WUGC / WCGL HISTORY
Golf has been played in Worcestershire for about 150 years. The Worcestershire golf club was founded in 1879 and was the first club in the Midlands. Before that time golfers had to travel to North Devon, Berkshire, Lancashire or Scotland to play golf. In the next 25 years many more golf clubs were built with a further 12 in Worcestershire. Mainly due to the work of Rev. Sydney James and J. J. Tomson, the Worcestershire Union of Golf Clubs (WUGC) was founded at a meeting in the Star Hotel (now the Whitehouse Hotel) Worcester on the 17th November 1905.
Rev. Sydney James and J.J. Tomson
Co-founders of Worcestershire Union of Golf Clubs.
Interclub competitions began in 1906 some, like the Tomson-James Cup are still played for today. Intercounty matches were also started between midland counties such as Gloucestershire, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire, with other counties joining in over the next five years. The Union also introduced scratch scores for each course and a set of rules for clubs to use. Interestingly, some of the rules, although modified, appear in the R&A Rules of Golf, examples being:
· A ball may be lifted and dropped not nearer the hole under penalty of one shot – currently found with caveats in Rule 14.1; and,
· A ball played onto a putting green other than that of the hole being played must be lifted and dropped without penalty clear of the green – ‘Wrong Green’ Rule 13.1f.
The first decade of WUGC was ended by the First World War. Many golfers joined the army and golf courses were used for growing crops. Sadly, some golfers did not survive the war and memorials to the fallen can be seen in many Worcestershire golf clubhouses.
The interwar years began slowly with courses recovering from agricultural use. Interclub and intercounty matches restarted in 1920. Golf was gaining in popularity and more competitions and matches were organised. However, perhaps the most significant development was the formation of the English Golf Union (EGU) in 1924 which the WUGC supported from its inception. Shortly afterwards the EGU introduced a new system of standard scratch scores which was adopted by WUGC in 1925. This was updated in 1933 to include a handicapping scheme. Seventeen of the twenty-two courses in Worcestershire that were assessed at that time are still operating.
The second world war saw another break in golf with many courses again used for agriculture. When competitive golf began again in 1946 there was another surge in popularity and more competitions were introduced. In 1967 the Midland Counties Golf Association proposed leagues to include both 1st and 2nd teams from midland counties. These were joined at later dates with senior and junior competitions. A further change to handicapping and a switch to the 1.68” ball for county competitions and matches occurred in 1983. This was also the year that the Midland Counties Golf Association and the Midland Group of the EGU merged to form the Midland Golf Union.
A photograph taken before the first of the English County Golf Championships at Formby in 1955.
Back row: E. Griffiths (press), Roy Hobbis, Neville Sears, Stanley Elliott, Ken Frazier.
Seated: Dr J.L. Brown (county president), Guy Bigwood,(president, Blackwell Golf Club)
Derek Greeey (county secretary), H. Hogg (press). In front Lew Wilkinson, Jack Butterworth
In 1998 the county took over the running of the Worcestershire Senior Golfers Society, first formed in 1973, and started arranging friendly team matches. The inaugural seniors’ foursomes were held in 2000 and WUGC fielded a team in the MGU seniors’ county championship. In 2001 the first County Seniors’ Championship was held and a year later the first Seniors’ Matchplay Championship took place.
WUGC ran the Midland Boys Championship when it was first played in 1950 until 1986 when it was taken over by the newly formed Midland Golf Union. The county introduced its own boy’s championship in 1958. In 1965 a Midland Boys Four Counties team event was played for the first time, and a similar event, the Severnside Tournament, was started. The Midland Boys league was formed in 1990 and is still going strong. Another first for junior golf came in 1999 with a mixed junior inter-county match between Worcestershire and Shropshire & Herefordshire.
Boys versus Gwent at Worcester Golf and Country Club. The first outing of the Boys County Blazers.
Further expansion of golf occurred in the 1980s and 1990s with many proprietary courses being built. Fourteen courses opened in Worcestershire between 1985 and 1998 and all affiliated to WUGC. While some have closed and two have amalgamated these newer courses have provided a welcome addition to the range of golfing facilities across Worcestershire, adding to the opportunities for participation in the game already provided for over a century by longer established clubs
In 2005 the WUGC celebrated its centenary. A Centenary Tournament was organised with representative teams from all affiliated clubs was won by Droitwich, one of the initial founding clubs. Other centenary events were held including a match against the British Golf Collectors Society using hickory clubs. The year finished with the Centenary Dinner at the Guildhall in Worcester. A history of the Worcestershire Union of Golf Clubs has been published by John F. Moreton to celebrate the centenary.
The Droitwich Winning Team in the Centenary Tournament.
Left to Right: Brian Peplow holding salver, David Glover, Andrew Sargeant, Alan Bayley, Jon Jones (captain King Norton)
Apart from interclub competitions the focus for county golf has been to provide opportunities for elite players. Representative golf remains important for WUGC but an increasing administrative role in managing golf has materialized in the last 20 years. More recently, the new Rules of Golf (2019) and the World Handicapping System (WHS) have been introduced. Further change happened in 2020 when WUGC decided to incorporate and became Worcestershire County Golf Limited (WCGL) on the 1st January 2021. Currently there are thirty-one golf clubs affiliated to WCGL including ten of the original founders of the previous Union.