Page 35 - Torquay Golf Club

Harry Vardon
To engage the services of Harry Vardon and J.H. Taylor at that period of time was a superb effort. Harry Vardon had already won ‘The Open Championship’ on four occasions and he went on to win again 2 months after opening Torquay Golf Club in July 1911. Harry Vardon still holds the record of Open Championship titles in: 1896, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1911 and 1914.
The ‘other’ professional of the opening day match, J.H. Taylor, was no stranger to golf himself, winning ‘The Open’ on 5 occasions, being: 1894, 1895, 1900, 1909 and 1913.
The financial situation however was difficult.
To construct a golf course from farmland had proven costly. The Clubhouse was a worthy construction and not a mere shelter or pavilion and the whole project was faced with difficulties of such magnitude that there was
no alternative but to enter into voluntary liquidation.
The land, with the Clubhouse, was fortuitously taken over by the Torquay Borough Council in 1920 and then let to a club constituted from the members of the defunct
company. A lease was granted and The Torquay & South Devon Golf Club arose.
During the First World War the course was occupied as a dispersal depot by the New Zealand Forces and, on their return to New Zealand, the course was altered under the direction of James Braid.
In 1938 the Borough Council agreed to grant a further lease to a company carrying the name of The Torquay Golf Club Limited, the name the Club still holds to this day.
The Trophies
In the early days there were six trophies, the senior being the Brockman Cup, presented by W.S. Brockman in 1911. This was followed by The Willes Little Challenge Bowl, presented in 1913 by J.F. Willes Little. In 1920 the Chatton Cup was presented. The Gilley Cup was presented by P.J. Gilley in 1921 and both the Birmingham Cup, by A.E. Birmingham and the Field Scratch Medal, by David and Edith field was presented in 1922.
Petitor Road, St Marychurch, Torquay, Devon TQ1 4QF 35 01803 314591 www.torquaygolfclub.co.uk