Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club has been gifted the putter used by its first-ever club professional, JH Taylor, to win his fifth and final Major at Royal Liverpool in 1913 by the former staff and pupils of an Essex school at which his son was once headmaster.
The Richmond-based club plans to display the prized putter in the clubhouse in a special cabinet that draws attention to JH Taylor’s playing achievements more than a century ago and his unrivalled golfing legacy.
The putter was made by renowned St Andrews club maker and R&A professional Willie Auchterlonie, who crafted golf clubs most of his adult life and was Open champion himself in 1893, winning at the age of 21 at Prestwick with seven clubs he made for himself.
Fast forward two decades and the putter was reportedly given to Taylor on the eve of the 1913 tournament by Andrew Kirkaldy, the club professional at St Andrews at the time.
JH Taylor won the 1913 Open Championship by an incredible eight shots after high winds and rain affected the scoring at Hoylake with players struggling to break 80 on the final day. He shot rounds of 73, 75, 77 and 79 for a 304 total to collect the Claret Jug and the £50 winner’s prize.
In 1982, Taylor’s son Jack presented the putter to the Old Buckwellians Association, a network of former pupils and staff from Buckhurst Hill County High School in Essex, where he was the school’s first headmaster until his retirement in 1966. The school closed in 1989, but the Association used the putter as the prize for its annual golf competition.
As the school has been closed for more than 30 years and there will be an ever-decreasing number of OBA members, it was deemed fitting to find a suitable home for a permanent display of the putter in memory of both Senior and Junior Taylors.
So it was recently gifted to Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club, where JH Taylor became head professional in 1899 and designed both 18-hole courses, one of which bears his name today.
“We’re absolutely delighted to have been gifted the putter that we can showcase to our members and guests from around the world, especially on the eve of The Open Championship heading back to the place where the putter was used to win the famous Claret Jug trophy 110 years ago,” said Royal Mid-Surrey General Manager, Mark Gailey. “We pass our heartfelt thanks to the Old Buckwellians Association, as Royal Mid-Surrey is a fitting place for the putter to call home just as John Henry did for 47 years as our first-ever Club Professional,” he added.
Founded in 1892, Royal Mid-Surrey counts a total of nine Open Championship titles among its Club Professionals – JH Taylor (1894,1895, 1900, 1909 & 1913), Henry Cotton (1934, 1937 & 1948) and Max Faulkner (1951) – which is believed to be more than any club in the world.