The Mcgregor Story: The First Thirty Years

By Roy Case

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• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Oct 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781477229699

Roy Case

Born in the village of Kirkby-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire at the start of the Second World War, Roy Case was educated at the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Mansfield. He retired from the position of Managing Director of a large interior contracting company at the age of 55, subsequently devoting his time to his true passion of sport. After voluntarily serving England Golf for a number of years he was elected its President in 2008, and in the Millennium Year was presented with the Gerald Micklem Award for his outstanding service to amateur golf. Case also served for more than a decade on the Great Britain & Ireland Boys Selection Committee of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. A keen follower of cricket, Case is a member of the Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. Other Publications include: The McGregor Story: The First Thirty Years. Many of the world’s leading professional golfers competed in the McGregor Trophy as youngsters, and fondly remember the important part the tournament played in their development. The Victorian Pioneers: An appealing story of a dozen English cricketers which travelled to Canada and North America in 1859 to compete in the first inter-continental cricket tour.

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© 2012 by Roy Case. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/25/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-2968-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-2967-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-2969-9 (e)

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Contents

DEDICATION

FOREWORD

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CHAPTER ONE: THE EARLY YEARS

CHAPTER TWO: THE GOLF UNIONS

CHAPTER THREE: THE McGREGOR FAMILY

CHAPTER FOUR: THE CASE FAMILY

CHAPTER FIVE: JOHN WALKER

CHAPTER SIX: THE ITALIAN JOB

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE NATIONS CUP

CHAPTER EIGHT: THROUGHOUT THE YEARS THE EIGHTIES

CHAPTER NINE: THROUGHOUT THE YEARS THE NINETIES

CHAPTER TEN: THROUGHOUT THE YEARS THE NEW MILLENNIUM

CHAPTER ELEVEN: 2013 THE FUTURE YEARS

PREVIOUS CHAMPONSHIP WINNERS

THE JEAN CASE MEMORIAL SALVER PREVIOUS UNDER 15 WINNERS

NOTABLE DATES

LIST OF McGREGOR COMPETITORS

DEDICATION

1-Jean Case.jpg

This book is dedicated to my family, and to the memory of Jean Ann Case, whose constant and loyal support made all things achievable.

Without her love and encouragement none of this would have become a reality.

Roy Case

2012

Index of Photographs

Jean Casev

Paul Baxter, Joint President England Golf 2012

Bill Griffiths, a Past Captain and Secretary of Radcliffe on Trent GC

Tom Williamson and Harry Vardon

Matt and Kathy McGregor with Paddy

Matt McGregor in Takoradi, Ghana

Jean Case with Ann McGregor and Tam.

John Walker

Dr Alister MacKenzie

Wearside GC2

Richard Walker—Royal Birkdale Golf Club 2001

Carlo Bordogna and Roy Case—Vilamoura, Portugal-1994

Italian Boys Team 1996

England Boys Team 1996

England and Italian Boys Team 1997

England Boys Team 1998

England And Italian Boys Team 1999

England Boys Team 2000

Italian Boys Team 2000

England Boys Team 2001

Paul Waring; Matthew Baldwin

Prize winners 1982

Shaun Case and Stuart Fraser, Captain Radcliffe on Trent GC.

Shaun Smith 1983

Mark Nunn 1984

Heath Linacre 1985

Jim Payne 1987

David Turnbull 1990

Lee Westwood

Lee Westwood and Jean Case

Max Harris Record Scorecard

Justin Rose and Sid Matthews—Captain Radcliffe on Trent GC

Ann McGregor

Peter Dutton—Past President of the English Golf Union

Roy Case and Nick Dougherty—Japan in 1999

Michael Skelton 2000.

Paul Waring 2001

English Golf Union Officials

Oliver Fisher and Sharon Oliver 2003

Floris de Vries and Sharon Oliver 2004

Roy Case and Ron Snelling

Oscar Sharpe 2006

Adam Carson 2007

Sebastian Crookhall Nixon 2008

Bertrand Mommearts and Sharon Oliver

Toby Tree 2010

Jack Hermeston 2011

Lee Westwood and Sharon Oliver.

Trevose Golf and Country Club

Jake Storey 2012

Seacroft Golf Club

Jim Payne 1987

David Turnbull 1990

Lee Westwood87

Lee Westwood and Jean Case

Max Harris Record Scorecard105

Justin Rose and Sid Matthews—Captain Radcliffe on Trent GC

Ann McGregor

Peter Dutton—Past President of the English Golf Union

Roy Case and Nick Dougherty—Japan in 1999

Michael Skelton 2000

Paul Waring 2001

English Golf Union Officials

Oliver Fisher and Sharon Oliver 2003

Floris de Vries and Sharon Oliver 2004

Roy Case and Ron Snelling

Oscar Sharpe 2006

Adam Carson 2007

Sebastian Crookhall Nixon 2008

Bertrand Mommearts and Sharon Oliver

Toby Tree 2010

Jack Hermeston 2011

Lee Westwood and Sharon Oliver

Trevose Golf and Country Club

Jake Storey 2012

Seacroft Golf Club

FOREWORD

2-Paul Baxter.JPG

Paul Baxter, Joint President England Golf 2012

Just like the mighty oak grows from a small acorn the McGregor Trophy has grown from a localised junior open tournament into an international championship for young golfers.

However, none of this could have been achieved without the dedication of Jean & Roy Case, supported by the Radcliffe on Trent Golf Club.

The success of junior golf is vital to the future of golf club membership and for the long term success of English Golf. Development of junior golf within a golf club largely depends on the dedication of its junior organiser, and it is in this role that I first met Jean and Roy Case. They were the junior organisers at Radcliffe on Trent Golf Club in Nottinghamshire, and one could not meet two more dedicated people.

They quickly realised that to maintain the interest and improve the development of young golfers they needed to test their skills in competitive play. It was this concept, coupled with their combined passion to develop promising young talent, which led them to approach the Radcliffe on Trent Golf Club and the McGregor family with the objective of establishing a tournament for young golfers. Their suggestion received overwhelming support from both parties and in 1982 the McGregor Trophy was born.

The tournament was a great success and quickly caught the attention of some of the leading young golfers from throughout the United Kingdom and Europe. The quality of the players soon attracted the interest of the English Golf Union and in 1993 it adopted the tournament as the English Boys’ Under 16 Open Stroke Play Championship for the McGregor Trophy.

Many of the world’s top professionals have competed in the McGregor Trophy when, as young players, they were trying to catch the eye of international team selectors and they will undoubtedly remember with great fondness the important part the tournament played in their development as a world class golfer.

I attended the inaugural tournament in 1982 and have followed the event with great interest ever since. However, what I remember most of all about the McGregor Trophy is the passion and dedication for junior golf shown by Roy and Jean Case.

Paul Baxter

Paul Baxter

Joint President, England Golf 2012

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The significance of the voluntary contribution and the selfless generosity made by the countless number of members and employees of the Radcliffe on Trent Golf Club throughout the formative years of the McGregor Trophy was fundamental in ensuring the future success of the tournament in years to come. They helped make everything possible and such a pleasurable experience.

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Bill Griffiths, a Past Captain and Secretary of Radcliffe on Trent Golf Club, and stalwart supporter of the McGregor Trophy in its formative years

CHAPTER ONE

THE EARLY YEARS

1982 was a notable year for an assortment of reasons.

On the sporting front FIFA expanded the World Cup finals from 16 to 24 teams, and a triumphant Italian team defeated the might of West Germany 3-1 in the final at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, equalling Brazil’s record of winning the World Cup on three occasions.

Aston Villa became the fourth English club to win the European Cup, later to become known as the UEFA Champions League Cup, conquering Bayern Munich in Rotterdam by 1-0, with Peter Withe scoring for the ‘Villains’ in the 69th minute. Whereas it took a replay and a total of three and a half hours of football before Tottenham Hotspur overcame the challenge of Queen’s Park Rangers to win the FA Cup by a similar margin.

The wreck of the ‘Mary Rose’, the Tudor flagship of the navy of King Henry VIII, was salvaged from the Solent, where it sank in 1545. Thousands of artefacts of immeasurable value were recovered from the wreck in one of the most complex and expensive projects in maritime history.

In April 1982, the historic Falklands War began between Argentina and the United Kingdom fought over the long-standing conflict relating to the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, which lie in the South Atlantic to the east of Argentina. Argentine forces invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, and as a consequence the British government dispatched a task force to engage and retake the islands. The subsequent conflict lasted 74 days before the islands were returned to British control following the Argentine surrender.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge KG, was born in St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, West London on the 21st June. The eldest son of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, the Prince is the third eldest grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and second in the line of succession to the throne. Following his subsequent marriage to Catherine Middleton, on the 29th April, 2011 at Westminster Abbey, the Prince was created Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus.

Another notable birth in 1982 was that of the successful Italian professional golfer Francesco Molinari, who was born in November in Turin. Francesco, together with his younger brother Eduardo who was to win the McGregor Trophy in 1996, competed in the Championship, which was played for the very first time in August of that year over the parkland golf course at the Radcliffe on Trent Golf Club in Nottinghamshire.

It is hardly surprising the inauguration of the McGregor Trophy warranted hardly a mention, other than in the local press, when measured against the abundance of other momentous happenings which occurred during the course of that celebrated year. Nonetheless, it was in 1982 that the husband and wife team of Jean and Roy Case, both long-standing members and the enthusiastic junior organisers at the Radcliffe on Trent Golf Club, approached the Match and Handicap Committee Chairman, Des Hudson, with a proposition to stage a 36 hole junior invitation tournament, to be held during the summer as part of the Club’s annual Junior Week celebrations.

The proposal was put before the Club’s Management Committee, which was extremely supportive of the development of junior golf, and its consent was subsequently granted without hesitation.

Consequently, a suitable trophy was required, which would be presented annually to the winner of the Championship, and with this in mind Jean and Roy approached former captains of the Club, Matt and Kathy McGregor, to enlist their support. Keen to encourage all forms of junior sport, Matt and Kathy were quick to agree to donate a silver salver for the purpose, and as a product of their benevolence the McGregor Trophy came into being.

The McGregor Trophy was the first of many club junior open events to be staged within the County of Nottinghamshire at the time, and as a result of its extraordinary initial success it was soon acknowledged to have the potential to develop into something of far greater importance.

At the time there were only two national events in existence for boys under the age of eighteen which were considered of major significance.

One being an annual stroke-play championship for the Carris Trophy, routinely held over the course at the Moor Park Golf Club in Hertfordshire. Inaugurated in 1935, the event was originally played as a 36 hole tournament until 1974, when it was increased to 72 holes. Such was its appeal that it was soon to attract the attention of the Country’s most accomplished boy players, leading to the event eventually being adopted by the English Golf Union in 1988. The Championship is now played at a different venue each year, moving around the four England Golf Regional Groups in turn, before returning to Moor Park Golf Club every fifth year.

In addition to the Carris Trophy, there was also the ‘blue riband’ of events for boys, the British Boys Championship, now organised annually by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. This event was initially established in 1921, and was at the time confined to players under the age of sixteen years. For the first two years of its history the competition was held at the Royal Ascot Golf Club in Berkshire, over the original course sited in the middle of the racecourse on Ascot Heath, following which the age limit was increased to accommodate players under the age of eighteen.

When the Club was dissolved in 1923 the two founders continued to organise the event independently until 1949, when the R & A assumed responsibility for the administration of the Championship, with the first event held over the Old Course at St. Andrews.

As a consequence, and after much deliberation, the Case family considered the introduction of an additional boys championship for boys under the age of 18 might be an event which would attract the attention of players falling short of the qualifying standards required to compete in either the Carris Trophy or the British Boys Championship. Following its initial success, in 1983, the year following its inauguration, the McGregor Trophy was modified to become a 72 hole boys open championship.

Coincidentally, at around the same time, the management of the Copt Heath Golf Club in Solihull, West Midlands had similar thoughts, and launched its own Peter McEvoy Trophy, linking the event with the name of the legendary British amateur golfer who was a member of the Copt Heath club, in recognition of his back-to-back wins in the Amateur Championships in 1977 and 1978. Subsequently, this superbly organised event has become a popular and significant international event in the golfing calendar for boys under the age of eighteen.

Nowadays, the McGregor Trophy, or the English Boys’ Under 16 Open Amateur Stroke-play Championship to give it its full title, is recognised throughout Europe and beyond as one of the leading 72 hole stroke-play events for players of this age group. Open to boy golfers of all nationalities who are under the age of sixteen on the 1st January in the year of the competition, the field is currently limited to 132 competitors, and the Championship is played over three days, with eighteen holes played on each of the first two days, and a further thirty-six holes played on the final day by the leading forty competitors and those tied in fortieth place.

Throughout its first seventeen years the McGregor Trophy was held at the Radcliffe on Trent Golf Club, a thriving village golf club, which lies some seven miles east of the City of Nottingham, presenting golfers with attractive views across the Vale of Belvior, with the castle visible on the horizon.

Situated within easy reach of the village the original nine-hole course was designed by Tom Williamson. A golf course architect and professional golfer who designed a total of more than sixty golf courses, and is acclaimed as one of Nottinghamshire’s earliest golfing champions. He played in fifty Open Championships and served the Notts. [Hollinwell] Golf Club as it’s professional and head green-keeper for a record 54 years from 1896. On the 9th October 1909, Williamson played an exhibition match to mark the opening of the Radcliffe on Trent course against the legendary Harry Vardon, which was watched by almost two hundred people.

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Tom Williamson [Right] with Harry Vardon

The only occasion upon which Matt McGregor, the donor of the trophy, was able to attend the prize-giving ceremony for the McGregor Trophy was for the inaugural event, since unhappily he was taken seriously ill the following year and was unable to be present when the event was won by Shaun Smith of the Coxmoor Golf Club. His wife Kathy did the honours on his behalf, and although Roy Case was able to visit Matt the following week to give him a full account of the event, he passed away before the Championship was truly established.

Kathy continued the tradition of attending each of the prize-giving ceremonies until her death in 1996, when the responsibility of representing her mother and father passed to their daughter Ann McGregor Salamanca, who continued to make the journey for many years from Redding, Connecticut in the United States of America, until she was taken ill in 2008.

During the early years of the Championship visiting McGregor competitors were hosted in the homes of Radcliffe on Trent club members. Immediately following the practice round, players were introduced to their respective hosts at a cocktail party thrown by the Club on the evening prior to the tournament. However this practice was abandoned as the increasingly widespread growth and concern for the welfare and safeguarding of children led to the general introduction of legislative procedures which was eventually to impact upon all forms of sport.

On one such occasion a young man from Northamptonshire decided he preferred to unofficially ‘bed down’ with a couple of his friends who had elected to stay in a small hotel in the nearby village of Radcliffe on Trent. However the proprietor, upon discovering he had acquired an additional ‘non-paying’ guest, unceremoniously requested the chastened youngster vacate the hotel. Meanwhile, the boy’s patient hosts, having fortified themselves with a glass of house wine and a sausage roll, ultimately came to the conclusion their missing guest no longer wished to take advantage of their hospitality and, after expressing their frustration, departed for the comfort of their own home.

With no bed for the night the lad was now becoming somewhat apprehensive about his circumstances, and as dusk fell elected to make the best of a bad job and settled down on a bench in the park and made himself, and his golf clubs, as comfortable as possible. He had not been there long before he was discovered by the local policeman making his rounds and, concerned at the youngster’s plight, the constable offered him a free bed, a blanket and club storage in