IN SEPTEMBER 2019 THE WALKER CUP MATCH WILL BE PLAYED AT ROYAL LIVERPOOL.


THE CUP WAS WAS LAST FOUGHT FOR ON THE


HOYLAKE LINKS IN 1983.


HERE ARE SOME MEMORIES OF


35 YEARS AGO.


1983 And all that


BOB CHADWICK I was a member of Royal Liverpool’s Championship Committee from about 1980 to 1984. It was chaired by Anthony Shone. Following the


1967 Open there had


not


major from,


been events maybe, any


apart the


1975 Amateur. Now the Committee had to prepare for the 1981 European Open – which was expected to


be three the first such events


of at


Hoylake – and the 1983 Walker Cup. In the end it transpired


that the financial backing for the ‘Dixcel Tissues European Open’ was not as the European Tour had hoped and we hosted this multi-sponsored event only once. Under a different business model it reverted to being staged in the London area in 1982 – Sunningdale and Walton Heath between them staged 13 of the 15 events from 1978 to 1992 inclusive. Of the Walker Cup I remember being struck by how the


players were not


allowed to feel that they dominated the event: it was as much about a gathering of the great and good from the worlds of amateur golf past and present in the USA and British Isles.


2 ROYAL LIVERPOOL GOLF CLUB MAGAZINE 2018–2019 At the end of the post-match celebration


in the clubhouse I was in what was then known as the Mixed Bar (now Hilbre Lounge) talking with officials and players when I noticed Brad Faxon of the USA team standing by the window on his own gazing out at the links. I went up to him and said something


facile like, “Hello”, and he engaged me in conversation. He said that the Walker Cup had been “the best thing that had happened to him” in golf and that he would “remember it forever.” He was most charming and humble


in his manner and from that time I wished him every success and followed


Above: Jay Sigel


his career with interest. Brad received the 1983 Haskins Award


for the leading US College golfer – another Hoylake link because the man whose name was given to that award, Fred Haskins, was born 120 years ago in the town. Fred left


for the United


States and became teaching professional at the Country Club of Columbus in Georgia, having been recommended for the position by Bobby Jones, and built a reputation for mentoring young golfers. The Haskins family ran sports shops in Hoylake and West Kirby for many years.


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