BIG HITTING SCRATCH GOLFER, AUTHOR,


FORMULA 1 SAFETY PIONEER - AND A


HOYLAKE STALWART. OR


WAS HE? JOE PINNINGTON GOES IN SEARCH OF AN EXTRAORDINARY MAN.


Fine Another Stanley mess


M’LEARNED FRIEND AND FELLOW golf historian,


Jeremy Greenfield, was


browsing in a book shop in between court cases when he spotted “Legends of Golf” by Louis T. Stanley. Jeremy


lent “Legends” to me


whereupon I discovered it to be a fine book with a foreword by a legend in his own right, the wonderful American amateur, Frank Stranahan. In truth, up until then I knew nothing about the man often referred to as LTS, despite the fact that he was, as I discovered, responsible for more than ninety books including twelve devoted to golf. I was impressed and fascinated by two


things. First, prolific Louis T. Stanley wrote very well and with great authority; and second, judging by his continual references to Royal Liverpool at Hoylake and Guy Farrar, Secretary between 1944 and 1956, I concluded that the author must once have been a member of this historic Club. There was more strong evidence in


the introduction to “Legends of Golf”, written


by Bobby Halsall, once the


professional at Royal Birkdale. Bobby says he remembers vividly “seeing Louis for the first time at his own great Club, Royal Liverpool. It was April 1930; I had been invited by Harry Bentley, the great amateur...I was to caddy for Harry who at that stage was one of the best amateurs in England. As we moved to the practise ground we passed the first tee. There stood a tall, elegant young man, possibly a few years older than myself, swinging the club with a great deal of panache. I thought to myself, if he could repeat


56 ROYAL LIVERPOOL GOLF CLUB MAGAZINE 2 017


the movement when the ball was there it would be something, and my God, he did! Rarely have I seen such power generated in a golf swing...I saw him play another fantastic drive down the second before heading back to the practise ground. I told Harry, you’ve got your work cut out. Who’s that player moving down the second fairway? Oh that’s Louis Stanley, a member of Hoylake.” As a collector of sports books I


acquired some more LTS titles, including “Rugby Union” with a foreword by another larger than life character, Micky Steele-Bodger. Louis was born in Wallasey in Wirral


about five miles from Hoylake. His story goes that he was educated at Winchester


I searched


diligently but in vain


Above: Bobby Jones receiving the Claret Jug in 1930 - was ‘Hoylake member’ Louis T. Stanley in the crowd?


but no records confirm this. We do know, however, that he attended that fine local seat of education, Birkenhead School. He progressed to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but there is no record there of his golfing prowess, and no answer to the wider question of why, given that World War Two was raging, he was studying amid the dreaming spires and not fighting for his country. He returned to Wirral and married a lady by the name of Furness, with whom


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