubhead therefore to
freewheel!
PRACTICE
a) Left arm shots with full backswing and downswing initiated by the hip recoil.
b) Hit shots with feet together
c) Hit shots to half-way through position.
d) Lots of heavy club swinging.
TEMPO and CONTINUITY
Good luck!
Ian Connelly
133
Welwyn’s club professionals
1926-29 Bert Pearson
1929-33 F.S. Perkins
1933-38 L.A. ‘Ted’ Titterington
1938-45 Ronnie King (in forces 1940-45)
1946-49 Andrew Cafferty
1949-51 Ray Whiting
1951-52 Ken Guthrie
1952-56 Eric Hillyer
1956-61 Alf Bennett
1962-66 Colin Christison
1966-76 Ian Connelly
1976-77 Brian Young (assistant pro)
1977-86 Roy Truman
1986-90 Henry Arnott
1990-94 Simon Bishop
1994-2010 Richard May
2011-21 Stuart Mason
2021- Shaun Collins
134
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Low Scores
A specially created Sun front page celebrates Doug Crilley’s 70th birthday
Bob Barrett’s distinguished signature was an apt one to verify six-handicap-
per Doug Crilley’s astonishing six-under-par medal round of 64, nett 58, in
the autumn of 1996.
Barrett and Crilley first encountered each other as teenaged footballers. “I
played out of Hatfield for Breaks and Doug played for Peartree Boys. I’ve
still got the scars,” joked Barrett.
Crilley, an aircraft maintenance specialist, was indeed a formidable, uncom-
promising footballer – a semi-professional who played for Boreham Wood,
Hertford Town, Ware and Welwyn Garden City, where he was player-manager.
135
A Crilley tackle was rarely a pretty sight.
His golf swing perhaps lacked elegance, too,
but, in football and golf, Crilley always had a
deft touch. “Doug had a two-handed baseball
grip; he would rock back on his heels twice,
take a short backswing and then – bang,” said
Barrett. “But he also had a superb short game
and somehow had the ability to get himself
out of the tightest situations.”
Crilley’s remarkable 64, which included a
hole-in-one, remains firmly embedded in Bar-
rett’s mind. “It was the final medal of the year,
and it was incredible that neither of us lost a
Bob Barrett: “More nervous than him” ball because leaves were everywhere.
“We started as a two-ball on the tenth. Doug birdied 10, 13 and 15 for a
halfway 32. He dropped a shot at the first, parred the second, but then the
momentum took off when he holed-in-one on the third and chipped in for
two on the fifth, then birdied seven and eight. By then I was shaking – I was
more nervous than him! Doug was just short for two on nine and unfor-
tunately narrowly missed a putt for a 63. An incredible day. We celebrated
long into the night even though he was flying to the US the following day.”
On Crilley’s 70th birthday in June 2010, WGC member and tabloid jour-
nalist Graham Warwick (who sadly died in 2022) produced a dummy front
page of The Sun, featuring Crilley, Barrett and fellow member Keith Hall.
Doug Crilley died on December 10, 2010, after suffering a heart attack on the
WGC course. “He had just birdied the long 17th and collapsed,” said Barrett.
How they did it: the course record cards of Miles Mackman (61) and Kelly Hutcherson (67) flank Doug Crilley’s
remarkable 64.
136
Miles Mackman, holder of Welwyn’s men’s course record, with 2006 club captain Martin Timpson and
(below) Harry Cox, who carded a superb 69 in the 2022 Commemoration Jug
Crilley’s 64 is set in stone as an amateur record for
that version of the WGC course. In 1985, Ian Ford-
yce had set a course record of 65, matched by Peter
Cherry in 1986 in competing for his third succes-
sive club championship, and there was another 65
from Liam Keneally in 1987, playing in the High-
field Trophy. As highlighted in Chapter Eight, Nick
Faldo had set a professional course record with a 65
in beating Gary Player in 1978.
On today’s course, the number to beat is 61. That
nine-under-par score was achieved by Broome Man-
or’s Miles Mackman in the Commemoration Jug of
2006. Home players have produced some great form
in the Jug. Reis Suart’s 66 as a 15-year-old in 2019
stands out, as does the 69 from Welwyn’s junior
county champion Harry Cox, achieved while playing
as a marker in 2022. That matched the 69 by the
18-year-old Tom Piggott in 1999.
137
Here come the girls: celebrations for Julie Howard with club captain Colin Johnson and (right) Kelly Cooke,
nee Hutcherson, receives the Reiss Trophy from 2019 ladies captain Jill Callander
On Frank Casey’s Captain’s Day in 2022, an outstanding round came
from 2014 club captain Micky Spencer, who shot 71 playing off 5.6.
In 2022 the ladies’ amateur course record stood at 67, held by Welwyn
member Kelly Cooke. Playing as Kelly Hutcherson in the Reiss Trophy in
2019 she was out in 34 and back in 33 to finish five-under against the
women’s par of 72.
Julie Howard had previously set the course record with a one-over-par 73
achieved in the ladies’ final medal of 2014. That card is displayed in the la-
dies’ changing room alongside one recording an exceptional gross round of
75 by the late Chris Cootes while playing off 12 in a Rose Bowl qualifying
event in 2004. On the 1980s course, multiple club champion Sally Bloom-
field completed the course in a level-par 72.
Professionals Alice Hewson, Keeley Chiericato and Sophie Stone have all
carded 68s at Welwyn in the PacAir Women’s Pro-Am.
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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Men’s Championship
Eyes are inevitably drawn to the name N.F. Faldo when studying the Club
Champions board at Welwyn Garden City Golf Club. His journey from
local winner to World No. 1 is a truly staggering story, but closer attention
reveals another interesting tale.
D.C. Allen – better known as Chris – appears ten times, a phenomenal
period of success which began in 1962. Allen’s victories included the scalp
of Faldo in the final of 1973, before a fast-maturing Faldo beat Allen in
1974 and 1975. The photographs of Faldo and Allen in Chapter Six capture
perfectly that period in the club’s history.
Allen’s name was inscribed on the board for a final time in 1978. He
won four club championships in a row from 1968 and three from 1976,
by which time Faldo had joined the professional ranks. Yet, as Allen, who
turned 80 in 2022, looks down from the heady heights on the leader board,
another golfer is clambering towards him.
In September 2022, Andy Collie defeated defending champion Scott
Broom to win his sixth title at the age of 50. His first had come 22 years ear-
lier, and in addition he has twice been the beaten finalist. Though there are
no runs of Collie domination his name appears repeatedly – 2000, 2005,
2007, 2010, 2015, 2022. Like Allen, he is a club phenomenon; the name
Andy Collie appears 54 times on trophy boards throughout the clubhouse.
No one else is close.
When Collie walked away from the 15th green after burning off Broom
4&3 for his latest title, he was drained. “There’s not another one in me,” he
said. Reflecting later, he was more positive. “Matching Chris’s ten seems like
an impossible task but I can only say that I’ll give it a go.”
Collie added: “For me to even be spoken about in the same breath as
Chris Allen is unbelievable. He’s my hero and I had goosebumps the first
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Chris Allen and Andy Collie, who between them have won the club championship 16 times
time I met him. Looking at his name on the board over the years has been
my inspiration – more so than Nick Faldo. Chris was a great amateur club
player and that’s what I always aimed to be.”
Like Collie, the man he is chasing is a Welwyn junior product. Allen
joined the club in 1955 after taking lessons from South Herts professional
Dai Rees, one of Britain’s great players either side of the Second World War.
Allen was soon WGC junior champion, and in 1959 was thrust into na-
tional attention as a 17-year-old when, fresh from finishing in the last eight
of the British Boys’ Championship, he delivered a course-record 66 in win-
ning the Porters Park Junior Challenge Cup. The previous amateur and
professional record of 68 at the Radlett club was held by the 1920 Open
champion George Duncan and had stood for 38 years.
Allen’s dazzling performance led to a double page spread in Golfing mag-
azine, together with photographs of his swing sequence. The article noted:
“Allen is something of an individualist in method; he is extremely supple
and gives a great deal into a shot; he also swings with a bent left elbow –
reminiscent of the days of golf in tight jackets! But his ball instinct and
control are admirable; and there is no reason why he should not mature into
an outstanding performer.”
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The incredibly supple swing of a 17-year-old Chris Allen was highlighted in a 1959 edition of Golfing magazine
The article added that Allen was presented with the trophy by Gerald
Micklem, a Walker Cup player and captain. Micklem later became one of
Nick Faldo’s most important mentors. Micklem gave the boys two pieces
of advice at Porters Park: “Make quite sure while you are in the formative
stages, that you get both grip and stance completely right and make them
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Allen receives the Evening News Championship trophy from the newspaper’s sports editor Steve Roberts
comfortable for you; once you have done that and are reasonably good at
games the rest will follow.”
His second point was: “Teach yourself to score adequately when you are
playing badly. If things are going against you, and you are obviously going
to win nothing, keep going and save as many strokes as possible right to the
end of the round.”
With Micklem’s advice absorbed, Allen won the Herts Junior Champi-
onship the following year. Many trophies followed over the next 20 years,
including two Herts Championships, the West of England Match-Play
Championship and the Evening
News Championship. In 1975, he
was in the opposite side of the draw
to Nick Faldo in the English Ama-
teur Championship, but lost in the
semi-final, ending the dream of an
all-WGC final. Allen also lost in the
final of the 1964 Herts Champion-
ship to Peter Townsend, the St Al-
bans player who went on to play in
the Walker and Ryder Cups.
Allen with (left) Peter Townsend
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Andy Collie with his wife Karen and their children Emily and George, holding the Club Championship Cup
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The club’s double champion, Ricky Moggridge, deputy course manager with 2019 captain Tony Smith and
(below) four-time winner Eddie Green
Describing himself as a streaky player, Al-
len said he was more at home in match-play
than stroke-play. “For example, in the 1977
Tournament of County Champions at Gog
Magog my second round included a run of
seven successive birdies beginning from the
ninth,” said Allen. “I got a mention in des-
patches but sadly it resulted in nothing bet-
ter than a 70.” The Daily Telegraph recorded
that Allen’s sequence went 2, 3, 3, 3, 2, 4, 3.
Allen was Herts county captain from
1980 to 1983. He says his addiction to golf
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– today he plays midweek at Knebworth – was triggered by visits to a golfing
uncle in St Andrews.
His father was a Canadian architect who had designed their house in WGC’s
Ashley Close, while Allen worked for an aerial photography company. A keen
historian of the game, Allen has been a regular spectator at Open champion-
ships and revelled in watching live the successes of Faldo.
“Being in the gallery to watch Nick reach the level he did was absolutely
thrilling,” said Allen. “And that period of my life at WGC was just fantastic. I
loved the club and the people in it. Golf was strange with me – I don’t know
what it was, but I could just do it.”
Collie, too, has natural talent. Largely self-taught, he joined the club aged
14 having knocked a ball around with his uncle at Stanborough Lakes. He
says he began to focus when, having dropped to a nine handicap, he took
lessons from Lee Scarbrow at John O’Gaunt and Richard May at Welwyn.
Today his children George and Emily are junior members, and his wife
Karen, is in the ladies’ section and won the Scratch Cup in 2012. “I used
to look at the Champions Board and wanted to match the guys who had
won four times,” said Collie. Two members have achieved that feat – Jonny
Coomber (1953, 1955, 1956, 1957) and Eddie Green (1979, 1982, 1983,
1995).
Three-time winners are Jim Sadler (1959, 1964, 1965), Peter Cherry
(1984, 1985, 1986), the late Tom Piggott (1998, 1999, 2006), and the
wonderfully understated Marvin Joyce (1990, 1991, 1993). Cherry turned
professional.
Double champions include Bobby Mitchell, who went on to play on the
European Tour, the late Andy Dale, as modest as he was talented, South
African Greg Schmidt, Ricky Moggridge and Reis Suart. Moggridge is Wel-
wyn’s deputy course manager who, remarkably, did not play golf until he
started working at the club. Suart, Herts champion in 2021, became an
England international in 2022 and the pressure of full-time amateur tour-
nament play prevented him from entering the club championship that year.
Chris Allen, who has two sons and lives with wife Elaine in St Albans,
reflected: “I was thrilled when Reis won the county championship and will
watch his progress over the next few years with great interest. I do believe
that becoming WGC’s club champion is an important achievement and I
wish Andy Collie luck in pursuing my record. After all, records are there to
be beaten. I’m so pleased to hear that I have been an inspiration to him. It’s
very humbling.”
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Allen added that while Reis Suart is probably destined for the professional
game, playing golf for money was never an option for him. “I went to the
Open for the first time in 1962, which was Jack Nicklaus’s first appearance,
and realised I wasn’t in that league.
“I had a fantastic time and still love to play. I loved every moment of
playing county golf for Hertfordshire and had some terrific times playing in
matches for Welwyn.”
Allen recalled being present when one of the most remarkable stories in
any sphere of golf took place. He was playing for Herts in the 1974 Eastern
Counties Foursomes at Hunstanton when, standing on the 17th tee, he
watched Leicestershire’s Bob Taylor tee off on the 189-yard par-three 16th.
“I saw the ball roll towards the flag and suddenly disappear,” said Allen.
Amazingly, Taylor had aced the same hole in practice the day before, and
even more amazingly he holed in one again at the 16th on the final day of
the competition. Three aces, three days running on the same hole.
“It’s obviously something I’ll never forget,” said Allen. “There’s a bench on
the 16th tee to commemorate Bob’s feat.”
Allen has combined golf with a wide range of interests. “I can remember
the end of steam trains and have had a life-long interest in railways. I’m
interested in photography, vintage buses and classic cars,” he said. He comes
from a family with a strong academic background: his Canadian grandfa-
ther was a physicist and one of the four founders of the University of Mani-
toba. Allen has a letter written to his grandfather from Albert Einstein, with
whom he used to correspond regularly.
Not everyone has a letter from Einstein, and Allen re-
called a visit to Seattle in 1962 which led to another unusual
possession. “I went to the World Fair to see the opening
of one of the world’s first monorail systems,” said Allen.
“I heard that Elvis Presley was going to be making a film
Einstein and Elvis there, so I stayed an extra day. I met Presley, but the only
thing I had to hand was a brown paper bag, so I asked him
to sign it, which he did. Not many people have a brown
paper bag signed by Elvis Presley!”
Allen said that Elvis’s signature remains his
favourite piece of memorabilia. Back in the golfing world,
his favourite memory is beating Faldo in the 1973 WGC
Golf Club championship final. “Playing with Nick and then watching what
he went on to achieve is a cherished and very special part of my life,” he said.
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I can’t believe I joined the club 68 years ago
Chris Allen, ten times club champion, reflects affectionately on his time at
Welwyn Garden City Golf Club
I developed the incurable golf bug on family holidays, staying with my uncle in
St Andrews in the early 1950s. Following him around the Eden course, I tried
a few shots with his clubs, hitting my brother on one notable occasion. Under-
standably, he never went near a golf course again.
I joined Welwyn Garden City Golf Club as a Sherrardswood School pupil aged
13 in 1955. How can it be possible that it was 68 years ago I played my first shots
there? WGC was a typical small town golf club with a cast of characters who all
knew one another. As the club grew that became impossible, but it remained a
friendly place to play golf and socialise in the single-storey clubhouse adjacent
to the first tee.
I don’t recall there being too many other juniors around, though there must have
been as I won a junior competition in 1957 organised by Doris Litster, the ladies’
captain. I was partnered by Julian Godby, a future club champion, who remains
a good friend to this day. Julian lived in Dognell Green and was an outstanding
junior tennis player and a consistent striker of a golf ball. He was entertaining
company and had an amazing ability to recall historical facts.
There was also the outstanding Susan Clarke, a shy, modest girl who lived in
Valley Road and won the British Girls’ Championship in 1960.
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The first senior member I became aware of, other than the Litsters, was Jonny
Coomber, whose name I had seen as the winner of four club championships in
the 1950s. I thought that if I got to know him it might improve my golf, which I
badly wanted to do. He was a very easy-going person to be with. He later moved
to Oxfordshire and I would often meet him in inter-county matches when I
started to make the Herts team.
Another regular partner was Ivan Cunneen, a scientist who was naturally very
methodical in everything he did. He liked to play the (then) first four holes and
the 18th on a mid-Saturday morning as a warm-up for his afternoon game. His
wife Peggy was a very good golfer, winning the Herts Ladies’ County Champi-
onship.
When I joined, the pro was Alf Bennett. He left a few years later to be replaced
by the long-hitting Scotsman, Colin Christison, a most friendly person. I played
with him frequently and on one memorable occasion on a cold winter’s day, he
got an albatross two at the par-five fifth hole (now the tenth). Because the green
is in a dip, we didn’t see it go in, but eventually found his ball in the hole.
As the 1960s progressed, I began to play away regularly, but I also played in as
many club competitions as possible because I enjoyed the interesting array of
members and characters. People like the Curtis brothers, Stan and Albert; Albert
always arrived on his motorbike and sidecar.
Harry Ruffle, who ran a garage where the multi-story car park opposite Waitrose
now stands; Pat Cormican, from Hertford, as Irish as they come; Vic Maynard,
who had a convoluted golf swing like the American Jim Furyk; David Spurr,
who worked at Waters garage on the A1 at Hatfield. He gave me a driving job,
collecting spares from west London before I got my first ‘proper’ job in 1966.
Roland Bird, a City man, who had the slowest backswing ever; so slow you could
read the club number he was playing! From the mid-1960s onwards, more young
people were around like John Cash, Roger Parkinson, Nick Davies and his broth-
er John, son of Ken and Phillis Davies of Mannicotts, and Terry Densham.
I must mention Chris Wilkinson, son of Tony and Norma, also of Mannicotts.
Chris became an internationally recognised architect and sadly died in 2021. His
father could often be seen walking the course in late afternoons or evenings with
a single club, occasionally hitting a golf ball. My enduring memory of bumping
into him was that he always found something to grumble about!
Doug Turner, son of Bill who signed my membership application form, and
Harry Griffiths were a challenge to play with. Harry was a long and consistent
hitter, but decided he could be better still and went for a series of lessons with
the Brookmans Park professional. Sadly, he was never the same golfer again! Then
two very good golfers joined, Jim Sadler, a county golfer from Staffordshire, and
Dave Hancock from Derbyshire. It was all becoming very competitive.
One of the pleasures of playing the course was stopping at the Waggoners pub for
a snack and a pint. The Waggoners was adjacent to the ninth, a lovely, shortish
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