Captain’’’ s RICK TAYLOR
LOOKS BACK AT A MEMORABLE YEAR IN OFFICE.
IT HAS BEEN A great honour to serve as Captain of this Club. As many who attended last year’s AGM will recall, my year started in the aftermath of a blizzard which prevented any golf on either the AGM Saturday or the next day. Fortunately, the snow, which remained on the ground at my home in Heswall for over a week, had cleared the course by Tuesday evening so the
It has been a great honour to serve as Captain of this Club
Above: Rick Taylor, Captain 2013-14
Below: Francis Ouimet with his
caddy, Eddie Lowery
Easter Foursomes was able to proceed on schedule on Good Friday. My first official duty was to referee the final, well won by the father and son combination of Geoff and Oli Guest. Over the next two weekends we entertained Blackheath, Rye and Prestwick in friendly matches followed by Troon a week later in a formal Captain’s match. So far as speeches were concerned, Wallasey, West Lancs, Liverpool University Alumni and the British Golf Collectors’ Society had all been tackled before the end of April to set me up for our own Spring Dinner on the 1st Saturday of May. Our principal guest was Pierre
Log
Bechmann, the first Frenchman to be Captain of The R&A. A delightful companion both on the golf course and at dinner, where his remark, when I apologised for the comfort break before the speeches lasting half an hour, was a memorable one which immediately put me at ease. “What a wonderful ambience.” The whole evening was a splendid success and thank you to all members and staff who attended or waited on at that dinner for contributing to such an enjoyable welcome to our guests. The Captain of The R&A kindly reciprocated by inviting me to lunch at Muirfield on the first day of The Open. Monday 24th June was the day of golf
and dinner at Hoylake to commemorate the centenary of J. H. Taylor’s Open win in June 1913 and was another occasion of which the Club can be justifiably proud. We invited ten members from Royal North Devon, where J H Taylor had started his career, ten members from
54 ROYAL LIVERPOOL GOLF CLUB MAGAZINE 2 014
Royal Mid- Surrey, where he had been professional for forty-nine years, and four from the PGA, of which he was the founder. A potential disaster - a total shutdown of the electrics in the kitchen - was averted by the quick thinking of our House Manager, Shaun Herbert, who used his contact with the Conservative Club next door to use its kitchen for the cooking of the main course, Fillet Steak. Needless to say, the customary excellent service ensured that all proceeded without most of the diners being aware of the problem until the speeches! In August Royal Liverpool co-hosted
the Boys’ Amateur Championship which entailed two hundred and fifty- two young golfers playing rounds at Hoylake and Wallasey before the top sixty-four qualified for the knock-out rounds at Hoylake. The potential stars of tomorrow were whittled down to the Sunday final between Ewen Ferguson of Bearsden, Glasgow and Michael Hirmer from Germany but also a pupil at Loretto School in Edinburgh. The German, who had been the beneficiary of extreme kindness from his Swedish opponent in his Friday morning match – a penalty drop out of a fairway bunker on the 17th – yes I would like my future opponents to give me the same opportunity – took the early lead and was three up after five holes. The Scot, however, sensing his father’s nerves as a spectator was affecting his golf sent him back to the Clubhouse, and took command to win the 36 hole final 10 and 9. The week of the Boys’ Amateur clashed
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