HIGH FIVE
JOE PINNINGTON CELEBRATES THE CENTENARY OF J.H. TAYLOR’S HEROIC OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP WIN AT HOYLAKE IN JUNE 1913
Left: Joe Carr on his way to victory Below: Joe Carr’s Amateur Championship Medal
J.H.Taylor in full swing
AT THE HEIGHT OF THE ENGLISH SUMMER OF 1913 the Open returned to Hoylake for the fourth time in a space of sixteen years. All the leading players of the game arrived, led by The Great Triumvirate. Of the three previous championships that had been played at Hoylake, neither Harry Vardon, James Braid or J.H. Taylor had won the Open but one of them was runner up to Harold Hilton in 1897, to Alex Heard in 1902 and to Arnaud Massy in 1907. Now must be the time for the record to be corrected. Surely? (Just to make a point about climate
change and all that stuff, the weather in the middle of June was shocking: high winds, rain, just vile - the usual cyclical trends of weather perhaps?) But I digress. The championship was
played over four days with all players having to qualify first. John H. Taylor qualified by the skin of
He realised that 1913 was in all probability his last chance
2 ROYAL LIVERPOOL GOLF CLUB MAGAZINE 2013
his teeth, with only a single shot to spare. So he made it to the championship itself over two days and then had to play four more rounds of golf. In his splendid book, Golf: My Life’s Work, J.H. Taylor gives a vivid insight into the events of that Championship and states naturally that only his first Open win at Sandwich in 1894 ranked higher. He thought his time had come and gone on the Cheshire links. This was a disappointment to him as, ever since his caddie days at Westward Ho!, he had looked upon Hoylake as a second home. In those early days of English golf Hoylake was as good as a next door neighbour and, what’s more, it was the home of his other great hero, Johnnie Ball. The thought of never winning a championship here disturbed him a great deal and he realised that 1913 was, in all probability, his last chance. So before the Championship proper he had the fright of his life as he only
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