Glamorganshire Golf Club
Encyclopedia
Penarth
Penarth is a town and seaside resort in the Vale of Glamorgan , Wales, 5.2 miles south west from the city centre of the Welsh capital city of Cardiff and lying on the north shore of the Severn Estuary at the southern end of Cardiff Bay...
in the Vale of Glamorgan
Vale of Glamorgan
The Vale of Glamorgan is a county borough in Wales; an exceptionally rich agricultural area, it lies in the southern part of Glamorgan, South Wales...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, 7.3 miles (11.7 kilometres) south west from the capital city
Capital City
Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
of Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
and is one of the oldest golf clubs in Wales. The club was founded by the Earl of Plymouth
Robert Windsor-Clive, 1st Earl of Plymouth
Robert George Windsor-Clive, 1st Earl of Plymouth GBE, CB, PC , known as The Lord Windsor between 1869 and 1905, was a British nobleman and Conservative politician.-Background:...
.
The club played a leading role in the founding of the Welsh Golf Union and in its early years twice hosted the Welsh Amateur Championship as well as the Welsh Ladies inaugural Championships.
In 1898 the club was the testing ground of Dr Frank Stableford’s new Stableford
Stableford
Stableford is a scoring system used in the sport of golf. Rather than counting the total number of strokes taken, as in stroke play, it involves scoring points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole...
revolutionary golf scoring system still used today.
Although near the sea, the Glamorganshire course is not a links
Links (golf)
A links is the oldest style of golf course, first developed in Scotland. The word "links" comes from the Scots language and refers to an area of coastal sand dunes and sometimes to open parkland. It also retains this more general meaning in the Scottish English dialect...
, but an 18-hole parkland course on gently undulating ground at the eastern edge of what is now Cosmeston Lakes Country Park.
Foundation
In 1890 the Earl of Plymouth gifted an extensive plot of land in Lower Penarth and the club was founded initially as a nine hole course. The club undertook an expansion programme to the full eighteen hole course during 1896 and the following year enabling the 1897 Welsh Amateur Championship to take place in Penarth for the first time.The Stableford scoring system
Stableford
Stableford is a scoring system used in the sport of golf. Rather than counting the total number of strokes taken, as in stroke play, it involves scoring points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole...
method of golf scoring, a system now utilised and revered, particularly by amateur golfers, the world over, was first devised by a Glamorganshire club member, Dr. Frank Barney Gordon Stableford. He first tried it out on fellow members of the club on the 30th September 1898.
Prior to this revolutionary experiment here was no stroke indexing system available to golfers. Essentially all holes were played to par and the ‘Stableford’ points applied. At the end of the game one third of the players handicap was added to the overall ‘Stableford’ adjusted score. The maximum handicap for the event was fifteen. The new system obviously favoured the better golfer at the time which is hardly surprising as the good doctor was a single figure handicapper.
Stableford himself did not actually participate in his initial experiment though he donated a special prize to the winner, Mr W Hastings Watson, who scored a remarkable forty two points. There is no indication of what the members thought about the alternative of scoring by points or, indeed, whether they tried it out on any other occasions.
Dr Stableford, who was a resident of Whitchurch, Cardiff
Whitchurch, Cardiff
Whitchurch is a suburb in the north of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It is approximately 3 miles north of the centre of the city on the A470 road and A4054 road. Its estimated population as of 2004 was 15,649. It falls within the Whitchurch & Tongwynlais ward.-History:Whitchurch draws its name from...
at the time, left the Glamorganshire Golf Club when he set off to serve as an Army Surgeon in the Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
. On his return to Wales he joined the Royal Porthcawl Golf Club
Royal Porthcawl Golf Club
Royal Porthcawl Golf Club is a golf club located to the north of Porthcawl and bordering the Bristol Channel, in Wales.The club has hosted many prestigious tournaments including The Amateur Championship on six occasions, the Walker Cup in 1995, the Curtis Cup in 1964, the British Masters in 1961,...
where he won the Royal Porthcawl Championship in 1907 and in the same year reached the semi -final of the Welsh Amateur Championship.
The Barbarians rugby football club
Barbarian F.C.
The Barbarian Football Club, usually referred to as the Barbarians and nicknamed the "Baa-Baas", is an invitational rugby union team based in Britain...
visited the Glamorganshire club every Easter Sunday between 1901 and 1996 as part of their traditional Easter weekend touring fixtures against famous Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
clubs.
Their Sunday 'official golf frolic' is regarded a major part of the Barbarians legend and, in the eyes of most of their players, was almost of equal importance to the weekend’s rugby. The competitive sporting drive of the rugby stars was as evident on the golf course as it was on any rugby field.
In 1924-25 in recognition of the generosity of the golf club, ninety five Barbarian members subscribed a total of £52.17s.0d for a 95-ounce perpetual silver cup called the Barbarians Challenge Cup, to be completed for annually by club members on Easter Monday to commemorate the eagerly anticipated Easter visits by the Barbarians.
The mounted head of a Springbok, presented to the Barbarians team after they defeated the South African national team
South Africa national rugby union team
The South African national rugby union team are 2009 British and Irish Lions Series winners. They are currently ranked as the fourth best team in the IRB World Rankings and were named 2008 World Team of the Year at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards.Although South Africa was instrumental...
in 1961, remains on display in the golf club’s bar to this day.
Military
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Glamorganshire Golf Course was the location of an experimental rocket battery as part of the town's air defences. The battery was manned by 50 soldiers from the Royal Artillery
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery , is the artillery arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
who were billeted in a small 'village' of Nissen huts built in the club's grounds. Unannounced practice firings of the rocket battery frequently caused concern and alarm amongst local residents. Several public air raid shelters, for Lower Penarth residents and workers at the Cement Factory, were constructed in the club grounds and on the land that now forms part of Cosmeston Country Park.
Guy Gibson VC
Guy Gibson
Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson VC, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, RAF , was the first CO of the Royal Air Force's 617 Squadron, which he led in the "Dam Busters" raid in 1943, resulting in the destruction of two large dams in the Ruhr area...
the leader of the legendary Dam Busters raid
Operation Chastise
Operation Chastise was an attack on German dams carried out on 16–17 May 1943 by Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron, subsequently known as the "Dambusters", using a specially developed "bouncing bomb" invented and developed by Barnes Wallis...
over Germany in World War II, was not only an honorary member of Glamorganshire Golf Club but when the news came that he had been awarded the Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
he celebrated that night in the clubhouse.
Wing Commander Gibson's association with Glamorganshire began when the air ace met a young Penarthian, Eve Moore, at a party in Coventry during early December 1939 while he was on three days rest leave at his brother’s house.
The following year Gibson and Eve were married at All Saints Church in Penarth. Guy Gibson flew his Blenheim bomber from his airbase in Lincolnshire to RAF St Athan for the wedding.
Eve's parents, Mr and Mrs Ernest Moore, lived in Archer Road, Penarth, and the couple moved in with them while they considered buying a home of their own. Ernest Moore was a keen golfer and invited his new son-in-law to join the Glamorganshire club as an honorary member.
After the Dambusters raid took place in May 1943, widely hailed as a turning point of the War, Gibson spent his two week post-raid leave in Penarth, playing golf on most days. While he was on that leave he had a call from the Air Ministry
Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the British Government with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964...
telling him that he had been awarded the VC. Ernest Moore immediately telephoned the steward at Glamorganshire and asked to lay on as many drinks as he could find and the whole family went down to celebrate in style at the clubhouse.
Gibson was an enthusiastic golfer and often returned to his favourite course at the Glamorganshire club while on leave until his death.