One
hundred years ago players didn't play to beat par, at the time
it was referred to as bogey. The year saw the inaugural playing
of the Irish Professional Golf Championship, five years before
the Irish PGA was eventually established and a further fifteen
years before the first Irish Open Championship was played.
May
Hezlet took the British Ladies Amateur Championship, a feat
that wouldn't be repeated by an Irish lady for a further forty-four
years [Kitty MacCann: 1951]. The Irish ladies had a triple-crown
victory in the home internationals at Royal County Down, Newcastle
it would be another seventy-three years before this achievement
was repeated.
Both
the Irish Senior and Junior Cups were in existence for seven
years and the Barton cup was only on its second outing after
being instituted by Justice Barton in 1905, he later followed
with the Barton Shield. The entries to the Irish Close Championship
at Royal Portrush, then in its fifteenth year numbered forty
and both the Irish Amateur Open the oldest of the national titles
and South of Ireland Championship attracted strong fields with
a large overseas contingent.
Golf
Courses
There
was in excess of 100 golf clubs with probably no more than ten
to twelve thousand golfers averaging around hundred players
per club. Six golf clubs started in 1907 and they included Milltown,
Muskerry, Scrabo, Spa, Tuam, Ennis and Borris.
Equipment
Golf
tees as we know them now (although versions had been patented
in the late 1800s) hadn't been invented it would be a further
fifteen years before the Lowell's Reddy tee appeared and there
was a sand box at each tee which were used to elevate the ball.
The era of the gutty and featherie golf balls were well and
truly over, and replaced by the rubber-cored golf ball patented
by Haskell in 1898. A 21-day court case in 1907 struck down
the patent and allowed all golf ball manufacturers to produce
this cheaper more durable and aerodynamic golf ball which was
now available for 2/- per ball. Dunlop wouldn't start making
golf balls until the following year. Golf clubs were made of
hickory, beech, dogwood and persimmon with beech probably being
the more expensive of these, the quality of the club would also
be affected by what part of the tree it originated from. Aluminium
drivers and putters had been experimented with although the
drivers weren't that common the braid mills aluminium putter
was in common usage. There was no limit on the number of golf
clubs you could use on the course it would be a further 31 years
before it would be limited to 14 clubs on this side of the Atlantic.
Clubs such as the brassie (named after the brass on the sole),
spoon, cleek, mashie, niblick were used which in modern parlance
are equivalent to the two and three woods, three and five iron
and finally a pitching or sand wedge but there were many variations
on these.
Apparel
Amateur
male golfers were usually well to do and wore tweed suits with
plus twos or fours and this would distinguish them from the
professionals. Hickory shafted golf clubs were still being made
by professionals Tom Hood (Royal Dublin), James Rea (Shane's
Park), John Aiken (Portrush) to name but a few. More and more
they were being mass-produced like clubs by Simpson's, Aucterlonie's,
Butchart, Spalding and Andersen. Ladies wore skirts, not full
length, strong boots with studs or nails in them to gain grip,
flannel shirts with golf jacket, gloves to prevent blisters,
chaps etc. Headgear was also used but mainly caps or tam o'shanters
so as to avoid them being blown off in windy conditions.
Championships
Irish
Professional Championship
Professional
competitions were normally played in conjunction with the Irish
Amateur Open championship from 1895 until the turn of the century
and from that time the events were organised sporadically until
the professionals approached the then president of the GUI in
1906 with a view to organising an annual event. The then President,
Justice Barton happily obliged and put up a golf medal for the
winner of the championship, the following year the Irish Professional
championship was instituted.
On
the 20th May 1907 the inaugural Irish Professional Golf Championship
took place in Royal Portrush and the prize fund was twenty-four
pounds (2006: Eur 140,000), with a top prize of ten pounds (2006:
Eur 20,000) and was open to all professionals who had resided
in Ireland during the six months prior to the Championship.
The competition was made up of an eighteen-hole qualifier with
the top eight moving to the matchplay stages. Even at this stage
Michael Moran, then only 21 years of age, took third place with
a 78 behind Hamill (Ormeau) and Edmundson (Portrush) with 76s
in relatively good playing conditions. It would appear that
twenty-two professionals took part in the qualifying competition
with the scores as follows:
Irish
Professional Championship - Strokeplay Qualifier
There
was a three way tie for the eight qualifying places and the
final slot was decided over nine holes in the afternoon with
McNeill (37), Kidd (38) and Robertson retiring.
Later
in the day the matchplay event got underway with the following
results:
Pope
beat Hood 3 and 2; Edmundson beat Hamill 5 and 4, Moran beat
McNeill 3 and 2,and Snowball beat McNamara by two holes.
The
following day the semi-finals saw Edmundson face Pope and Moran
and Snowball would make up the other semi-final match. Edmundson
took a commanding lead in the first match and was four up by
the turn closing the match out on the thirteenth after a win,
lose, win, and win sequence for the inward holes. The second
semi was more exciting with the match taken all the way to the
last. By the turn Snowball who was playing the better golf was
4up but in a remarkable turnaround Moran had brought the match
back to level terms by the thirteenth but on the seventeenth
he was laid a dead stymie and this ultimately proved to the
match winner.
The
final was another exciting match with neither player giving
the other a quarter. Edmundson won the first, squared the second,
lost the third and halved the fourth an infringement on the
fifth by Snowball after ending on the road saw this hole handed
to Edmundson but Snowball recovered this on the next. The to
and fro nature of the match continued with Edmundson winning
the eighth with Snowball responding on the ninth to square the
match again. Edmundson took the next three to go three up and
Snowball taking the thirteenth to reduce the deficit. The next
two were halved, followed by another win by Snowball but Edmundson
closed the match out on the seventeenth by 2 and 1 to become
the first Irish Professional Champion.
Edmundson
won the championship when he was twenty one years of age and
the following year won it again together with being placed joint
eleventh in the Open championship. He left Portrush in 1909
to take up an engagement as professional in Bangor later he
moved to Bromborough golf club near Liverpool in 1911/1912 where
he stayed until 1920. Following this he emigrated to the US
and was a professional and the North Hills C.C. between 1921-1930
and won the Pennslyvania Open championship in 1923 (27 June)
at the Huntingdon Valley C.C. In 1925 and 1927 he tied for the
East Falls Open only to be beaten both times in the playoff.
Irish
Professional Open strokeplay and International
Prior
to the inaugural professional championship and Open strokeplay
competition was held on the 17 May 2007 over the two courses
at Portrush with a total prize money of fifty pounds. Michael
Moran took the top prize of ten pounds beating is nearest pursuer,
Bertie Snowball, by four shots. In the field which was predominantly
Irish and to a lesser extent Scottish, the latter being there
for the international event which followed, were Ben Sayers
and Archie Simpson who by now were well past there prime when
in the 1880 and early 90s could have been considered realistic
challengers for the Open championship.
The
Irish were successful if lifting the inaugural Irish vs Scottish
international by 13 to 4 on the 18 May 2007.
British Amateur Championship
The
Championship was played at St. Andrews with a record two hundred
entries meaning the Monday would be used up fully for first
round matches the decision on whether to have qualifying rounds
or a handicap limit would be deferred to the following year.
There were four entries from Ireland two from Portmarnock (Cairnes
and Boyd) and two from Royal Dublin (Dudgeon and Roche). Cairnes
was beaten 3 and 2 by Edward Blackwell (the 1904 finalist) in
the first round, Roche scratched while the other two fell at
the next hurdle.
Irish
Ladies Close Championship
In
1907 the championship was played at Dollymount with the strokeplay
event prior to the Championship being won by Violet Haslett
with ninety strokes. There were 42 players in the championship.
The fourth round saw a surprise defeat of May Hezlet by Ms J
Magill, the 1898 champion, on the final hole but the scores
were 91 (40:51) versus 92 (46:48). In the end Florence Walker
Leigh, the Foxrock player had a convincing 4 and 3 victory over
Mrs Fitzgibbons from the Island.
British
Ladies Championship
There
were 110 entries and this Championship also saw the Curtis sisters,
who were touring on the continent, playing on these shores for
the first time. Miss Harriot Curtis the then US Ladies' Champion
was beaten 9 and 7 by Ms Titterton, the Musselburgh player,
who covered the first nine in 38 strokes. Miss Margaret Curtis
was beaten by May Hezlet by 3 and 2, however, it needs to be
borne in mind that the Curtis sisters had played very little
golf prior to the Championship although their chances of getting
very far were restricted by relatively inferior short game.
The Championship was cursed with atrocious weather conditions
and the final was between the two Hezlet sisters with the more
accomplished of the two getting the upper hand. Miss May Hezlet
won with a 2 and 1 margin as over a thousand spectators showed
up to witness the spectacle.
The
LGU handicapping system was to set a course with a "bogey"
score or in modern parlance the standard scratch score [SSS].
The SSS was arrived at by a "champion scratch player"
having played the course and at the time there were eight such
players; Mrs Cuthell (Rhona Adair), May hezlet, Miss M Graham,
Lottie Dod (the ex Wimbledon champion), Dorothy Campbell, Miss
A. Glover, Miss E.C. Neville and Miss B Thompson one of which
would have played the course and thereby set the SSS which would
then determine the handicapping for all other lady golfers.
If the course had not been played by one of these, the handicap
manager would source a person with knowledge of scratch golf
and they would assess how many shots they felt they might go
around the course in.
Irish
Amateur Open Championship
The
Championship was played in Portmarnock and while access now
to the course is quite simple, back in 1907 it would involve
rail, road and sea. The original clubhouse had been burned down
in 1905 and was replaced the year prior to the event with a
relatively unobtrusive concrete structure, the skeletal of the
current clubhouse. The journey involved the train to Sutton
and the one mile journey by horse drawn cart (known as a "vis-à-vis")
to the crossing at Baldoyle. If you were at low tide the vis-à-vis
might make the crossing while the passenger or "fare"
watches the water pouring through the cab. The alternative was
the row boat, it was a further two years before they would get
a motor boat and if you were unfortunate to want to play on
the Lords day then you would have to wade across the stretch
of water with clubs and shoes from the mainland to the clubhouse
on the peninsula. Once there, you discovered the true charm
of splendid isolation and still within seven miles of the metropolis.
In the evening the famous Captain Weatherall bell would toll
for the last boat crossing for the day.
The
Internationals, which normally preceded the Championship, were
cancelled due to the large entry (149 players) for the Championship
lest they couldn't complete the event by the Friday. The strokeplay
event, before the Championship proper was marred by bad weather
and many of the players would return NRs, eventually it was
won by JA Healing from Richmond with a 79 across the Portmarnock
links. One hundred years on and the field is limited to 120
players, 84 of which are overseas and the handicap is also restricted
to anyone on plus 1.2 or better. Now the event is decided over
four rounds of stroke play from Friday to Sunday in 1907 (and
up to 1958) it was match play format played from Monday to Friday.
Included
in the field was John Ball the reigning British Amateur Champion
and the 1890 British Open Champion. One shock result during
the early rounds was the shock defeat of Boyd, the Portmarnock
player and champion in 1905, by an as yet unheard of, Lionel
Munn from the North West golf club who eventually went out in
the fourth round. Munn would himself win the title three times
in succession from 1909-1911.
In
the quarterfinals Ball went out to Chesterton from Royal Mid-Surrey
despite being three up at the turn and the semifinals had only
one Irishman left, Cairnes, who had seen off Howard Mitchell
from Murrayfield in exemplary fashion using his local knowledge
and trademark pitch and run to deadly effect. Another Murrayfield
player and event winner, J Douglas Brown, would take Cairnes
out in the semifinals but only by the narrowest of margins.
The final was played between Mr Brown and S H Fry from Royal
Mid-Surrey, both covering the first eighteen holes in 82 strokes
and the final seventeen holes were covered in 75 vs. 78.
British
Open Championship
A
number of Irish professionals entered the British Open Championship
in 1907; Harry Kidd (Malone), James Edmundson (the Irish champion:
Portrush), H.Hamill (Ormeau) and William McNamara the Lahinch
professional but neither put up a particularly good showing
with Kidd doing the best of these in 24th place. Another professional
A. H. Toogood also entered as the professional at Tramore but
originally was a native of England who did only one better.
South
of Ireland Championship
The
South of Ireland championship following closely on the heels
of the Irish Open and it wasn't uncommon for overseas competitors
to take in both events. Lahinch around the time of the golf
was a vibrant town which ran a number of festivities attracting
the crowds since the opening of the West Clare Railway.
Sixty-one
players were entered for the championship, which included John
Ball. Cairnes and Boyd the Irish hopefuls were knocked out in
the first and second round respectively. As normal the strokeplay
competition preceded the championship with Ranson, who went
on to win his first round match against Cairnes, was victorious
with 75 strokes. Ranson also went on to record a surprise defeat
of John Ball in the fourth round (quarter finals). It was followed
in the afternoon with a bogey competition which Cairnes won.
As
was normal at these events a sweep was taking place on a winner
takes all outcome for the person selecting the eventual winner.
Although
the eventual winner was playing out of Machrihanish he was a
native of Limerick and was working in Scotland as an excise
officer. His putting was very good if not a little unorthodox
(for the time) in that he would lie flat on the ground to read
the line of the putt. He played Gillies from Woking and eventually
won by 4 and 2 over the thirty-six holes.
