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Home , Anders Forsbrand, Antonio Garrido (golfer), Bernard Cribbins, Bernard Gallacher, Bernard Hunt, Bob Charles (golfer)

CHAPTER TWELVE The stars are coming now, 1958–93

The new Club, 1958

Peter Alliss

Seve Ballesteros

Tony Jacklin and

Tournaments return

ATS Pro-Ams

The Orangery in 1958. Note that the glass roof created by Wilberforce Bryant at the turn of the 20th century for his new Winter Garden was still in place. It was later covered over in the 1960s. It is planned to restore the glass in the future. Wogan’s Pro-Am 218 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 219

economies, the expense of maintaining adequate staff to provide catering and bar facilities in a Mansion Club House designed without regard to economical running, was found to absorb a disproportionate amount of the budget.

In an attempt to reduce these overheads, the Committee replaced the existing kitchen in the basement with one at ground-floor level. Every possibility of saving money was considered, even the pulling down of the Coke monument, which presumably was costing money to maintain. However, a Dr W.O. Hassall of The new Club, 1958 the Bodleian Library, Oxford, wrote to Coke’s descendant, Lord Leicester, saying:

Coke Monument at Stoke When the Mobbs family sold Stoke Park to Eton Rural I have visited the Stoke Poges and seen the monument. It is District Council in 1958, the golfers formed a new Club and in a beautiful setting and I feel very handsome and I agree most heartily the directors soon realised the cost involved. They reported about it being a great pity if it is destroyed … to members at the end of their first year to 30 June 1959: Sir Edward Coke’s importance in the county of is far more important than that of being the greatest Sheriff that county ever has had, and the Monument is most important for its meaning and sig- There was a deficit of £495 [c. £12,000 in today’s money] on the first nificance. I believe that it is the only monument of our greatest Lawyer in year’s working of the new Club. In the opinion of your Directors, when it the home counties. I feel therefore that it is far more than a local, let The bar at the beginning of the local council ownership era. This was originally John Penn’s is remembered how much has been spent on the Course in labour, mate- alone a family, matter for it is a strange chance that the monument of the Banqueting Room and was converted into the Dining Room in 2008. rials and machinery, as well as on essential catering, bar and office equip- greatest champion of constitutional processes and freedom from dicta- ment, the size of the deficit is by no means discreditable; indeed it might torship should stand so near Runnymede. Coke’s monument marks the easily have been much greater if a rigorous control had not been imposed hope in which when he lay dying the enemies of the common law searched involving the preparation of monthly statements of income and expendi- his papers for seditious matters. ture. Careful consideration was given at the monthly meetings of the Committee to these statements, and appropriate action was taken to curb expenditure which showed any sign of extravagance. In particular, the On the golf course itself, the Committee found that heavy expenditure on indoor staff was a constant anxiety; despite many expenditure was also necessary, and told members: One of the fireplaces at the beginning of the local council ownership era. 220 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 221

4. IMPROVEMENTS TO COURSE The Sports Turf Research Institute at Bingley was consulted and, as a is a road on the right but generally if you keep your head you should be result, a big programme of work on the greens has been carried out. In all right, but like all good golf holes this one is not quite as simple as it i. Greens. Of paramount importance to any golf course is the quality of my view the greens are as good as to be found anywhere in . More seems. A very good one in my view. its greens. At the time of the Members’ Club take-over, the state of the work was carried out on making new teeing grounds and as a result there The eleventh is another truly magnificent short hole – very picturesque greens left much to be desired. No time was lost, therefore, in obtaining has been a great improvement. and very tricky. If you are not on the green off the tee then you can expect expert advice on turf management from the Sports Turf Research to be in (a) trees, (b) bunkers or (c) water. Institute, Bingley, and an improvement programme drawn up by that As we have seen, every golfer waxed lyrical about the 7th. This Another hole at Stoke Poges for which I have the most profound well-known body has since been faithfully followed. In addition, your respect is the seventeenth. I remember on my last golfing visit playing a Directors considered that the Secretary should attend a five-day instruc- was Tom Scott’s experience: poor second shot and the result was that I was in trouble and I think, if I tional course in Turf Management at Bingley. He did so in April last, and remember correctly, I finished in the ditch. I advise all of you to pay some the application of the knowledge acquired there has been one of the fac- There are many wonderful holes and it is not surprising that one or two respect to this second shot for if you do not, a ruined card can result. tors in the improvement in the course. of them have found their way into the ‘best eighteen’ of some renowned That, then, is just a brief description of some of the holes at Stoke writer or other. One such hole is the short seventh. I myself have most Poges, a course which is liked, even loved, by everyone who ever plays on ii. Bunkers. A Programme was carried out eliminating certain bunkers, unpleasant memories of it because it was there during a society competi- it. If you have not yet had that privilege then I can say to you, put that reducing the size of others and removing mounds which prevented the tion that I came to grief. But even though it defeated me I had to bow to right as soon as you can. You will be made welcome and I know you will economical use of gang-mowers in the vicinity of the greens. The main its majesty. enjoy yourself. object of these alterations has been to simplify the maintenance work in order that the mechanised equipment can be used to full advantage. A He also wrote about some of the other holes which intrigued The dedication of the Committee and the staff brought the start has been made on the provision of suitable sand for bunkers, and this work will be continued 1959/60. him: Club and the golf course back up to the standard where ATS (Associated Tyre Services) were happy to sponsor a series of Cunning bunkering before you reach the green makes the first hole a dif- iii. De-worming treatment. During the autumn and winter of 1958/59, a ficult one with which to start and I fear that there will be more fives than Pro-Am tournaments from the mid-1970s onwards. de-worming programme was carried out covering approximately 6 acres anything else, with the more modest having to be content with a six. The The Globe had written the following tribute to the 7th: of fairway. Mowrah meal was the medium employed and 6 tons, costing siting of the green adds to the problems caused by the clever bunkering. some £162 in all, were used. The results were most satisfactory. I like the fourth by reason of the fact that it fights you from start to fin- Mr Harry Colt has provided the golfers of the world with many thrills, but ish. There is out-of-bounds on the right and although the big green in a iv. Course Staff. At the commencement of the year under review, the staff surely the seventh hole at Stoke Poges is more productive of thrills of corner of the course should not provide all that much trouble, the fact employed on the course comprised two full-time and one part-time pleasure and thrills of pain than any other hole in golf. Set at a diaboli- remains that even the best golfers find fours hard to get, mainly, I sup- adults and two youths; the weekly wage bill was less than £20 per week. cally difficult angle and bristling with trouble, the green can only be held pose, because of the sand traps on the left. Towards the end of the year, it had been found necessary to increase the by a ball perfectly played. No wonder the golfer’s heart rises in his mouth The seventh has been commented on and so I pass to the ninth which staff to four full-time and three part-time adults, and to recognise the as he sees his ball flying towards that narrow strip of greensward. In this provides some considerable difficulty to the player whose driving is what need for improving their conditions of service by raising their wages you might say ‘a bit off’. The tee-shot is over a hollow and the slope (including overtime) to over £50 per week. beyond is positively festooned with bunkers. For the faint-hearted this hole will be a nightmare. That venerable writer on golf, Tom Scott, recorded: Leaving the Club House again the tenth is a most attractive hole. There won 30 times on the European PGA Tour, played no fewer than ten times in the , twice as Captain, and won the Tour’s Order of Merit in 1961 and 1963. Here he is playing at the Club in the 1960s in an Agfa-Gevaert Tournament. 222 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 223

one short hole are amalgamated all the qualities that make for perfection. ing, protected because of its architectural significance. It features in … And Stoke Park has a grand finish, the last four holes all being excel- occasional TV films and is always recognised by those of us who know it so lent in their own way and all very different from each other … I defy any- well. I believe it has the potential to be one of the best inland courses one not to admire the view over part of Stoke Park’s glorious woodland north of the Thames and the middle section of the second nine is testing from the steps on the clubhouse. There is much beauty; there is also indeed. much spaciousness, but then the Stoke Park Club course was designed by the famous H.S. Colt in an age of spaciousness and elegance; nothing would later write to the Club Secretary, Ralph cramped, nothing stinted. Pickering, in response to a letter from Ralph:

Dear Ralph (if I may make so bold)

I haven’t seen you for many, many years but I remember you very well indeed, way back to the days of your father and Calor Gas. With regard to Stoke Park Club and Golf World’s The Best of Peter Alliss, those Peter Alliss remarks were written at least THIRTY years ago! I’ve heard many reports of the vast improvements at Stoke Poges, not least of which from the Wogans. There are very few GREAT courses north of the river within close proximity of but Stoke Poges always had a lovely ‘feel’ about it These were Alliss’s views on the golf course at the Stoke Park and of course it had romantic connections for me because my father won Club, expressed in The Shell Book of Golf: the News of the World Matchplay Championship there and I won the Agfa. My very best wishes to you. I hope we can meet one day and have a chin- wag. But on, this time to another memory and the Stoke Poges course which, I Above: Peter Alliss, revered golf commentator and possibly the best British golfer never to think, has the potential of being the best club north of the river. I’ve had win a Major, said this of Stoke Park: ‘I believe it has the potential to be one of the best Kind regards inland courses north of the Thames and the middle section of the second nine is testing some good times there, and bad too. I won the Agfa-Gevaert tournament indeed.’ there in 1966, going around in 64 once and it was there, on a slightly dif- Sincerely, ferent course, that my father beat Mark Seymour in the final of the British Match-Play championship in the mid-1930s. They had the 18th, Peter Alliss in those days, as a short hole across a lake but that has been altered now into a testing 4 with rough up the right-hand side. Stoke Poges has a pleasant atmosphere and a monster clubhouse which Peter and Ralph went on to have many chinwags, as they both must be cripplingly expensive to look after but is a very interesting build- became members of the Committee of the Colt Association.

Brian Huggett, a feisty Welshman, also captained the British Ryder Cup team.

224 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 225

The golfing scenes in Goldfinger, the James Bond film, purportedly at Royal St Mark’s (a transparent pseudonym for Royal St George’s), were actually filmed at the Stoke Park Club in 1964. 226 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 227

Seve Ballesteros

The young Seve Ballesteros, who became a leading figure in golf on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1980s and 90s, played in the PGA Championship at Stoke Park in 1977. I cannot beat the description of Seve by Peter Alliss in his autobiography, My Life:

Seve Ballesteros – a sophisticated . Oh, the glorious period when Seve was the most charismatic player in the world – touch and feel; what skills and the ability to annoy all in equal measure. Strange how his career ended when had his last hurrah at the in 1986. Seve should have won that tournament. He had it in the palm of his hand and then dumped his second in the water at the 15th, Nicklaus holed a monster putt at the 17th, Seve was shaken – that was that.

To me, he never seemed the same again. Seve Ballesteros, perhaps the most brilliant and charismatic of the European golfers of the From the mid-seventies of the twentieth century to the mid-nineties 1970s, 80s and 90s, played in the PGA Championship at Stoke Park in 1977. Severiano Ballesteros was the most charismatic figure in world golf. He was a great champion with three victories in and two in the US Masters, not to mention an eventual career total of eighty- eight wins worldwide. He captivated the world of golf with his successes and a devil-may-care swashbuckling technique and with his presence and personality on the course. Tall, dark and Latin-handsome with a flashing dazzling smile, Seve (pronounced ‘Sebby’ in Spanish!) loped along the fairways, prowled around the greens as though he couldn’t wait to get to the next shot. Ballesteros took a cavalier attitude to the playing of the game. It was as though he accepted, and even rejoiced in, the philosophy of (great champion of the 1920s) who insisted, ‘Three bad shots and one good one still counts four.’ Left: The Club from the air in 1968. 228 STOKE PARK

Seve was proud and stubborn, chippy with the game’s establishment and often other players. He missed some Ryder Cup matches for one rea- son or another, then came back to inspire the European team and show its members that they were just as good as the Americans. He captained and the winning team in 1997 at Valderrama in southern , the first time it had been played outside the UK. Desperate for victory in his homeland, and nervous, he rushed from match to match. Eventually the players had Nick Faldo to tell him to calm down – politely to shut up!

Ballesteros, mercurial character though he may have been, was nevertheless the seminal figure in world golf in the final Two other great golfers who played at the Stoke Park Club quarter of the 20th century. He won the Championship three were Tony Jacklin and Nick Faldo. times – in 1979, 1984 and 1988 – and the US Masters twice, For those of us who suffered the near-famine of British in 1980 and 1983. He also won more than 50 events on the golfing success in the 1950s and 60s, Jacklin’s winning of the PGA European Tour and about another twenty in other parts Open Championship at Royal Lytham in 1969 (the first of the world. He was an inspirational figure in the European British winner since at Royal Portrush in 1951) Ryder Cup team. Like many of the greatest golfers – includ- was a victory to savour. ing, for example, – Seve, or ‘Sebby’ as his ador- This is how Ted Barrett described the final round: ing Spanish fans called him, was capable of memorable shots at vital moments. In 1979 in the Open at Royal Lytham, at Setting out on the final round with Charles, Jacklin started with two pars the 16th hole he drove into a car park (deemed not-out-of- and two birdies, but dropped a shot on the fifth and another on the eighth. However, he got out of trouble on the long sixth, where the wind bounds) and from there hit his second close enough to hole shift had made it impossible to fly the bunkers on the left of the fairway. for a birdie. He went on to win his first Open, becoming the A tree did not make his stance easy to take up for his second shot, but he youngest champion since in 1872. got five, and birdies on the seventh and ninth put him four clear of Charles at the turn. Jacklin’s bogeys at the 13th and the trickiest par fours on the course, holes 15 and 17, where he three-putted for the first time, were counter- Richard O’Sullivan, star of Man About the House, Robin’s Nest and Me and My Girl, with Rosie Arnell, great organiser of golf events, and , star of films and balanced by Charles’s errors. Jackanory, and narrator of , at the ATS Pro-Am at the Club in the 1980s. Right: Max Faulkner, the last British golfer to win the Open until Jacklin in 1969, On the 18th tee, not the least difficult driving hole here, Jacklin was , the great comedian, Tony Jacklin, winner of the Open and the US Open and two ahead. Charles drove into the left rough, but was not badly placed. At successful Captain of the European Ryder Cup team, and Henry, now Sir Henry, Cooper, the famous British boxer (from right to left), sign autographs at the ATS Pro-Am this extremely testing moment in his career Jacklin showed precisely the Tournament at the Club. same mastery with the drive that he had shown at Thornsdon Park when 230 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 231

the author first saw him. No longer or straighter drive was seen all week. FOUR-PUTT ALLISS SLAMS ‘STUPID’ HOLES ‘A corker’ said Henry Longhurst on television (in colour for the Tournaments return first time). Ryder Cup golfer Peter Alliss protested yesterday to the PGA about the Charles put his second on the green. Jacklin put his second inside it as ‘childish, stupid and ridiculous placing of some of the holes’ at Stoke if to rubber-stamp his victory. Jacklin appeared on the green with one Poges. shoe on and the other in his hand. It had been torn off in the scrum that He had just finished ten shots behind shock leader Denis Scanlan in formed after he played his approach shot. He two-putted for a two-stroke As we have seen, Stoke Park Club had a strong record of host- the first round of the £3,250 Gevacolour film tournament. Alliss said: win, four under par, with never a six all week, and agreed with Nicklaus ing big tournaments. The Girls’ Championship ‘As chairman of the tournament committee I feel I must say something that it was marvellous to be able to play so well when he was so excited. was played there every year from 1924 to 1938. Winners such about the unfair placing of the holes on at least three greens. Nicklaus knows about such things. as Enid Wilson, Diana Fishwick and the French girls, Thion ‘The standard of British golf will never improve while pins are placed in ridiculous positions. de la Chaume and Lally Vagliane, all went on to win the ‘You have to putt up precipices from the backs of bunkers and nearly There have been few golf champions as single-minded as Nick Ladies’ British amateur title. In the PGA Match-Play up trees. Faldo. Although a good all-round games player, he decided Championship, played at the Club several times, Charlie ‘This is a great golf course. It is stupid to trick it up.’ early on that team sports were not for him because others Whitcombe beat in 1928 and Peter Alliss’s Club captain Mr Tommy Butler said: ‘I think Mr Alliss’s attitude is could let him down. Golf suited him perfectly. Success or father Percy beat in 1937. Immediately after slightly coloured by the fact that he four-putted the 15th green. ‘I will bet him that I will get down in two three times out of the four failure was up to him and him alone, and he was determined the Second World War, , and from the position he was in. No pro golfer should take four shots.’ that success was what he wanted. He achieved a great deal early of shared in a three-way tie in More than 20 players in the field of 130 had birdie threes at the 15th. in his career and by the early 1980s, when he was still only in the Penfold Tournament when it was also played at the Club. his mid-twenties, he had already won three PGA champion- Between 1963 and 1971 the Club hosted the Agfa-Gevaert ships. However, Faldo wanted more. He wanted to win the Tournament, which brought many of the top golfers of the Open and the Masters and be the best golfer in the world. At day and was won twice by Bernard Hunt and Spain’s Angel the end of 1984 he decided that his swing was not good Miguel. Other winners included , Brian enough and went to the then not-very-well-known David Barnes, Peter Alliss and . ATS Pro-Ams The Sun Alliance PGA Match-Play Championship was played at the Club in 1977, when the Leadbetter for him to change and improve it. For three years In 1964 Australia’s , five-times winner of South African beat the up-and-coming Seve Ballesteros on his way to the final, where he beat six and five. he won nothing, but then in 1987, with eighteen successive the Open Championship, won £1,000 (c. £20,000 in pars in the final round, he won the Open at . This today’s money) for holing his tee-shot at the lakeside 16th. was followed by another Open win in 1990 and successive £1,000 was more than that year’s winner, Angel Miguel, ATS (Associated Tyre Services) began organising a Pro-Am wins in the US Masters in 1989 and 1990. He won another received. golf tournament in 1974. The first was at the very good Open, again at Muirfield, in 1992 to put him up with Henry On another occasion, a young Peter Alliss lost his cool and Hollinwell course in Nottingham and was won by Christy Cotton, the only other British three-times Open Champion. the press were delighted to report: O’Connor, the Irish professional who would go on to 232 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 233

perform so well for the successful European team in Ryder Barnes, Hugh Baiocchi, Seve Ballesteros, , One recalls that cemented a Ryder Cup performance Cup matches in the 1980s. The second was at the Stoke Park Manuel Pinero and . There were also well- with a victory in the Agfa series in 1965. It was here, too, that a young amateur by the name of Clive Clark won Club in 1976, when the winner was the Spaniard, José-María known stars from other sports and the world of entertain- press notice while testing his game with the professionals, and a few years Canizares. The leading amateur was , who would ment, such as Brian Close, the England cricketer, the later, in 1968, the experience paid off with his first major tournament later win the Open and the Masters at Augusta as well as England footballers Kevin Keegan and , and win in the Agfa-Gevaert. representing the European team very creditably in Ryder Cup Jimmy Tarbuck, the golf-loving comedian. The young giants, and Peter Oosterhuis, also have cause matches in the 1980s and 90s. George Simms wrote an entertaining article in the tourna- to remember Stoke Poges for, like Clark, they too scored major first-time victories here in those now defunct tournaments. Derek Peaker, the Managing Director of ATS, welcomed ment programme under the title ‘Far From the Madding Indeed Oosterhuis was the last name to go on the winner’s roll. His the participants with these words: Crowd’, explaining how fond he was of the Stoke Park Club: early-season victory in 1971 was the start of a four-years’ run which saw him top the PGA Order of Merit on each occasion and compelled him to the view that he should try his hand in the United States. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to Stoke Poges for Memory is a quixotic mistress, and I never come back to Stoke Poges – Yet, despite the tournament recollections, one must not forget that the second major Pro-Am Golf Tournament sponsored by Associated how nice in fact it is to revisit the scene of happy tournament memories – Stoke Poges has been the venue for other important occasions. It was, for Tyre Services. Old friends will remember the first of our big events which without seeing a passing parade of professionals who made their landmark instance, the home of the Girls’ Championship for the entire period we sponsored at Notts. Golf Club, Hollinwell, in May 1974. An even here. between the two Great Wars, and has also seen a couple of PGA Match- more impressive field has been gathered together for today’s event, and I A decade or more ago Stoke Poges was the permanent home for a num- Play Championships. particularly want to thank the celebrities from Show Business and other ber of years of a tournament which, presumably for consumer identifica- sports, the well-known amateur golfers, and others who have offered to tion purposes, appeared to many to change its name more often than a join with the Professionals in providing today’s entertainment. woman changes her mind. Five years passed before the tournament was held again at the The ATS Pro-Am Golf Tournament is an official event in the It started life as the Gevacolour Tournament, switched after a couple of Stoke Park Club in June 1981. The joint winner was another Professional Golfers’ Association’s calendar and its prize money of years to the Agfacolour Tournament, and ended its life as the Agfa- Ryder Cup player, . He went round in 66. Gevaert Tournament. £7,000 makes it one of the bigger events of its type in 1976. Other leading professionals included the young German, A lot of people have worked very hard to try to ensure that the day is a Looking back in the album of recollection one recalls Bernard Hunt , Bernard Gallacher, Brian Barnes and success, and I take this opportunity of thanking them, many of them vol- winning the first of those tournaments here in 1963. In the Official untary helpers, for their efforts in this respect. I am particularly grateful Programme the following year he told spectators how to play every hole in . From the worlds of sport and showbiz came Ronnie Corbett, the comedian, playing in the ATS Pro-Am Tournament with Professional for the hard work put in by the Committee and Members of the Stoke an article headed ‘Play Stoke Poges Without Me’. Liverpool and England goalkeeper, Ray Clemence, test crick- Ross McFarlane. That was the year when Angel Miguel, perhaps the best of all post-war Poges Golf Club and I hope that some of the year’s glorious sunshine will eters Richie Benaud and Brian Close, , Jimmy be left to shine on everyone today as a return for their efforts. Spaniards, won his first victory in England after ten years of trying, and as the racing fraternity would have it, confirmed the form by winning Tarbuck, Eric Sykes, and Tim Brooke-Taylor. again two years later – as, indeed, did Hunt again in 1970. The tournament returned to the Stoke Park Club in 1983 The tournament attracted many of the top professionals of Peter Thomson, who is here today, will remember Miguel’s first win in and every year from 1985 until 1994. In 1989, Brian Barnes the day, some of them well-known for many years, such as 1964. The Australian ace holed his tee shot at the 16th hole and won won in spite of having to play with the comedian Jasper £1,000 – to finish with more money than the Spaniard did for winning. and the five-times Open Champion, Peter There’s an Alpine GLS car to be had for the effort today, should Carrott, who could not resist joking and larking about with Thomson, and some up-and-coming players such as Brian Thomson succeed in repeating history. the crowds. It was twenty years since Barnes had picked up a 234 STOKE PARK THE FIRST 1,000 YEARS 235 cheque for £350 in his maiden professional event, also at the George Simms wrote an interesting piece explaining the Tournament at the Stoke Park Club gave the clues why: Tarbuck, , Ronnie Corbett and a host of others, many of Stoke Park Club. He said: ‘It just proves that the old has- highlights of the course: whom have taken part year after year. beens can still play a bit.’ There’s one question which I’m waiting to hear put to the contestants in any of TV’s quiz games, whether it be Sale of the Century or Ask the Family. It’s On the European tour in the 1970s, Barnes was never out A brook runs through the course, and there are designated water hazards There had been some criticism that the relatively poor show- at the 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 12th, 16th, 17th and 18th holes. one which I’m sure would leave them stumped unless, of course, they were ing of British professional golfers on the world golfing scene of the top ten for ten years from 1971. He was fourth in the golfers. Club Professional Kim Thomas has been at Stoke Poges for fifteen was due to the easy pickings they made in the many Pro-Am Order of Merit three times and his ten Euro Tour victories years, the last seven as full Professional, and his modern shop is a mecca For any golfer would know the answer to this: ‘Where can you expect to included the PGA Match-Play Championship and the Dutch, for all visitors. Kim nominates four holes that will test the abilities of the rub shoulders with goalkeeper Ray Clemence, cricketer Brian Close, tournaments available to them. This was somehow supposed French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian Opens. In six Ryder medium to high handicapper. ’s Ray Reardon, boxer Henry Cooper, motor racing’s James to lessen their appetite for the hard work necessary to win First of them is the 6th (326 yards) which demands an accurate tee Hunt, tennis star David Lloyd, and TV personalities like Eric Sykes, major tournaments. The success of Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo, Cup matches, perhaps his greatest achievement was beating Jimmy Tarbuck, Ed Stewart, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Leslie Randall, Gerald shot, avoiding the out-of-bounds clubhouse grounds on the right. There and the Ryder Cup team showed that this crit- Jack Nicklaus twice in a day at Laurel Valley in 1975. is a two-level green, a small first plateau sloping down to a larger surface. Harper and Lance Percival?’ icism was misplaced. Also playing were other distinguished Ryder Cup players It is a haven of three putts! For the golf course provides the answer – and more particularly such as Neil Coles, who played in seven teams between 1961 The second is the 421-yards 8th where a long and accurate drive is nec- the Associated Tyre Services Pro-Am here at Stoke Poges today, where In the early 1980s the Stoke Park Club was delighted to essary in order to carry the rough from the tee to the fairway. Trees on the all these stars are appearing, in company with world-class tournament welcome top performers such as Bernhard Langer, Howard and 1977, and , the Irishman, whose defeat of players. right are definitely to be avoided! The second shot is downhill and across Clark, Tommy Horton, , , Brian at in 1987 helped retain the You can mingle with them all, request and be supplied with their from the stream which runs some 50 yards short of the small green. One Waites, , , Gordon Brand, John trophy that Europe had won at in 1985. should be aware of the bunker on the right which runs around and in autographs, listen to their jokes on and off the course, and admire – or The Sun Alliance PGA Match-Play Championship at the front of the green. criticise if you wish – their skill at this wonderful game of golf. O’Leary, Eamonn Darcy, José-María Canizares, Maurice Everyone accepts the popularity of Pro-Ams these days as a matter of Stoke Park Club in 1977 was won by the South African, Hugh Of the Tournament’s homeward holes, the 14th (496 yards), a dog-leg Bembridge, Rowan Rafferty, , Tony left, with two larger bunkers some 80 yards short of the green, and with course – after all, they are now as much a part of the golf scene as are the Johnstone and . Baiocchi, who beat the great Seve Ballesteros three and two big professional and amateur events on the tournament calendar. more bunkers guarding the green itself, makes for a difficult approach Nick Faldo became well-known, perhaps a little notorious, on his way to the final, where he overcame Brian Huggett six shot. Hooked drives will find the large copse. But it’s only in recent years that they have become established and have and five. There was some trouble during Baiocchi’s match Not surprisingly, the short 16th (150 yards) is another of Kim’s ‘four begun to attract golfing fans. And that has come about as a result of the for his single-minded dedication to his own success, but with Ballesteros when some , who had backed Baiocchi to beware’. This is the 7th as the members play it, and is one of the most support of companies like Associated Tyre Services, who launched their showbiz personality Jerry Stevens found him a pleasure to famous of golf’s short holes. The stream runs diagonally across the front first event back in 1974. play with, saying in the 1983 programme of the ATS Pro-Am to win, were jangling coins in their pockets and coughing in And a great name to lead off the roll of winners of the professional of the long and narrow green which is set into the side of a large bank. at the Stoke Park Club: attempts to disturb Ballesteros’ concentration. Club Bunkers lie along the left of the green, and an accurate tee shot is essen- event was Ireland’s most famous golfing son, Christy O’Connor. The Secretary Tony Acres said: tial. amateur winner on that occasion was former England Amateur Stroke- Just four holes of a course that throughout provides a fine and fair test Play Champion Roger Revell. And in 1976, when the ATS Pro-Am came I played some time ago with Nick Faldo, and he welcomed me by saying: to Stoke Poges for the first time, it’s interesting to recall that the top These caddies were shouting their heads off because there had been some for golfers of any category, and an enjoyable experience whether one plays ‘I’ve been waiting for three years to play with Jerry Stevens, the Pro-Am amateur that year – and also the following year – was Sandy Lyle, now one betting. They were trying to annoy the player they wanted to lose, and to or not. star!’ [Stevens had twice been on the winning team in the ATS Pro-Am of Europe’s top professional golfers. caused a disturbance. The police came and stood behind them and that and he was also the amateur prizewinner in the 1981 Bob Hope British Right from the start, the ATS Pro-Am has been a big attraction for the solved the problem. Classic.] You can imagine how I felt when I had four shanks. I really was Pro-Am tournaments became more and more popular, and professional stars – among them winners of the British Open like embarrassed. Alan Booth’s article in the programme of the 1981 ATS Severiano Ballesteros and – or celebrities like Jimmy But Nick put me right with a simple tip: ‘Keep your head completely 236 STOKE PARK

still, as you should do with a putt. Stay behind the ball and swing past your and his wife Mary, Bernie Winters, , Harry Worth, eyes.’ And it worked. Bernard Cribbins and Henry Cooper. Spurs goalkeeper Ray That’s what is so great about the top Professionals – they really take an Clemence, eight days after beating rival Pat Jennings’ record interest in their amateur partners. for first-class appearances, began his round with an air- There were plenty of celebrities, professional at their own shot which he claimed was a ‘joke’. His next shot almost game but amateurs of varying ability at golf, willing to risk the decapitated a spectator. In spite of this start, Clemence ridicule of the large crowds who came to watch. Over the helped professional to win. In the meantime, years they included Cliff Michelmore, Ray Clemence, , the professional at Royal Wimbledon and Bernard Cribbins, Henry Kelly, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Russ former Ryder Cup player, went round in 69. Abbott, Duggie Brown, Ronnie Corbett, Lance Percival, John Rhodes, Captain of the Club in that year, welcomed Richie Benaud, Kenny Lynch, Jimmy Hill, Bruce Forsyth and the participants with some words about the improvements Terry Wogan. made to the course, and with a quote from perhaps the most famous writer on golf of all time, Bernard Darwin:

On behalf of the Members, I wish to welcome to Stoke Poges both players and visitors and hope that you all have an enjoyable day. During the last few years, much work has been done to improve the playing condition of the course. Wogan’s Pro-Am Tons of good top soil and sand have been applied to the greens. The automatic watering system has been up-dated. This year we are continu- Above: Terry Wogan, long-time Radio 2 broadcaster, organised his own Pro-Am Golf ing with the machinery replacement policy. Members and visitors will Classic at the Club in April 1987 and raised £30,000 for the Lords’ Taverners charities for Golf Classic handicapped and underprivileged children. enjoy playing on a course of championship standards. Just recently one of our members found a book by the famous Bernard Darwin, who wrote in The Golf Courses of the British Isles, printed in 1910, this description of our 7th hole (your 16th today): In late April 1987, BBC Radio 2 star Terry Wogan staged his ‘Never was there a better instance of the art of forcibly turning Pro-Am Golf Classic at Stoke Park Club and raised £30,000 forest into a golf course than is to be found at Stoke Poges. The beautiful for the Lords’ Taverners charities for handicapped and old park turf was always there, cropped from time immemorial by the generations of deer, who little knew what service they were doing to underprivileged children. The sun shone and attracted large the green-keeper, but in every direction there stretched thick belts of crowds to watch the golf – good and not-so-good – played by Right: John Betjeman, Poet Laureate, visited St Giles’ church and Gray’s Monument in the woodland, and yet a golf course was going to be made and opened in less 1980s. Here he is with the vicar of St Giles’, the Reverend Cyril Harris. other well-known personalities such as Michael Parkinson than no time. 238 STOKE PARK

‘One hole was particularly impressive. All that was then to be seen was Right: The Club from the air in 1982. a pretty little brook running innocently between its banks which were thickly covered with trees, while on one side the ground sloped gently upwards to a path through the woods. It was a spot to conjure up visions of dryads or fairies, “Green jacket, red cap and white owl feather,” of anything in the world except a narrow, catchy, slanting green and a half shot. Yet an inspired architect had fixed on it as the site of one of the short holes; the trees were to be cut down, the sloping bank to be turfed and the brook promoted to the fuller dignity of a burn. I went my way full of admiration – and of doubt. ‘A few months after I returned to find that the romantic little wood had vanished, and there was a short hole in its place – a hole that any course might be proud to own, and a putting green that the deer might have grazed for centuries. I never saw a more daring bit of architecture …’

During this period Stoke Park, which had been reduced in size and facilities to an eighteen-hole club, while successful in its own right, was unable to generate any surplus revenue to maintain and conserve the historic landscape and Mansion. Furthermore, between 1958 and 1988 the costs required to restore the estate steadily increased. The members, who had a lease only until 1993, conducted several negotiations with the landlord, South Bucks District Council, to extend the lease or buy the freehold. However, these came to nothing and the Council decided to sell what had become a serious future liability to their other tenant, which had been renting half of the Mansion as offices, International Hospitals Group.