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Wallasey Golf Club Preview — The Course That Invented Stableford (And Saved Amateur Golf)
Description
Every golfer has played Stableford. Almost none of us know it was invented on the 2nd fairway at Wallasey Golf Club — by a man who got so fed up tearing up his scorecard, he changed golf forever.
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This week, Nish and Jim preview Wallasey — ranked #99 in the UK & Ireland, designed by Old Tom Morris, tweaked by James Braid, and the qualifying venue where Bobby Jones won his Grand Slam Open spot. Chris is off doing a "breakaway round" at Loch Lomond. We'll get to that.
In this preview:
• The Eureka moment on the 2nd fairway, 1931
• Why Wallasey re-entered our Top 100 (and how we bent our own rules)
• The Bobby Jones portrait that hangs in two clubhouses — Wallasey and Augusta
• Plateau greens, four original Old Tom Morris greens, and the holes to watch
• Green fees vs. Birkdale, Hillside and S&A — the value question
• The side bet that wrote itself
Things mentioned in this episode:
- Wallasey Golf Club — wallaseygolfclub.com
- Dr. Frank Barney Gorton Stableford — Wallasey member, surgeon, golf hero
- The 2nd fairway, Wallasey — site of the 1931 Eureka moment
- Old Tom Morris — original course designer (1891)
- James Braid — later design contributions
- Bobby Jones — qualified for the Open at Wallasey in his Grand Slam year
- Sir Ernest Royden — ex-captain who commissioned the Bobby Jones portrait
- John A.A. Berrie — the artist; painted both the Wallasey original and the Augusta replica
- Henry Longhurst quote — "I doubt whether any single man did more to increase the pleasure of the humble club golfer."
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